Online sellers on the Amazon Marketplace can gain valuable tips from Onramp Funds’ Prime Day Playbook as they prepare for the upcoming annual sales extravaganza.
Taking place annually in July, Amazon Prime Day is a massive sales event exclusive to Amazon Prime members, boasting deals across various product categories. Prime Day consistently breaks sales records, reaching an estimated US$12 billion worldwide in 2023. In publishing its Prime Day Playbook in early Q2, Onramp Funds provides online sellers with ample time to develop a strategic plan with the right tools.
Onramp’s e-book guides e-commerce sellers through goal setting for the event to help them prepare for inventory management and marketing campaigns. It further provides advice for strategic product selection, pricing, customer engagement, and inventory planning based on customer experiences.
The playbook also includes strategies to follow after Prime Day, including financial planning, fulfillment options, customer focus and attention, marketing and customer engagement, and post-Prime Day analysis.
According to Onramp Funds CEO Eric Youngstrom, the e-commerce lending platform’s team, with decades of experience empowering online merchants to scale their businesses, produced the playbook. It provides online sellers with essential strategies to help make Prime Day a successful sales event.
Get the Prime Day Playbook
Onramp has made the Prime Day Playbook available as a free download exclusively for E-Commerce Times readers, with no form fill required.
Prime Day can be a goldmine for sellers with increased traffic and sales. In fact, 59% of consumers start their online product searches on Amazon, making it a prime location to reach new audiences.
“Prime Day sales are a critical win for sellers to get great volume in the summertime, which is a slow time of year. Providing tools and information that help sellers be more successful is part of the mantra at Onramp. Our goal is to see more successful sustainable small business sellers,” Youngstrom told the E-Commerce Times.
Sellers Planning for Prime Day
Amazon sellers are constantly adapting to the changing Amazon price and cost structures. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) often changes fees for inbound inventory, inventory distribution, and storage fees, noted Youngstrom. Conditions are dramatically different than they were a year or two ago.
One of the biggest preparation challenges is knowing the small nuance changes that are occurring. There is always a new population of online sellers facing their first or second Prime Day. Tools like this will be pretty useful for them, he asserted.
“We are in a high inflationary environment this year, which causes different macro changes to survive buyer behaviors,” Youngstrom said.
Inventory management must be a primary focus. Sellers mustn’t run out of stock on Prime Day. Instead of guessing and hoping, use Amazon’s restock tools and meet cutoff times well in advance.
Another essential tip is to plan targeted marketing campaigns for awareness using email, social media, and pay-per-click to educate current and potential customers about your products and Prime Day discounts. In the weeks leading up to Prime Day, sellers should nudge satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on their Amazon listings.
Product Picks and Pricing
Select a mix of top sellers and slow movers to discount strategically. This approach can help clear out stagnant inventory while boosting sales of popular items.
Handling pricing is crucial for Prime Day sales success. The e-book suggests using careful pricing strategies. But which strategy works best? Is it better for sellers to underprice or discount their inventory or stay with competitive pricing?
“You always want to be with competitive pricing,” Youngstrom recommended. “The secondary strategy is coupons and discounts. Keep your MSRP pricing low but allow people to buy the low SRP with a coupon code and a special one-time discount for Prime Day.”
Sellers should utilize repricing software to monitor competitor pricing and ensure they stay competitive. Consider offering different deal options like Lightning Deals, Bundles, or Prime Day Exclusive Deals, the Prime Day guidebook suggests.
“There have been changes to Amazon’s FBA pricing. So being cognizant of those details and planning through those details will mean that you are selling with the right set of pricing metrics, discount metrics, volume metrics to make that work,” he offered.
Remember Customer Engagement
Most online sellers advertise during Prime Day. To stand out, make unique offers and consider additional benefits like free expedited shipping or extended warranties. Optimize product listings with high-quality images, keyword-rich descriptions, and A+ content to attract attention.
Going that extra mile is as easy as offering competitive prices on your website during Prime Day to capture additional sales. Do not forget to explore cart abandonment software to win back potential customers during this peak sales period.
Financial Planning for Prime Day
How do you pay for your Prime Day stock and the cost of shipping your orders to eager customers? That is part of the essential planning process.
According to Onramp, sellers should arrange financing to cover inventory purchases, potential surges in ad spend, and freight costs. Consider signing up to have FBA handle your shipping for faster delivery during the sales rush.
Customer focus and retention are part of the seller’s game plan for Prime Day. Customer responses and personalization can bring big payoffs. Make fast replies to customer inquiries a priority. Make order fulfillment stellar by personalizing orders with notes and special packaging to turn first-timers into loyal customers.
Post-Prime Day Review
Every major marketing campaign requires analytical follow-up. Without one, you have no way of knowing what worked and what didn’t or why. Wrapping up your Prime Day experience is no different.
After Prime Day, review performance thoroughly to identify areas for improvement. Key metrics to analyze include sales growth, stockouts, customer engagement, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI) for marketing efforts. Assess which products performed best, which promotions were most effective, and where there were any operational hiccups.
Gather feedback from customers to understand their shopping experience and identify any pain points. This can provide valuable insights for future campaigns and help you enhance customer satisfaction.
Use these insights to refine strategies, optimize inventory management, and improve customer engagement tactics. It’s never too early to begin preparing for the next Prime Day, and a comprehensive review can set the foundation for even greater success in the future.
Economic Climate Fuels Prime Day Bargain Hunting
Annual Prime Day growth has been record-breaking since the event launched in 2015 to celebrate Prime members. The largest sales increase happened in 2019, with almost 50% sales growth, said Youngstrom. Since then, it has been growing at a slower pace.
“But we are still looking at last year’s $2.9 billion in U.S. sales on global growth of almost a billion over the year before,” said Youngstrom.
In its June annual holiday shopping report, brand and retail finance platform Salsify shared similar encouragement about high expectations in general for online shopping sales this year. Despite inflation and the high cost of living, 65% of holiday shoppers plan to maintain their spending levels from the previous year, while an additional 15% anticipate increasing their holiday spending.
Today’s economic climate reinforces the notion that 39% of shoppers prioritize budget-friendly options for everyday purchases, according to Dom Scarlett, research director at Salsify.
“Prime Day is a big event for these savvy shoppers, offering significant discounts and exclusive deals that cater to those on a year-round hunt for the best holiday gifts. Brands must capitalize on this major shopping holiday, adapting their strategies to capture the attention of early bird shoppers,” she told the E-Commerce Times.
Prime Day shopping deals cater to a trend that jump-starts the early shopping debut for later-year holiday events. Shopper trends move quickly, and brands must be prepared for the ebb and flow, she added.
“Early bird shopping is on the rise, with 27% of holiday shoppers starting as early as October and a surprising 7% shopping all year long — some as early as the day after Christmas. These budget-conscious buyers search for the best prices, regardless of the season, because the early bird gets the deal,” Scarlett said about the role Prime Day factors in the shopping strategy.
Editor’s note: At press time, Amazon had not yet released the Prime Day 2024 dates. Check the Prime Day website for updates.
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