Prime Day Is Now In October. What Does That Mean For CX?
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One of the biggest shopping days of the year just happened last week. But it’s not Black Friday—it’s the rescheduled Amazon Prime Day.
Like many other retail events, Amazon’s annual Prime Day was rescheduled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The massive two-day sale typically takes place in July, but this year it was pushed back to October 13-14. Where Amazon leads, retail follows, meaning Prime Day’s new schedule will impact customer experience across all industries.
Expanding To Other Retailers
For years, other retailers have planned their own sales to try to compete with Prime Day, and this year is no exception. Prime Day is huge business for Amazon, with sales expected to increase 42% this year to an estimated $7.5 billion. Retailers realize there’s money to be made and want their piece of it. After Amazon announced its new dates, Target and Walmart soon followed by announcing their own simultaneous sales. Other, smaller retailers will likely offer sales during Prime Day to take advantage of willing shoppers.
To stay competitive with so many sales happening at once, brands must be completely focused on their customers. They have to grab people’s attention and provide them products they actually want. With so many companies jostling for attention, customers will notice the brands that do more than just offer a great price. The most successful companies will be the ones that follow through with great service, fast shipping and personalized offers.
The huge number of products available on Amazon can be overwhelming for customers, so brands that can curate deals for individual customers will stand out. A customer might not want to sort through Amazon’s inventory to find a deal of pet food or shoes, which opens the door for smaller retailers to offer niche products if they can create personalized experiences for customers.
Earlier Start To Holiday Shopping
The unofficial start of holiday shopping is typically Black Friday, but Amazon’s move to mid-October is kicking off the 2020 season early. Customers have shopped for Christmas deals on Prime Day, which means brands need to gear up for a long holiday shopping season. But because many consumers have already spent money on Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are likely to suffer. One survey found that one-third of consumers are expecting to buy on Prime Day, compared to just one-quarter on Cyber Monday and 16% on Black Friday. Stores that wait to hold their holiday sales at the same time they usually do could miss the boat this year.
To survive, brands need to start their holiday marketing soon. An earlier start to the season puts the holidays at top of mind for customers, so brands can stand out with clever marketing and quality service. The downside of starting Christmas shopping in October is that the holiday shopping season then lasts for nearly two and a half months, which can lead to consumer burnout. Brands will need to keep momentum strong with concerted efforts to connect with customers throughout the season.
Pandemic Push For E-Commerce
E-commerce shopping has already seen huge growth in the last few months, and that will continue to grow in the last few months of 2020. Consumers are reluctant to go to the mall or congregate in physical stores, which has pushed sales online. Brick-and-mortar traffic is expected to be down by as much as 25% during the 2020 holiday shopping season.
Stores will succeed over the next few months based on how well they can transition online. An e-commerce customer experience is different from the experience inside a physical store. Brands will need to create intuitive websites that are visually compelling and make it easy for customers to browse, find what they want and checkout. Successful companies will leverage technology with features like virtual fitting rooms and chatbots for personal recommendations.
In many ways, Amazon sets the tone of the retail world. The move to a later Prime Day in 2020 will undoubtedly affect companies across nearly every industry. The key to staying competitive is to continually focus on customers and adapt to a personalized, digital experience fit for 2020.
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Article first published on forbes.com.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.
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