When it comes to Amazon, there are two big seasons – One, is the Holiday season, and the other is the most anticipated 36-hour Prime day season. It is almost mid-June and though we don’t know the exact date yet, we are sure that it will be sometime around the second or third week of July. It has been the second biggest sales day, compared to Cyber Monday, since its launch in 2015. There were nearly 100 million products purchased in the last Amazon Prime Day and it is expected to grow bigger this year.
Source: Statista.com
If you are yet to submit your deals and discounts, you would be disappointed to know that Amazon has closed all gates already. However, this is going to be the fifth year, and from the history of Prime Day, we have gathered a few pointers and strategies which sellers can implement to boost their sales and promote brand awareness. Let us walk through this quick guide on how to prepare for Amazon Prime Day 2019.
Stock Up On Your Inventory
Amazon Prime Day is only for sellers that are on FBA or Seller Fulfilled Prime. The days leading to Prime Day and following that are the busiest for folks at Amazon Fulfilment centres. Start forecasting and get your stock ready for shipment as 27th June 2019 is the last day for checking in your stock at the Amazon Fulfilment centres to participate in this year’s Prime Day.
Below is a statistic on what people bought the most during Prime Day 2018.
If you are fulfilling orders through Seller Fulfilled Prime, make sure your logistics team are prepared to handle the surge in the volume of sales. Remember, the fulfilment centres will be busy for a week or two following Prime Day, as many sellers will be restocking their supplies, and there will be a long processing time. So stock well in advance to make sure there is no running low on inventory.
Plan Your Discounts
Prime Day is all about deals and discounts – and there will be a lot of them! So how do you stand out? Sadly, the window for submitting your Lightning Deals is over – All you can do now is set up a Discount coupon to run promotions and/ or try Amazon ads. The best thing about coupons is you only pay for the ones that are redeemed, unlike lightning deals, where you need to shell out a huge chunk of money just to participate. Coupons are a great way to entice sellers. You can set up discount coupons for a fixed amount or for a percentage. Either way, do your math and see how low you can safely go without hitting hard on your margins.
Amazon Ads
Running Amazon Ads during the Prime Day season is still a matter subjected to a lot of debate. It is a known fact that top keywords will cost way too much and you will end up bidding more money. Examine your keywords and pick search terms that are doing well with a good CTR and invest only in that. Some experts advise running campaigns leading up to and during Prime Day but it should largely depend on your business goals. If you are looking to promote your brand awareness and do not mind bidding aggressively, you can consider this as an investment and make good use of the big day. But if you are just looking to see more sales, don’t beat around the bush and reserve your ad money for Prime day alone. Also, keep in mind to lower your daily budget and bids once Prime Day is over.
Optimize Your Listing
No matter how well thought your strategy is, if your listing doesn’t grab the buyer’s eyes, you will not see that bump in your graph on Prime Day. Work on the title, images, bullet points, product description, and A+/ EBC. Make sure you add the Prime day-related Keywords in backend search terms. If you are a big seller with hundreds and thousands of products, you can follow the 80:20 strategy and optimize only the top-performing ASINs to boost sales further.
Engage With Your Customers
If you have an active social media page, it is the right time to start engaging with current customers, promoting your discounts, and driving external traffic to your Amazon page.
Document Your Game Plan
Prime Day sales are going to be daunting especially if your brand is less than a year old and does not have enough customer base. Document your strategies step by step, measure the results, and analyze your approaches. You are going to be left with an amazing volume of data to plan your Q4 Holiday season sale better.
If you need professional help with Amazon store management, get in touch with us.
BIE is a Vancouver, British Columbia-based agency providing human resources to manage all things Amazon.
