The Ultimate Ecommerce Brand Guide to Prime Day 2023

Summer is on the horizon, and so is one of the biggest sales events of the year: Prime Day.  

Amazon’s Prime Days are synonymous with discounts and deals. The past few Prime Day events have experienced pandemic-related disruptions, yet each year continued to see record-breaking sales. In 2019, Prime Day sales were $7.16 billion and increased by 45% to $10.4 billion the following year, according to Digital Commerce 360. In 2021, Prime Day sales climbed to $11.19 billion. 

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This continued growth sets high expectations for this year’s Prime Day, but there are several challenges facing sellers, namely Amazon’s additional fuel and inflation surcharge, along with supply chain and labor expenses. Offsetting these costs will be a significant factor in how sellers prepare for Prime Day 2023.

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While some are concerned about lower profit margins, there remain many ways for brands to increase sales and have a successful Prime Day—they just need to have a strategy.  

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As shoppers add to their wishlists, brands have their own list of to-dos. In this guide, we’ll go over the main opportunities with Prime Day and how brands can reshape their strategies to get the most out of it. 

‍

Summer is on the horizon, and so is one of the biggest sales events of the year: Prime Day.  

Amazon’s Prime Days are synonymous with discounts and deals. The past few Prime Day events have experienced pandemic-related disruptions, yet each year continued to see record-breaking sales. In 2019, Prime Day sales were $7.16 billion and increased by 45% to $10.4 billion the following year, according to Digital Commerce 360. In 2021, Prime Day sales climbed to $11.19 billion. 

‍

This continued growth sets high expectations for this year’s Prime Day, but there are several challenges facing sellers, namely Amazon’s additional fuel and inflation surcharge, along with supply chain and labor expenses. Offsetting these costs will be a significant factor in how sellers prepare for Prime Day 2023.

‍

While some are concerned about lower profit margins, there remain many ways for brands to increase sales and have a successful Prime Day—they just need to have a strategy.  

‍

As shoppers add to their wishlists, brands have their own list of to-dos. In this guide, we’ll go over the main opportunities with Prime Day and how brands can reshape their strategies to get the most out of it. 

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When is Prime Day 2023?

Prime Day 2023 is does not have a set date yet, but brands and media alike are speculating it will be July 11th and 12th. That's only a few weeks away, sellers and customers alike are gearing up for the summer shopping season.

The main opportunities with Prime Day 2023

One of the biggest opportunities of selling on Amazon is the sheer size of the marketplace’s customer base. Amazon has over 200 million Prime subscribers, and according to PYMNTS, nearly 60% of all US ecommerce sales took place on Amazon in 2021. 

As an intensive two-day period of exclusive deals and promotions, Prime Day takes this to the next level: customers purchased over 250 million items during Prime Day 2021. With this amount of traffic and engagement, Prime Day presents a major opportunity for building brand awareness and attracting highly engaged customers.  In fact, 71% of shoppers learn about new brands leading up to Prime Day, according to Amazon. 

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Even if sellers don’t roll out discounts, they can still see an increase in sales compared to any other day because of the increased traffic. This gives sellers the extra nudge to participate in Prime Day and make the experience count.  

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“I'd rather take less profit and try and continue to build sales and build customers than try and cover all these increases that we're all faced with,” Phil Masiello, co-founder of CrunchGrowth Revenue Acceleration Agency, said in Modern Retail’s Amazon Briefing. “We're certainly not looking to make a tremendous amount of money. We won’t, but we want to continue to try and drive the brand and drive customers.”

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How brands can make the most out of Prime Day 2023

There’s much more to Prime Day than just the two days; for brands, the timeline starts weeks before and ends long past the date. According to Amazon, brands that engaged shoppers throughout the entire journey saw a 216% increase in awareness and 214% increase in consideration, compared to brands that did not advertise in any phase of Prime Day.     

Before Prime Day (2 to 4 weeks)

The weeks leading up to Prime Day are the prime time for brands to prepare for increased demand, connect with their customers, and create excitement around their products. Most shoppers have a good idea of what they want to buy, while others are still looking for inspiration. 

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With an early marketing campaign, brands can reach customers in every stage of the shopping journey and stand out from the rest. According to an Amazon Ads study, 75% of shoppers were likely or highly likely to purchase a product during Prime Day that they’d discovered during the lead-up to Prime Day. 

To get onto customers' radar, here are the key steps brands can take to prepare: 

Manage your inventory 

Brands should make sure to stock up on best selling items to avoid the risk of turning away interested shoppers. It helps to leverage existing data from past Prime Days or other large shopping events and gain insight into the demand for specific products. The best-selling categories for Prime Day 2021 were electronics, beauty, apparel, and household products.

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Greater Than, a brand providing natural electrolyte drinks for nursing moms, is crafting their Prime Day strategy around inventory position. Ideally, they’ll roll out a special variety pack of online exclusive flavors not available on Amazon. Otherwise, they’ll leverage coupons. 

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Select a mix of products and deals 

A common approach to Prime Day is the loss leader strategy, which is selling a product at a price that’s not profitable but makes up for it by driving sales, promoting cross-selling opportunities, and attracting new customers. Therefore, brands should think about which products to feature in deals. 

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While offering several promotions for Prime Day, Mightly, a kids clothing brand, has their focus on clothes for toddlers. “We are viewing Prime Day as a great way for parents of toddlers to try Mightly at discounted prices,” said Tierra Forte, CEO and Co-Founder. 

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Tonics brand Shire City Herbals is offering a mix of Prime-exclusive discounts, lightning deals on select items, and coupons for bundles.

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Key date: June 10 is Amazon’s deadline for coupon submissions. 

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Keep your website and Amazon product pages updated

Put your best foot forward by showcasing the newest product images on your website and Amazon product pages. Shoppers will discover your brand on either of these platforms, making it important to present a consistent brand identity. 

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While the layout of Amazon’s product pages are standardized, there are several ways for brands to make the best use of that space, such as detailed brand and product descriptions. Of course, they are only able to show a part of their whole brand on these pages, making it worthwhile to direct customers to their main website.    

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Engage customers through across multiple channels

With SMS, email, and social media platforms, brands have no shortage of communication channels at their disposal. A synchronized marketing campaign across all channels allows brands to accomplish two things: (1) grab the attention of new customers, and (2) remind existing customers of their upcoming deals. 

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More than 70% of online consumers in the US had used a social media channel in 2019 to discover new products. Features such as shoppable Instagram posts and TikTok Shopping make it easier for customers to move beyond the discovery phase. 

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By being active on these channels in the leadup to Prime Day, brands will be able to target highly engaged audiences.  

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After Prime Day 

All the work that went into building brand presence for Prime Day carries over into the long term. The aftermath of Prime Day presents a major opportunity for brands to introduce themselves to new customers, thank them for their purchase, and continue engagement to drive repeat purchases and customer retention. In fact, 53% of shoppers surveyed are likely or highly likely to repurchase again after Prime Day, according to an Amazon Ads survey.