With the Amazon platform, sellers target two types of consumers: the regular customers, and Amazon Prime members.

While they both have sufficient buying power to purchase products on Amazon, Prime customers bring more to the table. Since its inception in 2005, Amazon Prime membership has grown to 147 million in the United States alone. The benefits enjoyed by members, such as fast and free shipping, outweigh the yearly cost by a mile.

When you target Amazon Prime customers, you’re targeting shoppers with better engagement than non-members. A recent survey shows that about 20% of Prime members usually shop on Amazon a few times a week, and 7% do so daily.

Why You Need to Target Amazon Prime Customers

Are you running a multichannel ad campaign? Let’s say you captured Prime members from your banner ad. As they land on your Amazon product page, they’ll be more likely to buy your item from Amazon rather than checking other online stores.

Some factors that influence their Amazon marketplace loyalty are:

  • Free shipping: Abandoned carts are one of the nightmares of most e-commerce stores. Around 63% of cart abandonments were due to additional shipping costs – a problem that Prime members don’t have because of their free shipping benefits on Amazon.
  • Prime Day deals: Shoppers who are part of this annual membership can enjoy exclusive discounts on Prime Day. Products that fall under this promotion sell out quickly because of the savings it offers to Prime shoppers.

While the average conversion rate for non-members is around 13%, when it comes to Prime members, it goes up to 74%. The benefits that Prime members enjoy translate to more sales for Amazon business owners. 

Effective Ways to Market and Sell your Products

These strategies work well in boosting your sales from Prime members, and some of them also work with non-members. It’s a win-win approach for you, giving you a better return on investment:

1. Set Up Lightning Deals

Lightning Deals are effective because they create scarcity that forces Prime shoppers to buy on impulse. Items under this promotion have limitations, though, limiting each customer to a quantity of one. Furthermore, the products are only available for a set amount of time.

In able to take part in this promotion, you need to pass the following requirements:

  • Enrolled with Professional Seller account
  • Have at least five Seller Feedback Ratings every month
  • Product reviews should have an overall score of 3.5 stars

There are also specific product eligibility requirements, such as compliance to deal frequency policies and an item state of being in ‘New Condition.’

On the day of the promotion, the boost in sales can reach up to 65%. The gain tapers off slowly a few days after the deal has ended, bringing an improved overall sales rate that can be boosted up to 200%.

However, you can’t always run a Lightning Deal, as it sacrifices a chunk of your profit margin. For this reason, you need to apply the following two strategies to help maintain your increased sales.

2. Optimize for Search

Since Prime members frequently visit Amazon when shopping for just about anything, most of them use Amazon’s search function all the time. In a recent study, 70% of customers don’t get past the first page of results when searching for products on Amazon.

Due to this, it’s essential that you optimize your product listing for Amazon’s search engine to boost your sales further. Getting your products to appear on top of search results offers more chances to capture Prime members as leads.

It is crucial for you to perform adequate keyword research to determine the exact search string that your potential customers are using. Then, to optimize your listing for search, you need to place relevant keywords in the title, bullets, and the search terms section in the Seller Central backend.

Here are some guidelines when filling up search terms:

  • Place your most important relevant keywords within the first 250 characters, as Amazon truncates them.
  • Use a space to separate each keyword.
  • Include singular and plural forms of the most important words.
  • Don’t repeat words. For example, if you’ve already added “silicone,” there’s no need to add it together with “spoon” and “spatula.”

As you add or remove keywords, you need to keep track of your products’ performance. Tracking your progress will help ensure that you stick with keywords that work.

However, simply adding your keywords doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get a first-page position. Amazon’s A9 algorithm considers other factors as well, including price, sales performance, and availability.

3. Actively Run Amazon Ads

Optimizing your keywords can be a long yet rewarding process. For faster results, you can go the PPC (Pay Per Click) route. Your Amazon ads will be more fruitful and have the most optimal visibility with Prime members, since they regularly visit the platform for shopping.

The average Amazon ad conversion rate is at 9.55%. Compared to other e-commerce sites with a conversion rate of only 1.33% on average, it’s clear that you can get better ROI when running Amazon PPC.

There are different ad placements to choose from when running PPC ads:

  • Sponsored products: This is the most powerful ad placement you can get. They appear in search results, together with the searched products.
  • Headline search ads: Customers will see this banner at the top of both the search results and in-product displays.
  • Product display ads: If you want to see your ads underneath the buy box, product display ads can get them there. They also appear in other places on the product detail page.

To get the most out of your ad campaign, see to it that you optimize your product detail page, as well as make it good copy. Each ad click can cost you an average of $0.97, so it’s crucial for you to get sales from these clicks most of the time.

Apply These Strategies and Generate More Sales

Amazon Prime members are warmed-up customers at the end of the sales funnel who are ready to buy. Compared to regular Amazon customers, they don’t need much nudging to get into buying mode. You only need to consistently apply these strategies to guide them in the right direction.

Do you want more strategies to boost your business? Check our other guides to learn practical and effective methods.