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Originally published on May 29, 2019, updated August 23, 2023
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Prime Day 2023 will take place from July 11-12. In this Prime Day guide, we'll explain how the event became so successful and how you as a seller can take prime advantage.
Amazon Prime Day is a highly anticipated sales event that started in 2015 as a celebration of Amazon’s 20th birthday. It has significantly grown each year. In 2018, despite some technical glitches, it was Amazon’s biggest sales day ever — at least for a little while.
Prime Day 2019 soon stole the crown as the largest shopping event in Amazon history with sales surpassing the previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. The 2019 celebration of all things Prime was a "two-day parade of epic deals" that cemented itself into pop culture lore with numerous collaborations with top brands, actors, musicians, and more.
The global marketplace was gearing up for an even more grandiose affair in 2020 until the COVID-19 outbreak brought everything to a halt. The annual shopping event, traditionally held in July, was delayed several times due to the pandemic before finally happening on October 13-14, 2020.
Then, for the first time, Prime Day 2021 took place in June. Customers didn't seem to mind its earlier-than-expected arrival—it was the most successful two-day period ever for Amazon’s third-party sellers, most of which are small and medium-sized businesses. In the promotional period leading up to the event, customers spent over $1.9 billion on more than 70 million small business products. Total sales were estimated to be around $11.2 billion.
Despite rising inflation and ongoing supply chain issues, Amazon managed yet another record in 2022 with more than 300 million products being purchased worldwide. Prime members spent over $3 billion on small business items and saved over $1.7 billion during the July 12-13 event. Then, in the first-ever Amazon Prime Early Access Sale on October 11-12, Prime members ordered more than 100 million items, most of which came from small and medium-sized businesses.
Over the years, other retailers have jumped on the bandwagon to offer similar deals around Prime Day to capitalize on a sales boost during a normally sluggish time of year. If you’re a shopper looking to make a big purchase, it might be worth it to wait until around Prime Day!
Similar to Cyber Monday and other major online shopping events, many Amazon sellers report an increase in sales in the days surrounding Prime Day. As a seller, you should be prepared for even higher demand during the event.
We anticipate that Prime Day and the days surrounding it will continue to be a very successful time for Amazon sellers worldwide. Being prepared by having enough inventory in stock and a strategic plan for promoting products can help sellers maximize profits during this high-volume sales window. We're excited to see how this year's Prime Day compares to last year.Jay Lagarde
With proper planning, your Amazon Prime Day revenue can soar. Keep in mind, however, that even a minor snafu can have huge consequences. Key areas to refine before the event begins are detailed below.
If you’re a seller enrolled in Amazon’s Brand Registry program, make sure that your A+ Content includes detailed product descriptions and great images. Speaking of product descriptions, it’s important to make sure your product page is optimized. Check out your listings on mobile to see if you need to make any changes for a better shopping experience, and make sure that your images highlight how awesome your products are.
Just ahead of Prime Day 2023, Amazon announced that both brand-registered and non-brand-registered sellers can now add videos to their product listings. Video is integral to the shopping experience, as customers use it to explore products, make informed decisions, and engage with creators and communities they trust. Incorporate video at every stage of the customer journey, from product demos to installation guides. You can also repost short-form videos from your social media or website on your Amazon listings or brand pages for maximum impact.
In the weeks leading up to Amazon Prime Day, make sure you have enough inventory in stock to meet the potential increased demand. Many sellers view Prime Day as an opportunity to test new products and sell items they no longer wish to stock quickly before Q4.
If you fulfill orders through Seller Fulfilled Prime, be sure to build in plenty of bandwidth for you and your team to get orders out on time.
Sellers can expect to see a huge jump in sales on Prime Day. But, the high consumer demand Amazon has created continues all 365 days a year. So the challenge is always to stock up without stocking out. This can be especially challenging after Prime Day.
While selling out on Prime Day may sound great in theory, a post Prime Day stockout can cost you your place within Amazon and cause you to lose a lot of the selling momentum you've built up. Be prepared to keep your selling momentum going long after Prime Day by investing in extra stock or reinvesting your Prime Day earnings right away."
-Vicky Sullivan, Marketing Manager, Payability
When it comes to Prime Day advertising, this is the time to boost your budget. Amazon reports that sellers using Sponsored Product Ads saw a 150%-200% increase in ad clicks on Prime Day 2017 when compared to the previous Tuesday. The trend seems to still hold up, and Amazon recommends setting campaigns before Prime Day and allowing them to run for at least two weeks. This is a good time to be competitive and strategic with your bids.
Brands will need to make sure they are getting as much visibility as possible and converting that traffic at a high rate to have the best performance during Prime Day and Prime Day week.
From a product discoverability standpoint, Amazon's suite of advertising products are the most powerful tools in a brand's arsenal during the Prime Day period."
-Pat Petriello, Head of Marketplace Strategy, Tinuiti
You can also create coupons or offer special promotions such as a percentage off to generate interest in your products. In 2019, Amazon announced Prime Exclusive Discounts, an advertising option that is only available to FBA sellers. Your product will be displayed to Prime members at a discounted price that is exclusive to the program. You can set your discount as a percentage-off or amount-off with a minimum discounted price floor for each product.
On Prime Day, items that are discounted through Prime Exclusive Discounts will display a special Prime Day Deals badge. In order to be eligible for Prime Exclusive Discounts, products must have an average product review rating that is a minimum of three stars (or zero stars for brand new products). Additionally, sellers must have an average seller feedback rating of four or higher. Traditionally, you can create discounts for Prime Day up to a few weeks before the event.
Lightning Deals are another lucrative advertising opportunity. In this case, a limited number of discounts are offered on eligible items for a short period of time. While Lightning Deals can normally be found throughout the marketplace, on Prime Day they're exclusive only to Prime members. Fees can be steep, but these deals are often effective for clearing out inventory and boosting brand visibility.
Seller feedback and product reviews are important components of your overall Amazon seller reputation. Great ratings can help you stand out from the crowd during a busy sales period, but negative ratings can cause significant damage to your sales.
Proactive reputation management is key to year-round success on Amazon, but having great ratings is even more crucial during a competitive time such as the weeks surrounding Prime Day and Cyber Monday. Seller feedback ratings can affect your Buy Box eligibility.Louis Mizzell
Having too few product reviews (or too many negative reviews) could mean the difference between a great conversion rate and poor sales during what should be a very successful selling period. Establishing regular reputation management practices can help you keep your seller account healthy during Prime Day and beyond.
Since you are almost certainly going to see an increase in order volume thanks to Prime Day, it's a good idea to have a strategy in place to request reviews and feedback from buyers. In 2020, we saw a 32% increase in the number of reviews received by a random sample of FeedbackFive users in the week after Prime Day.
Sellers are still looking to see an influx of reviews on future Prime Days. We recently polled a group of our Prime Day webinar guests and 35% of sellers surveyed said their main priority heading into the event was increasing trust in their products with more product reviews.
Sound familiar? Remember, you can use FeedbackFive to send automated review and feedback requests, get alerts for negative feedback, and more. (Click here to start your free trial!)
With all of this talk of just how big Prime Day has become, we would be remiss not to share more of its incredible reach and a few more interesting tidbits!
The Amazon Prime program has now grown to include more than 200 million members worldwide. In 2015, the inaugural Prime Day event was enjoyed in the US, UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, and Austria. By 2018, the list grew to include Singapore, the Netherlands, Mexico, China, Luxembourg, India, Belgium, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. Brazil was added in 2020.
In 2021, Amazon canceled Prime Day in Canada due to the pandemic. Prime Day in India was also delayed until late July, so 20 countries officially took part in the June event. More than 20 countries participated in Prime Day 2022.
Discover more interesting info about Prime Day here!
Do you have questions about Prime Day? Want to share your success or struggles from last year? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check out the resources listed below!
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