May 18, 2022 | Prime Day 2022 ??

?? Ladies and Gentlemen. 

I’ve just been handed an urgent, and horrifying news story. 

I need all of you to stop what you’re doing and listen. 

GREAT ODIN’S RAVEN it’s Prime Day prep season again? 

?? It sure is. 

This week’s newsletter is all about Amazon’s biggest retail Holiday and what you can do to make the most of it.

HOW NOW BROWN COW Let’s DIVE RIGHT IN. ??

?? QUOTE OF THE WEEK

We wanted to put Rudyard Kipling's full poem "if" here, but it's a long one.. if you have time, you won't regret reading his wise words linked above.

If not, here's a nugget of wisdom from this remarkable man:

“Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.” - Rudyard Kipling

?? HOT TAKE

Every Brand Owner Should Skim These 22 Charts Before PD'22.

Before we put our playbooks together for Prime Day '22, we did a straight-up cannonball into some Statista and IbisWorld reports and by the beard of Zeus we found some charts so fine they make Sinatra look like a... ok you get the jist.

After sorting through hundreds of Prime Day articles, studies, and charts we selected the most recent, relevant, and insightful data to share with you all.

Here are our favorite bullet points.

0??1?? Starting at the top - Prime Day sales are correcting their course after slowed YOY growth, inevitably returning to the pre-COVID trajectory observed back in 2019.

0??2?? Roughly 28% of the total U.S. population is expected to visit Amazon.com for Prime Day.

0??3?? Last year a whopping 63% of Prime members said they didn’t plan to participate in the holiday at all. 

0??4?? 26% of Prime Day consumers flocked to Amazon.com looking for deals, only to end up buying from another e-tailer. Consumers are shopping for themselves, deals, and gifts for loved ones. 

0??5?? In the midst of this decade's recession, consumers are surprisingly expected to grow in confidence...

0??6??...but "just for fun" spending is expected to slow for a while.

0??7?? Men are more likely to pre-meditate Prime Day purchases. 

0??8?? In 2021, men were buying electronics & home goods, while women purchased clothing, books & games. 

0??9?? Millennials and Boomers shared an affinity for home goods last year.

1??0?? The older the demo, the more likely it is that they’re planning Holiday or routine Amazon purchases on Prime Day as opposed to anticipating various impulse purchases. 

1??1?? Your Prime Day customer is also your Cyber Five customer…Also, Southerners with kids in school.

1??2?? People are looking for deep discounts, routine items, gifts, and back-to-school gear on Prime Day.

1??3?? Specifically, over 40% of customers ended up buying a Holiday gift on Prime Day last year.

1??4?? Health & beauty won the "Best Category Badge" on last year's Prime Day.

1??5?? These are the categories that are experiencing accelerated growth online since January 2022.

1??6?? Overall, sentiment towards Amazon is waning… ??

1??7?? CPC is rising every year & Prime Day is the #2 most expensive day for advertisers.

1??8?? Brands are allocating more and more to their Amazon Ad budgets... 2022 may get expensive.

1??9?? Customers ? Sponsored Brand Campaigns. SBV will win the day in 2022.

2??0?? These categories saw significant increases in Advertising saturation last year.

2??1?? These are the most common supply chain challenges brands are facing this year.

2??2?? More Sellers are trusting Amazon’s fulfillment network this year. Fees will get...icky.

That's all 22 of our favorite Prime Day facts! If this week's newsletter wasn't Anchorman-themed, we would [insert Taylor Swift GIF] here. Oh well. Tragedies happen every single day. ?????♀?

Tell us in the comments below - which PD fact surprised you the most?

?? BREAKING NEWS

Marketplace Manipulation Gives Amazon the Ick. 

Lesson of the year: don't bribe your Amazon reps. As awful as surprise account suspensions are, prison is definitely worse.

?? QUICK TIPS

Here are five things you can do ahead of time to make the most of Prime Day this year:

• Lead up to Prime Day with Upper Funnel DSP campaigns optimized for traffic, then retarget that new audience once Prime Day noise has calmed using DEA ads featuring coupons.
• Optimize the absolute crud out of your Sponsored Brand Video campaigns before the end of May.
• Don't sleep on coupons during the holiday itself - refer to the charts above if you're still skeptical about whether or not your sales will grow as a result of Prime Day Discounts.
• Set aside enough budget for cross-promotion. If you're not using your branded terms to merchandise slower-moving SKUs, you're probably leaving cheap, incremental conversions on the table.
• Add a temporary deals subpage to your storefront.

? TAKEAWAY QUESTION

Based on the charts above, we know Amazon loses a percentage of PD sales to Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and others... but here's what we want to know:

In which product categories will Amazon lose the most revenue to Walmart on Prime Day?

?? THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!  

Thanks for reading. Since we're scratching 1,000 REAL LIFE subscribers (??), we're getting pretty official about this newsletter stuff which means that we're OFFICIALLY choosing topics way ahead of time.

Next week's topic is UGC+Amazon and we're pretty pumped. We're covering Amazon Influencer Tactics, Social Media Strategies, Ambassador Relationships and so so SO so so much more.

Stay tuned, share this with your friends, and AS ALWAYS...

You stay classy, Amazon Sellers.