Since its launch in 2015, Amazon Prime Day has evolved from a single-day sale into a wide-scale 48-hour shopping event that offers a huge opportunity for small business sellers. This year, Prime Day is taking place July 16 and 17, 2024.
Exclusive to Amazon Prime members, this annual July sales event can rival Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales for small businesses with the right strategies. Below are six key trends businesses can leverage to increase their revenue throughout this year’s Prime Day sales event.
Offer big discounts and free trials
During Prime Day, consumers are more willing to open their wallets and make purchases. Nearly half of the consumers surveyed by retail discounts and coupons site RetailMeNot said they are waiting for Prime Day make their biggest purchases of the year.
Use this sales event to promote your business, build brand awareness, and guide consumers toward your products. Target new customers by offering free trials on new products and discounts on more affordable items. This gives consumers a low-risk opportunity to try your brand without a big financial commitment.
You can also offer personalized deals and discounts to existing customers. An Adobe commerce survey found that 61% of consumers receiving customized deals and promotions based on their spending habits were more likely to make a purchase.
If you don’t sell on Amazon, consider hosting your own sale. Not all consumers have an Amazon Prime subscription to get access to these deals, which leaves an untapped market segment you can target.
[Read more: A Small Business Guide to Selling on Amazon]
Advertise your shopping event early and strategically
As one of the biggest sales events of the year, there will naturally be a lot of excitement around Prime Day. To ensure your business’s messaging stands out, create a strategic advertising plan — and implement it early.
Start by increasing your advertising budget to capture the attention of eager shoppers. Run campaigns at least two weeks before the sale to develop interest and monitor your campaign’s success, making adjustments as needed. Use insights from past campaigns to refine your strategy, highlighting your best-selling products and those less frequently advertised ones. Get creative with your content and use various ad formats to engage customers.
Target back-to-school and holiday shoppers
Prime Day is a great time to target shoppers looking to get ahead of holiday and back-to-school shopping. RetailMeNot found that 88% of consumers plan to shop for back-to-school items during Prime Day, while 32% of consumers surveyed by Adobe Commerce said they’ll use the sales to get ahead of their holiday shopping.
Prime Day’s success has even shifted the back-to-school shopping season from August and September to July. As such, businesses should launch any related campaigns ahead of the Prime Day lead-up to maintain visibility among customers planning their purchases around the sale dates.
Consider extending discounts beyond Prime Day to capture additional sales from customers who may have missed out on deals during the event.
Consider extending discounts beyond Prime Day to capture additional sales from customers who may have missed out on deals during the event.
Capitalize on the desire to support small businesses
Many consumers are eager to “shop small” and support small businesses, even on Amazon. Consider adding Amazon’s Small Business Badge to your seller account to highlight your small business status and appear under the Small Business Search Filter.
Social media is another key way to capitalize on the small business movement, regardless of whether or not your business sells on Amazon during Prime Day. Post consistently about your deals on social media and use relevant hashtags like #SupportSmallWithAmazon to boost visibility. Bolstering your social media accounts can help you develop customer relationships, an advantage small businesses have over larger competitors.
Take advantage of the ‘shop local’ movement
Small businesses don’t have to be on Amazon to take advantage of Prime Day shopping sprees. Instead, they can leverage the buzz around the sale to promote the advantages of shopping locally, including supporting local job creation, reducing environmental impact, and investing in community development.
Consider partnering with other local businesses or hosting a community event to attract customers. Small businesses can also adopt sales themes like stock-up-and-save, shop-small-and-save, or holiday-shopping-in-July to increase customer engagement.
Retail consultant Bob Phibbs advised avoiding mentions of Prime Day in connection with brick-and-mortar sales events, as this may drive customers toward Amazon’s deals. In Phibbs' view, a smarter Prime Day strategy for small, local stores would be to respond to the same consumer trends Amazon is tapping into without mentioning Amazon.
[Read more: 5 Ways to Build Community Around Your Local Retail Business]
Create an easy shopping experience
Whether you’re capitalizing on Prime Day online or in-store, offering an easy and convenient shopping experience is key to gaining and retaining customers. For Amazon sellers, it’s important to follow the platform’s established guidelines and confirm the quality of your items before shipping. This can help reduce product returns, which are especially prevalent during sales like Prime Day where consumers spend more freely. Additionally, ensure your products are well-stocked to avoid running out during the event.
For e-commerce businesses selling independently, optimize your website and its checkout process to guarantee it can handle a surge of customers during the sales event. Website malfunctions or outages can undermine trust and drive potential customers toward competitors.
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