Special Edition - Prime Day 2022

Prime Day is right around the corner, July 12 - 13. Now is the time to "dot your i’s and cross your t’s". Haven’t done anything yet? Think it's too late? Well, I think you're wrong. You still have time to prepare your business for this tentpole event.

According to SpendMeNot, more than 250 million products were sold during the Prime Day event in 2021 with total eCommerce sales surpassing 11.19 billion dollars. So yeah, Prime Day is a big deal and you need to have a plan.

But just how big is Prime Day? Russ Dieringer dug into some Amazon commentary and added his own assumptions to estimate that Prime Day ’22 will translate to ~$15 billion in sales, compared to $3.6 billion in GMV done over an “average” two-day span. Said another way, think about the Prime Day opportunity as ~3.5-5x the typical business done on the site.

It all start’s with a strategy!

Our friends at Tambo , shared these 5 tips that you need to consider . They lay out a few questions that you need to answer starting with: Are you going to have a deal or no deal strategy?

Discounting seems to be a big topic of conversation. There is no right or wrong answer. According to a poll run by Bobsled Marketing , 61% of brands plan to only discount the same or less for this Prime Day, versus 2021. Kiri dives deeper into the challenges that brands are facing and what you need to do to make this a successful event.

Chris Plamer, of SupplyKick , shared that if you have limited inventory or thin margins, you should consider keeping prices steady or running smaller 5-15% off coupons on prime deals to protect inventory levels and margins while still attracting new customers.

Strategies don't stop at discounts, Hannah reminds us that we can’t bid blindly! Don’t fall into the trap of following someone else’s bidding strategy. Ask yourself these critical questions .

Are you still trying to polish your strategy? Joe and Matt share the before, during and after of Amazon Prime Day on their podcast.

Don't sleep on retail readiness.

Not sure what it means to be optimized for retail readiness? Amazon created a course that will show you how to assess your product detail page and gain an understanding of the best practices.

Marc Miller of My Response Team shared this quick listing audit that you can follow.

• Title and bullets - are they up to date and optimized to include the most relevant keywords
• Variations - are your products grouped under their parents correctly?
• Images - do you have 6 clear informatics images? Do you have video?

Sellerapp shares that before advertising your product detail pages, it is important to make sure they are “retail ready.” This also means that every factor mentioned in this Retail Readiness Checklist has to be ticked.

Perpetua shared a retail readiness checklist that helps you gain as much exposure as possible on the digital shelf.

Loss of the Buy Box for even one hour is multiplied 3-4X. Melissa shares how some brands dedicate a headcount simply to monitor Buy Box status during the two-day event, ready to file tickets with Amazon Vendor Support as soon as they notice an issue.

Now, let's dig into advertising.

If you are looking for some tips, this video by Destaney and the team at Orange Klik covers how to prepare your Amazon PPC for Prime Day

Amazon has released suggested bids for Prime Day. According to reports, the bid ranges are slightly higher than the regularly suggested bids as placements will get more competitive during the big event. Himanshu dives into some recommendations to consider when reviewing these recommendations.

So, you are probably asking yourself, how different are the bids? Paul is seeing an average of between 7-10% across a few different keywords and categories. He reminds you that you are going to need a bigger budget over the period, as well as a good strategy in place to capitalize on any new to brand customers coming into your sales funnel.

Now that we see the recommendations coming from Amazon, we need to determine if they are in a range you are comfortable with. Ritu shares how to examine the Amazon Recommended bid range . She provides details on how to check if keywords are worth bidding on.

Now, bids are important but you need to consider a few other things. Kate shared in the Incrementum Digital newsletter a few things to think about including upper funnel DSP, Sponsored Brand Video, coupons, cross-promotions, and a deals sub-page for your storefront .

One tip that Amazon shared is to create a Prime Day version of your store . When preparing your Store for Prime Day, make sure you add a page for the Featured Deals Widget . This is a great way to add visibility to products that have promotions, such as deals, coupons, or Subscribe and Save . The widget updates automatically, so products only appear in the widget for as long as the promotion lasts.

Product Targeting? BetterAMS saw a 304% increase in sales on Prime Day with Sponsored Display! You heard that right. Better yet, Destaney layouts the best way to use product targeting so that you can follow her plan.

Bring it home!

What's your Prime Day tip? Share it in the comments below.