Amazon Prime Day 2019 is just around the corner. What does that mean for brands and retailers selling on Amazon?
Countless brands will be trying to leverage the massive audience that Amazon will attract for its fifth annual Amazon Prime Day. And while a date hasn’t officially been set yet, according to a leaked PR email, this year’s Prime Day will be Monday, July 15.
While Prime Day is a great way to boost sales and brand awareness, often, low sale prices can lead to razor-thin margins and a loss in profitability. While this may not seem beneficial in the short term, this kind of product and brand exposure can boost sales during the holiday season when products are listed at full price. Make sure before you set your prices, you determine if you can take this kind of loss.
If you’re interested in seeing how some of our clients did with Amazon Prime Day last year, take a look at this recap article that outlines three huge Amazon Prime Day seller successes and how they achieved such amazing results.
But without further ado, here are 10 tactics to dominate Amazon Prime Day 2019.
1. Inventory Management
Make sure that you thoroughly evaluate your Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory prior to Amazon Prime Day 2019. With the vast increase in impressions you are likely to see, being proactive is essential.
You should consider increasing stock levels on best sellers if you anticipate high Prime Day sales.
Additionally, since FBA receiving is likely to slow down the closer we get to Amazon Prime Day 2019, getting your inventory sorted in advance will help to avoid the headaches that will assuredly occur as the date approaches.
FBA inventory must arrive by 6/27 to ensure it’s received and available for Prime Day.
If you’re fulfilling orders yourself (Fulfillment by Merchant, FBM), it is recommended that you offer free shipping if you want to compete with Prime-eligible sellers or Amazon itself. Without free shipping, you are likely to lose out on the Buy Box far more often, even if you’ve got a lower price point.
2. Deals
If you’re an Amazon Prime Day seller, Lightning Deals are an excellent way to boost your sales and quickly burn through inventory. Although they only run for a limited amount of time on Amazon, they are a powerful advertising option with the ability to monumentally increase your sales figures in a very short amount of time.
If you’re serious about sales on Amazon Prime Day, you should consider submitting multiple products to Amazon for Prime Day deals. Amazon will be flooded with submissions for deals, so make sure that you are putting your best foot forward with the products and pricing that you are offering.
Amazon will likely only choose a few of your submissions, so make sure they are all winners that exceed your profitability targets.
Unfortunately, if you haven’t already submitted your Lightning & Amazon Prime Day Deals to Amazon, you are too late for this year. If that’s the case, let this be a lesson for the next Amazon Prime Day: be prepared early.
If you are in this situation, consider implementing a price discount or coupons to remain competitive to shoppers that are looking for deals.
3. Sponsored Products
One of the most powerful ways to promote your Lightning Deals prior to, and during Amazon Prime Day 2019, is through the use of Sponsored Product ads. This will help increase awareness of the product in anticipation of heightened purchase intent.
Need help getting started with Amazon Sponsored Products? Download our comprehensive, 37-page ebook, The 2018 Definitive Guide to Amazon Sponsored Products for Brands. This report will outline everything from the basics of campaign creation and ad placement locations to advanced seller strategies, tactics, and optimization secrets. If you want to be successful with your campaigns, this ebook is a must-read.
4. Enhanced Brand Content
Optimizing the content that appears on your product listing pages is always important. However, for Prime Day it can be a game-changer when you consider the sheer volume of traffic that your products can see. Optimized content, such as videos, often drives stronger conversion rates which lead to more sales, helping to mitigate the cost of steeply discounted products and advertising costs.
Keep in mind, Enhanced Brand Content, or A+ Content, should be considered sooner rather than later due to the time involved to create said content and Amazon’s approval process.
5. Sponsored Brands
Similar to Sponsored Product ads, Sponsored Brands ads are a great way to showcase multiple products & share your brand message in prominent ad placements. You can set your Amazon Store as the landing page to drive traffic to all of your products, as well as improve the shopping experience.
6. Amazon Store
Your Amazon Store is one of the few competitor-free spaces on Amazon and it gives you the ability to showcase your catalog of products all in one place. By creating a brand store, you ensure that all the new customers that come to your page during Prime Day are connecting your products to your brand.
Having a store that a customer can visit also increases the chances that they buy multiple products, rather than just the original product they were searching for. You can also add a “Featured Deals” widget to your page to showcase your Amazon Prime Day 2019 deals so your customers can easily see how your deals compare to other brands.
Looking for more help mastering Amazon Sponsored Brands and creating a beautiful, high-converting Amazon Store? Download our special report, 7. Leverage Social Media
If you have a strong following on social media, it can be beneficial to try to drive some of that traffic to your products on Amazon. You can highlight any of the promotions you are offering, and, if your margins allow it, even offer an additional incentive to drive more traffic.
You can also drive traffic straight to your Amazon Store (rather than to a specific product page) to showcase your entire catalog of products.
8. Bidding and Targeting
You are now able to adjust bid modifiers for Sponsored Products Top of Search & Product Page placements. To remain competitive you should increase your default bid by up to 900% for top of search or product page placements.
If you want to increase your exposure during Amazon Prime Day 2019 you should target specific competitor ASINs through Sponsored Product campaigns. You can also target categories through Sponsored Product campaigns which can be refined by certain price points or review star ratings.
9. Review Past Success or Failure
If you’ve been selling on Amazon for more than a year, review your past Amazon Prime Day performance to learn what did or didn’t work. Can anything from your findings be leveraged this year (Best sellers, promotions, Lightning Deals, FBA, etc)?
You’d be amazed at the quantity and quality of insights you can gain just from looking at your previous year(s) data.
10. Keep Calm and Sell On
Most importantly, don’t freak out if you don’t experience a lift! Even if you see a decrease in sales during or after the event, do not panic. Prime Day isn’t for everyone, but testing out the opportunity is something that can have a huge positive impact for many brands and retailers.
If you are nervous about not achieving desired results, start small. Only work with the products that have the best margins, and be cautious with your offerings.
Looking for additional Amazon insights? Grab our special report on Amazon Advertising for Brands. You’ll uncover seller strategies, as well as an in-depth analysis of all the viable advertising channels available on AMS and Seller Central. Get it today and fast-track your Amazon advertising success.
