Preparing For Prime Day
Amazon Prime Day is creeping up on the calendar. Although the exact day has yet to be revealed, most estimates point to mid-July. It’s a big deal for Amazon sellers, but not the biggest—at least not yet.
“Prime Day is the second largest sales event of the year, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday being the first,” confirms Shelby Rothenberg, manager of Customer Success for Illinois-based Kapoq. “That said, each Prime Day year-over-year has generated more revenue than the previous year.”
With millions of customers searching for deals during this two-day period, Prime Day is an opportunity for sellers to showcase their products in front of a wider audience and capitalize on consumers’ higher propensity to purchase. As an end-to-end Amazon management software solution, Prosper exhibitor Kapoq helps Amazon sellers navigate Prime Day, as well as the other days.
Roughly a month out from Prime Day, Prosper sat down with Shelby Rothenberg to talk about what can be done to prepare for mid-July and beyond.
Prosper: You mentioned that Prime Day sales have increased year over year. Why do you think that is?
Rothenberg: There’s a growing Prime subscriber base. Each year Amazon reports increased Prime subscriber totals in the U.S., as well as across the world. That obviously drives a lift, but also consumer purchase behavior has changed due to convenience and price. Depending on where you live and depending on the products, you can get products delivered on the same day—one day or two days. That convenience drives purchases and increases the interest in shopping on the “The Everything Store” that offers the lowest priced products in the market.
Prosper: What’s the biggest misconception about Prime Day?
Rothenberg: The biggest misconception is that you’re going to have a big spike in sales without participating. If you expect to see spikes in sales without putting in the effort, you’re going to be disappointed. For example, driving traffic without discounts or discounting without driving traffic does not lead to spikes in sales.
Prosper: With probably a month to go before Prime Day, what should sellers be doing?
Rothenberg: By the time this goes out, sending in inventory to account for increases in demand will be met by elongated processing times. Aside from that, it’s important that sellers focus on three areas: 1) content optimization; 2) advertising; and 3) discounting. You still have time to optimize content and ensure that listings are retail ready by following Amazon style guides. If brand registered, a best practice around content is to build a brand store landing page and highlight discounted products.
From an advertising perspective, we advise you to prepare and deploy new advertising campaigns specific to the discounted items. Also, with an influx in traffic, account level budget caps need to be monitored, so consider adjusting caps to avoid campaigns disabling earlier in the day. Then there are bids.
If historic events saw increases in conversion rates for your brand, adjust and increase bids. Lastly, larger sellers should not forget about DSP [demand side platform which allows advertisers to buy video and display ads both on and off Amazon]. Consider targeting past purchasers with complimentary items from your catalog that are now on discount. We find that to be a great tactic for retention and that can make your brand even stickier.
As for discounting, best deals and lightning deal submissions are closed, but you can offer other promotional tools such as coupons and Prime exclusive discounts. Both are shown to improve conversions.
Prosper: What are some additional preparations that Amazon sellers can and should be doing right now to prepare for Prime Day?
Rothenberg: Confirm objectives and goals. Prime Day’s increase in traffic can drive additional momentum—so think about acquiring new customers who can become loyal, repeat purchasers of your brand. The up-tick in sales from this event can also help spin the Amazon flywheel, improving search rank and product positioning. There’s a lot of good that can come from the event, and that momentum can continue to help your business indefinitely.
Prosper: What are the products and services offered by Kapoq?
Rothenberg: KAPOQ is an end-to-end management software solution that addresses the many challenges agencies and brand builders face on Amazon. There are six interconnected modules that empower users with tools to manage inventory, advertising, accounting, customer experience, content, and analytics. It supports all parts of an Amazon business to help teams identify gaps and take action to drive performance. We work with small to medium size businesses—primarily agencies, brand builders, and aggregators. Teams of all skills and sizes can integrate global accounts into KAPOQ to help support their Amazon day-to-day.
Prosper: What’s your level of optimism for the remainder of the year and beyond?
Rothenberg: Despite consumer spending being mostly flat this year, Amazon’s marketplace is growing from the sales and Prime subscriber side. So while consumers are watching their spending, they will look to discounters and shop at the lowest priced marketplace, which is where Amazon wins. Also, Amazon continues to innovate. This year, there’s been the introduction of Buy with Prime, plus the expansion of Amazon affiliates and the influencer programs. There’s the new brand referral bonus program that incentivizes brands to drive traffic to Amazon. There’s a lot that Amazon is implementing to enhance the seller and customer experience which will continue. I’m very optimistic.
Prosper: What is your opinion of face-to-face trade shows?
Rothenberg: I’ve attended the last two Prosper Shows and have had a chance to connect more deeply with the Amazon community. It’s always fun and professionally rewarding. Most of us also live and work in various cities, so having a meet-up that brings so many smart, talented individuals and software companies together is fruitful.
For us at KAPOQ, we have a chance to meet with clients face to face. We get to know them outside of the Zooms, take them to dinner—wine and dine them and have a little fun. Prosper is an amazing event for networking and drumming up new business. There’s plenty of opportunity to learn about topics of interest via the speaker sessions or chatting with those in attendance. You can learn how brand builders and agencies alike are operating today, and you’ll likely find tools and solutions that can offer support. It’s a fun conference and we’ll be back next year.
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