Amazon has announced that Prime Day 2022 is to take place this year in July and the fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) shipping deadline is the 20th of June. Although the actual dates haven’t been confirmed yet, sellers don’t have much time left to prepare their products for this shopping extravaganza. With inflation holding consumers back from spending, sellers are faced with a challenge to achieve the sales they did on previous Prime Days. 

However, the good news is that, with a recent shift to online shopping, Amazon is currently the top e-commerce destination for shoppers in the US. To help you prepare for the biggest shopping event in the retail calendar, we will take you through what you need to do to maximise your sales this Amazon Prime Day.

What is Prime Day?

To celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary, Amazon held its first Prime Day in 2015. This two-day sale aimed to encourage people to spend during the summer by offering a large number of deals. Its popularity saw the sale being held every July since, apart from the last two years when Covid 19 caused supply issues, delaying the event until October 2020 and then being brought forward in 2021 to June. Last year, 250 million products were sold globally on Amazon, and this year is expected to be just as successful.

Who is Prime Day for?

For sellers, Prime Day is the biggest sale held on Amazon each year, although many online retailers will take advantage of the presence of such a large audience by launching their own promotions.

The event is largely centred around Prime members, who will see the biggest discounts; however, non-Prime members will also be able to find offers throughout the site during the 2-day sale.

How can I prepare for Prime Day?

As well as preparing great deals to entice customers, you will need to boost the visibility of your brand, optimise your listings, and make sure that you have enough stock in place to fulfil orders.

Determine your offers

You don’t have to provide offers on all of your products, as increased traffic will boost sales overall for most sellers, even without deals. However, you can entice customers by offering them various ways to save.

Amazon coupons

When a product can be bought using Amazon coupons, the product detail page will show a green tag next to the list price. This is one of the best methods to offer a discount on Prime Day, as a customer doesn’t have to search for deals on another page. Coupons can be used alongside other offers to enable the customer to make even bigger savings on Prime Day.

Promotions

You can create a BOGOF or 20% off promotion in Seller Central. Alternatively, create a customised promo code that can be shared on social media. This will direct customers to a custom marketing page.

Lightning deals

A lightning deal shows a discounted price that is available for a limited amount of time. This is a good way to increase visibility as customers can find these deals on Amazon’s Prime Deal page. Lightning deals are more expensive to operate during Prime Day but they can be well worth it.

Sale prices

A simple way to show a bargain is to add a sale price to your list price so that Amazon displays the full price and the discounted price for your product. This was not possible last year, but the function has been brought back this year.

Optimise your products

While shoppers will be predominantly seeking discounts, attractive product listings will help to convert browsers into buyers. To ensure that your titles rank high and your listings are as enticing as possible, use search engine optimisation (SEO). Check your images are clear and Amazon compliant. Take an audit of your descriptions to make sure they are up to date and contain bullet points. If Amazon SEO is not your strong point, an Amazon agency can help.

Get aggressive with your marketing

Increase your visibility on and off Amazon so that customers are able to find you on Prime Day. Again, a full service Amazon agency provides experts in this field and can help you by:

• Boosting your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign to increase your organic ranking;
• Creating Sponsored Products, Brands, Display, and Video;
• Running ads externally to drive traffic to your deals during Prime Day;
• Using social media to let customers know about your participation in Prime Day;
• Obtaining and auditing legitimate reviews that convert sales.

Prepare your stock

Private label sellers need to make sure that their inventory reaches fulfillment centres in time to avoid stock shortages. Arbitrage sellers will need to review and build up their inventory so that they can take advantage of the increased traffic. They may be able to offload old stock or products that don’t sell well normally.

The Takeaway

It’s true that Prime Day has become one of the biggest sales in the retail calendar and will be taking place in over 20 countries this year. With less than two months to go, sellers need to make preparations now to ensure they experience a profitable Prime Day. The tips above will guide you through what you need to do and if you don’t have enough time in the day to do it yourself, then you can get an Amazon agency to do it for you.