Deal Days 101: How To Stand Out on the Digital Shelf

Maggie Hackman , Senior Strategist

Each year, various retailers hold special savings events, such as Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day or Target Circle Week. These events provide consumers with significant discounts across nearly all product categories. Events like these drive significant revenue for retailers and brands and are a huge opportunity to capture consumer attention and market share. As an example, Amazon’s 2023 Prime Day resulted in 375 million purchased items and an 8x increase in daily revenue for merchants on the site.

As we approach the holidays (and Amazon’s upcoming Prime Big Deal Days October 8-9) it is important for brands to consider and strategize how to stand out on the digital and physical shelf to truly take advantage of the platform and the traffic. The digital shelf can be an overwhelming place for consumers to navigate, and standing out during these large savings events can move the needle during a high traffic timeframe.

Show Up With Excellence During Savings Events

During each savings event, we recommend five key activities to ensure that you show up strategically and intentionally.

1. Identify all upcoming savings events across retailers.?

During a seasonal event such as Black Friday, you can expect each retailer to offer some type of savings. However, we notice that during retailer-specific events, such as Amazon Prime Day, other retailers will host their own savings events around the same time to drive traffic to their stores and sites as well. Understanding all that is going on within a certain time frame ensures that your brand can show up wherever consumers are, meeting them in the right place at the right time.

2. Strategize promotional efforts to drive desired behavior.?

In addition to discounting products you want to sell, it is important to strategize and prioritize marketing efforts. During savings events, digital marketing tactics become even more important. From onsite display banners to paid search, capturing the attention of consumers over the noise of large savings events can help brands drive conversion.?

3. Encourage stackable discounts with subscriptions.?

During savings events, consumers are shopping with the intention of saving money, whether that is for big ticket items of everyday essentials. Capitalizing on, and promoting, subscription-based discounts that are stackable with event savings can lower the price point and increase the likelihood of consumer interest and purchase.

4. Don’t be afraid to try new things.?

Promoting products during big sales events requires creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking. These events might be the perfect time to try marketing or advertising tactics you hadn’t previously considered. As retailer ecosystems grow, so do their marketing capabilities, such as Amazon Device ads or Walmart Cash. These new capabilities offer brands more of an opportunity to stand out.

5. Capture all the data.

Events like these come around multiple times per year, and capturing data on the success and engagement across marketing tactics can help brands adjust and amplify these tactics moving forward. Data can provide important insights about the effectiveness of discount tiers and traffic driven by onsite display ads while answering relevant questions like is a deeper discount really the right call for my brand? In short, gathering the right data during these events ensures that efforts are meaningful and worthwhile.

With countless opportunities to show up on the digital shelf, it is more important than ever that brands show up with excellence in order to stand out. As we approach the holiday season and upcoming retailer-specific events, consider whether your promotional strategies will help your brand stand out or get lost in the noise.