Preparing for Amazon Prime Day 2024: A Comprehensive Guide for Sellers

Last year, Prime Day was a tremendous success, with over 375 million items bought globally and savings exceeding $2.5 billion due to fantastic Prime Day deals and discounts. Prime Day 2024 could be even bigger, as eager shoppers seek significant savings. This year presents a crucial opportunity to reach new customers in the competitive ecommerce landscape.

The big question is : Are you Prime Day ready?

From an end-to-end channel management approach, the following article will outline what you should do before Prime Day to maximize sales and make this your most successful Prime Day yet.

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Prime Day was created as a way to celebrate Prime members. The first Prime Day event came to life on Amazon’s 20th birthday on July 15, 2015.

When is Prime Day?

Prime Day 2024 will take place on July 16 and 17!

Steps you need to take to ensure smooth Prime Day in 2024.

1. Check Your Inventory Levels

We say it every year and we will say it again: Don’t stock out!

Stocking out means lost revenue opportunities. When a product is unavailable, potential customers turn to competitors, resulting in lost sales and a risk of losing the buy box, which reduces visibility and sales.

Consistent sales and inventory levels boost your Amazon SEO standing. The more you sell, the higher your product ranks in search results, leading to increased visibility and sales. A successful Prime Day deal can improve your rankings for the rest of the year. But stocking out means missing those potential gains.

This Prime Day, ensure you have enough inventory for your promoted products and best sellers. Balance between meeting demand and overstocking, and if unsure, use Amazon's Inventory Performance Index for guidance.

2. Analyze Your Historical Performance

Analyzing historical performance is vital for refining future strategies and maximizing ROI. Reviewing past Amazon ad campaigns, Amazon Marketing Cloud insights, or first-party data provides essential insights into consumer behavior, sales performance, and product trends, guiding data-driven decisions.

When evaluating promotions during events like Prime Day, look beyond sales numbers. Consider the types of offers, promotional efforts, and advertising costs. Return on advertising spend (ROAS) is crucial in assessing promotional effectiveness.

Leveraging first-party data helps businesses understand customer preferences, behaviors, and purchasing patterns. This data personalizes marketing messages, tailors product recommendations, and optimizes ad placements, leading to more targeted and effective campaigns.

3. Start Optimizing Your Listings Early

Optimizing your product detail pages should be a top priority this Prime Day. Enhanced listings increase your visibility and relevance to shoppers, ensuring your products appear prominently in search results.

Here are key tips for optimizing your listings:

• Increase budgets for top-performing keyword campaigns: Allocate more budget to keywords that drive the highest conversions.
• Adjust bids on high-impression, low-conversion keywords: Gradually raise bids to improve performance metrics.
• Audit and update listings: Ensure accuracy and completeness, including high-opportunity keywords and descriptive product bullets.
• Resolve inactive or suppressed listings: Adhere to Amazon guidelines and provide all required information.
• Incorporate a featured video: Utilize videos to influence purchase decisions, especially during high-impact events like Prime Day.
• Begin A/B testing early: Test variables such as title text and images to optimize for impressions and conversions.
• Optimize titles and descriptions for SEO: Craft concise, keyword-rich content that's easy to read and relevant to shoppers.
• Enhance with visuals and A+ content: Use multiple images and A+ Content to enrich listings, boosting conversion rates and brand perception.

4. Set Aside Additional Budget for PPC Bids

During Prime Day, ad space is competitive and costly. Setting low caps risks being outbid and losing visibility, while uncapped spending risks exhausting your budget rapidly.

Identify top-performing keywords and targets over the last 30 days that meet business KPIs. Increase bids by 10-15% during Prime Day or promotional events.

Start with a 10-15% increase in branded keywords and targets, adjusting as needed. If no deals are available, leverage existing traffic momentum on Amazon.

Monitor bids and budget closely during Prime Day, documenting all adjustments for post-event reference.

5. Boost Awareness on Social Media and Other Sites

While Prime Day generates significant buzz, it’s crucial to promote your deals both on and off Amazon. Use social media to highlight discounts and reasons to shop. Consider boosting posts for more exposure.

Utilize platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Google Ads to reach potential customers beyond Amazon for your Prime Day promotions. Amazon’s Influencer Program also connects brands with social media influencers, leveraging their reach and credibility to boost product visibility and sales.

6. Set Up and Test Your Amazon Advertising Campaigns Early

To maximize returns and awareness during Prime Day, brands should adopt a three-tiered advertising approach. This strategy targets different stages of the advertising funnel: preparation, promotion, and post-event periods, leveraging increased Amazon traffic and conversion rates.

Integrating Search and Display ads enhances Prime Day tactics by capturing active searchers and generating demand through broader audience strategies. Display ads build product awareness, while Search ads drive ready-to-purchase consumers directly to listings.

Utilize insights from previous Prime Day campaigns, while remaining adaptable to current ecommerce trends and consumer behaviors.

Prepare for Prime Day by testing and optimizing all available campaign types and Amazon betas to capitalize on the event's heightened traffic and conversion opportunities.

7. Create a Variety of Compelling Offers

To attract Prime Day shoppers looking for the best deals, offer a variety of savings options like coupons, lightning deals and more.

Here’s a summary of ad types for Prime Day:

• Sponsored Products: Blend into search results and product pages, effective for converting active shoppers.
• Sponsored Brands: Highlight with custom headlines above search results, enhancing brand visibility.
• Sponsored Display: Target audiences on and off Amazon based on shopping behavior, ideal for retargeting.
• Product Bundles: Offer value by combining items or discounts for multiple purchases, boosting average order value.
• Lightning Deals: Limited-time offers for Prime members, drive sales velocity and clear inventory.
• Prime Exclusive Discounts/Event Deals: Exclusive savings for Prime members during events, drive traffic and sales.
• Coupons: Provide instant savings at checkout, encourage purchases and reward loyalty.

Remember, Amazon has restrictions on certain offers like free items and may prioritize free shipping differently than other platforms.

8. Check Up on Your Product Reviews

Regularly managing product reviews is crucial for maintaining brand reputation and boosting sales. Positive reviews drive purchase decisions and enhance product visibility. Use Amazon’s “Request a Review” feature to encourage more reviews and prioritize excellent customer service. Respond promptly to both positive and negative feedback, addressing concerns professionally to improve customer satisfaction and bolster brand image. Effective review management can significantly enhance sales success on platforms like Amazon.

9. Promote the Right Products

To optimize conversions, selecting the right products for Prime Day promotions is crucial. We suggest featuring top-selling or highly successful items to maximize ROI. Familiarize yourself with trending categories this year, such as back-to-school products and electronics, to leverage the heightened consumer interest effectively.

Prime Day deal candidates typically:

• Are readily available and can be restocked easily
• Possess a minimum of 15 reviews and maintain a rating of 3.5 stars or above
• Feature optimized images and content that includes branded and keyword-rich elements

10. Create a Dedicated Amazon Store Subcategory Page

If you have an Amazon Store, consider creating a dedicated Prime Day subcategory. Use it to feature your Prime Day deals and discounts, and treat it as your landing page for all things Prime Day. When you have Prime Day ads on Amazon, pointing users to a specific landing page makes it easier for them to convert into customers. Here’s an example of an Amazon Store that Advil created just for Prime Day:

What to do on Prime Day?

If you haven't started using Amazon Posts, now is the ideal time to begin. Amazon Posts allows brands to mirror their social media strategies from platforms like Instagram directly on the Amazon Marketplace. It operates similarly to a social media feed, enabling brands to publish a curated series of posts featuring their products.

Showcasing priority or top-performing ASINs in your posts can greatly boost product visibility and engagement, especially during events like Prime Day. This strategy helps ensure that your products remain prominent for shoppers actively exploring on Amazon.