On the 11th of July, Amazon will kick off its annual Prime Day. For Amazon sellers everywhere, the 30-hour event promises to be bigger than ever. Prepare now in order to make the most of the ecommerce giant’s shopping extravaganza. Here, Adam Joseph, Director of Client Services at ChannelAdvisor, sheds light on some of the ways brands and retailers can exploit this high-traffic event.
Here we go again! According to Amazon, Prime Day 2016 was another record-breaking year for sellers worldwide, with the majority seeing orders triple year-over-year during the global shopping phenomenon. Will this year deliver even bigger sales figures? Forecasts might be suggesting so. Prime Day offers a unique opportunity for retailers, brands and other third party sellers of all sizes to cash in and drive profits.
But success requires preparation, so, how can brands make sure they’re primed for Prime Day? Here are five top tips to implement ahead of time to capitalise and profit when the day arrives:
Optimise your content
Put yourself in the shoes of a bargain-hunting consumer, scouring Amazon on Prime Day for products. You come across a product you’ve been looking for but the product page isn’t up to scratch. The product description is long-winded and vague, the bullets don’t offer any relevant information about the features of your product and there are no high quality images. You’re immediately put off and look to another competitor offering the same item.
With the sheer number of competitors on Prime Day, brands can’t afford to be let down by product content. Remember your product page is as much a part of marketing your brand as your website, or bricks and mortar store. Spend time making sure all elements of your listings page content are well thought out and help your product stand out: titles, descriptions and bullets should be engaging and informative. High quality, professional images are also a must; lack of imagery could drive a customer to the pages of a more visually appealing brand.
Ahead of Prime Day, you should also try and get any wrong reviews amended and respond to any negative comments so customers who come across your product are aware of any criticisms and understand why they were made. User reviews are proven sales drivers, with 61% of customers reading such content online before making a purchase decision.
Stock up, stock up, stock up
It goes without saying but your stock inventory will determine your Amazon Prime Day success. Make sure you have sufficient product to avoid running low: typically Amazon gets 18% more orders on Prime Day than on Black Friday. Running out of stock on this major day could impact your long term business goals as customers may be unlikely to return to your product offering in the future. It may also affect your Amazon seller score.
Make sure your product listings are updated and that merchandising teams and other relevant departments remain in close communication in the run up to Prime Day regarding stock numbers, especially those that are high in demand. If you’ve participated in previous Prime Days ensure you review historical data to anticipate how much stock you will need.
Run sponsored product advertisements
Competition will be fierce on Prime Day so it’s well worth increasing, even doubling, your advertising budget to expose your product offering to the millions of customers who flock to Amazon eager to buy. Using Amazon Sponsored Products (ASP), Amazon’s pay-per-click advertising programme, can increase your discoverability and drive traffic to your listings. Last year, Amazon said clicks on product advertisements paid for by third-party sellers grew 150%, proving that despite initial outlay investing in an advertising campaign is worth your while even as a smaller retailer. It’s also simple to set up, easy to manage and can track results.
Put your best price forward
Despite its Prime Day titles, you shouldn’t forget about non-Prime customers. Many sellers make the mistake of solely focusing on attracting Prime customers to their product offering but there will be still those without Prime memberships who are hungry for bargains. Last year’s Prime Day attracted 81.6 million visits to the Amazon site, so the event offers an opportunity to attract all customers with discounted deals. One effective way to do this, as well as to make you more Buy Box competitive, is to offer free shipping – this is a real deal breaker for many consumers.
Even if you aren’t participating in Amazon’s Prime Day Lightning Deals, you can still do well by running your own promotions. But you’ll only win the Prime Day pricing war if you are able to offer your products at competitive rates. Consumers will be expecting major discounts and product bundling, so if you’re looking to truly cash in on Prime Day you’ll have to create a solid pricing strategy that takes these into account.
Take advantage of repricer software
To be successful on Prime Day and beyond, sellers need to find a way to rise above the crowd. The very nature of marketplaces means that consumers can compare products quickly and easily without even having to leave a single webpage. As such, retailers must keep a sharp eye on their rival’s pricing strategies and fluctuations, especially in the flurry of Prime. Carefully monitoring the pricing of competitors manually is neither effective nor practical, especially when the number of competitors will be at its peak. Savvy brands should therefore consider using repricer software to ease the process of adjusting their pricing. Even if you only want to reprice a product by 1% or less, no rule is too small and this could win you the all-important Buy Box.
By Adam Joseph
Director of Client Services
ChannelAdvisor