There's No Such Thing as Prime Day

Not June. Not July. Not even August. Amazon Prime Day is now expected to be pushed out until late September or even October.

If you're beginning to think: "how will Prime Day stay separate from the holiday season?" The honest answer is that it won't.

For all practical purposes, Prime Day this year is just an extension of Q4. And brands that treat them as separate entities will find themselves ill-prepared and underwater.

What You Should Expect

Yes, come October, there will still be Prime Day deals. And boxes will still be wrapped in blue tape with the smiling PRIME DAY logo.

The point is: Prime Day, from a brand perspective, will merge with the Holiday season to create a months-long period of extremely high volume on Amazon and across the web.

It's a Frankenstein of high-demand events.

That's a big deal for brands because you can no longer strategize for Prime Day and then regroup before Q4 shopping starts. Your advertising, inventory, operations, content, ranking, and promotional strategy all have to be set up to ramp in July and August and sustain throughout the end of the year. No breaks.

If that weren't enough, COVID-19 brings with it a litany of unknown factors. With some scientists and health professionals projecting a second wave in the Winter months, we could see renewed social distancing measures bringing about another major shift in demand towards shopping online.

Imagine being on the wrong side of Amazon's algorithm when that hits, or not having sorted out your inventory issues beforehand.

The stakes couldn't get any higher.

Unless, of course, you're like many brands who missed out on an entire Q2 due to COVID-19 related issues. Then the stakes DO get higher. And executing a successful second half of the year strategy is the only option on the table.

How You Should Prepare for a Super-Q4

While the idea of a super-Q4 is a bit daunting, it also presents a massive opportunity for brands who take their online channel seriously and put together a thought-out strategy.

Here are some tactics to consider:

1. Start Advertising Early

When you run prolonged advertising campaigns to sustain sales momentum for your products, Amazon’s algorithm deems those products as highly relevant and your organic ranking lifts.

During high-traffic periods like Prime Day and Q4, that relevance acts as a floatation device to keep your products visible as customers flood into the marketplace.

Last year, our clients that had established advertising campaigns saw massive sales increases over Prime Day while avoiding the huge spikes in CPC and ACoS.

So you should start by ramping up your advertising at least 2 months before Prime Day (right now, it looks like July at the latest).

2. Be Aggressive with Your Advertising

Prior to Prime Day, you should be building out ad campaigns to increase your brand awareness with customers actively researching products. This will boost the discoverability of promoted products and deals.

You should also be testing advertising strategies and creatives beforehand, so that your ad campaigns are optimized by the time customer traffic increases.

Once Prime Day is rolling, consider turning on DSP remarketing campaigns to capture audiences that visited but did not purchase your products. As those customers continue shopping online through the remainder of Q4, you'll be able to drive them back to convert.

This can also be said for DSP conquesting strategies which can prove effective at capturing incremental customers who were considering your competitors products during Prime Day or throughout Q4.

3. Know Your Promotional Strategy and Product Mix

Even though Prime Day is now slated for much later in the year, some Vendor Managers are still taking deal requests. If you are interested in running a Prime Day deal, be sure to stay in close contact with Amazon or your agency partner.

If you run a promotion, make sure:

• Your deals are large enough to appeal to the average buyer. Ideally, you want to have one of the least expensive items in your category.
• Your deals are on items that customers are looking for (since Prime Day will take place in September/October, this includes holiday/giftable products).
• Your deals are competitive in the marketplace.

If you are not planning on submitting a deal, consider running coupons on your products. Coupons can be a great way to draw extra attention to your product throughout Prime Day and beyond without having to commit to a Prime Day deal.

4. Increase Your Inventory

In order to take full advantage from September through December, you'll need to have the inventory on hand to support your efforts. This is particularly critical if you need to order inventory from overseas, which may take longer to arrive or be complicated by COVID-19.

Take the time to do keyword research and map out the trends in demand for your products. Consider diverting inventory from brick & mortar channels that are underperforming and could be susceptible to increased social distancing measures.

The reality is, being out of inventory on Amazon is a compounded disadvantage. Not only will you be losing out on sales, but you are dropping in organic rank during an unprecedented lift in online customer traffic.

The flip side is the compounded advantage to staying in stock. As competitors drop out or pull back advertising due to inventory issues, you'll have a window to grab market share and disrupt the category.

5. Update Your Amazon Content

Optimizing your Amazon content should be a no-brainer. If you have been putting off improving your basic and enhanced content, now it the time to do it.

Think about calling out at-home use cases in your titles and descriptions. If you sell office chairs, for example, consider calling them "Home Office Chairs" to drive additional traffic.

Another area of opportunity is in building out your Amazon Storefront. Much like a direct-to-consumer website, these one-stop-shops allow you to showcase their products, brand, and value proposition through a completely custom branded experience.

Amazon Storefronts provide opportunities to upsell, cross-sell, and educate. They are also free from competitor advertising, so a compelling storefront can create a dramatic lift in sales conversion.

6. Keep an Eye on Your Account

Prime Day and Q4 will be intense for your eCommerce team. You need to account for the extra time spent digging through your Amazon business and adjusting on the fly.

When the stakes are high, you need to have your fingers on the pulse with both your account and your category. Ideally, you should have a team or software monitoring your account activity all-day in order to catch any problems before they become more serious.

Final Thoughts:

Prime Day, like everything else in 2020, is going to be unprecedented.

The lines that typically separate the massive annual sale and Q4 events like Cyber Monday and Christmas will be completely blurred.

Brands who don't prepare accordingly will be left behind with no time to adjust. But those who successfully execute their strategy could both increase sales dramatically and assert dominance in their category.

To learn more about Prime Day strategies and ask specific questions about your business, join us for a webinar: Conquer Prime Day in the New Normal.