Amazon Prime Day 2022 dates have been announced as Tuesday July 12th and Wednesday July 13th. Amazon sellers are busy preparing for Prime Day in July, however, there is word that another big sales event is just around the corner. Amazon is quietly inviting select sellers to a secretive fall sales event called “Prime Fall Deal Event”, though some sellers are calling it “Prime Day 2.0”.
Prime Fall Deal Event Submissions
Amazon is now accepting submissions for the Prime Fall Deal Event, while simultaneously accepting deals for Black Friday / Cyber Monday.
Amazon’s deals page displays this message…
“Submit recommended Lightning Deals for Prime Fall Deal Event Week for a chance to have your deal selected for Prime Fall Deal Event! You have until July 22nd, 2022 (11:59 p.m. PDT) to submit recommended Lightning Deals for Prime Fall Deal Event Week. The Prime Fall Deal Event FBA shipping deadline is September 12th.”
This is likely to anniversary sales from October Prime Day two days ago, and make up for softer revenue this year. Are you participating?
Opinions on Amazon Prime Fall Deal Event / Prime Day 2.0
The new Prime Day-style event could provide the company with a much-needed sales boost to make up for their softer revenue this year. Some sellers feel that Amazon is trying to recreate the success they had during their October Prime day in 2020 with the Prime Fall Deal Event. We are also reminded of Amazon’s Beauty Day sales event last year, which ended up flopping.
Some sellers are concerned that news of the “Prime Day 2.0” style fall sales event could diminish the effects of Prime Day in July. Other sellers are simply frustrated by Amazon’s lack of information regarding the event.
Regardless of how you feel about Amazon’s secretive Prime Fall Deal Event, it is still another big sales event sellers are not going to want to miss out on.
Preparing for Q3 / Q4 Amazon Sales Events
Amazon sellers have a lot of work to do to prepare for Prime Day in July, Prime Fall Deal Event, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. To have a strong finish to the year, we recommend sellers participate in all of these sales events.
Revamp Product Listings
- Review your product titles, bullet points, product descriptions, images, and A+ content/EBC
- Optimize your images and utilize AB testing, especially the hero image, for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Make sure everything is optimized for mobile.
- Add festive details for the holidays – add a ribbon/bow or a graphic on why your product is giftable
- Review how many keywords your products index for compared to competitors, and discover what top keywords you are not indexing for.
- Act on the findings by updating your copy and keyword strategy.
Review Account Health
- Check your account health and performance.
- Look at shipping performance and Voice of the Consumer
- During the event be prepared to monitor your account and address fire drills. Every hour a listing is down immediately translates to lost revenue. Read about how Envision Horizons handles suppressions.
Prepare Inventory
- Maintain an IPI score above 450 and avoid stock limits and overage fees this holiday season. Check out our blog on how to increase restock limits for more information.
- Ensure you have enough inventory to meet consumer demands. Running out of stock hurts your rankings and sales. Amazon has limited capacity for FBA inventory. So for some items, sellers will opt for FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) to handle the process themselves. This is a good practice for your most popular items at risk of going out of stock. Check out our post on how to forecast inventory for Amazon.
- Ship inventory in time. Mark Amazon’s key dates in your calendar!
Create Competitive Deals
- Submit deals for multiple products with competitive prices.
- Ensure that the deals you run on Amazon match that of other retailers. This is to prevent your listings from losing the buy box.
- On the morning of Prime Day, check out competitors within your category. By offering a better deal, conquest their product listing through strategic ASIN targeting and keyword bidding.
Drive External Traffic
- Self-promote Amazon deals on social media, emails, and external ads. Don’t forget to leverage resources such as Amazon Live and Amazon Posts.
- Consider getting assistance from a PR firm to get press features that will drive external traffic to Amazon.
- Consider partnering with influencers on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram to promote your Amazon products leading up to Prime Day, and even promote specific Prime Day deals. Check out our post How to Use Amazon Influencers to Drive Sales.
Optimize your Storefront
- Create a page in your Brand Store dedicated to highlighting deals available during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Add a holiday gift guide to your Store.
- Create Sponsored Brand Ads Driving to Storefront
Run Advertisements
- Confirm your Q3 / Q4 advertising budget. It is important to fine-tune your budget and bids for peak events. Amazon recommends a budget that is about 2-4x your typical budget for high-traffic days.
- Make sure your ads are optimized for conversions and that you’re not wasting money on keywords that generate little to no sales.
- Have advertising automation setup on all campaigns.
- If you have a product that wasn’t eligible for an exclusive prime day deal, run your advertisements and discounts. Take advantage of the increased traffic during the event.
- When creating promotions, note that a 20% off coupon is the minimum to see a significant spike in sales.
- Create special Sponsored Brand Ads that highlight discounted products.
- Create complementary product bundles to drive even more sales.
- Ensure that your advertising budgets and bids are opened up and increased the night before Prime Day starts. Take advantage of the typical spike in day one sales.
Amazon Sales Event Promotions
Prime Day is one of the most anticipated e-commerce events of the year, and for sellers looking to participate, it can get expensive. Additionally, millions of brands leverage the massive customer base on Amazon Prime Day, and competing with so many other sellers on the platform can be intimidating. Every year, Prime Day reaches record-breaking sales numbers- so the increase in traffic, sales, and exposure are oftentimes worth the initial investment. Types of promotions on Prime Day are Lightning Deals, Coupons, Prime Exclusive Discounts, and Price Member Promotions.
Lightning Deals
An Amazon Lightning Deal is a promotion with a limited number of discount offers on an item for a limited period of time. These premium deals are available one per customer, and are time-sensitive, lasting until either the promotional period (usually 4-hour blocks) for the deal expires or all the available promotional discounts are claimed. These limitations create a sense of urgency, driving consumers to execute the sale quickly.
In 2017, Amazon introduced a registration fee of $500 per Lightning Deal. In 2022, Lightning Deals that are selected to run during the Prime Day event will be charged a $500 fee per Deal. It runs during the week of Prime Day (but not on the actual event day) and will be charged a smaller fee of $300 per Deal. Lightning Deals schedules are subject to change. So the fee amount charged will be based on the day your Lightning Deal runs, which may not be the same day you requested or initially scheduled.
Applying for Lightning Deals: There are two ways to secure a Lightning Deal. Either Amazon will contact you inviting you to accept a deal submission, or you can apply yourself.
- If Amazon contacts you, to accept a Prime Day Lightning Deal submission Merchandising > Promotions > Recommendations tab. Here you can review and accept your recommendations, and can edit recommendations before submitting them.
- However, not all vendors will be contacted. To submit a lightning deal for Prime Day consideration, go to Merchandising > Promotions > Lightning Deal, and then select the “I want Amazon to consider my deal for Prime Day” checkbox.
Coupons
A coupon promotion is accessible on the product detail page and the Amazon vouchers page. Customers can click on a voucher and it’s added to their basket. The discount is automatically applied at checkout when a customer purchases an eligible product before the voucher expires. Read Amazon’s guide on creating coupons here.
Coupon discounts can be set up as either a percentage or dollars off. Coupons must be clipped and then applied at checkout in order for the customer to redeem. The lead time for coupons is four weeks, and in order to participate a seller’s account rating must be at 3.5 stars or higher, and the discount must be between 5%-80% off the lowest price in the last 30 days.
Prime Exclusive Discount and Prime Member Promotion
A Prime Exclusive Discount is a price discount that is widely used across all nationally Prime shipping eligible FBA products and is exclusive to Prime members. On Prime Day, these deals will display a Prime Day Deals badge. Prime day deals must be between 20-80% off and must be the lowest price in the last 30 days by 5%. Seller also must be FBA and have a 3.5+ star rating.
Track your Sales and Performance with a Tool Like myHorizons
- The Q3 / Q4 Amazon Sales events are important times to be closely monitoring your performance. Make changes to your ads or PPC campaigns as needed.
- If your inventory runs out at a faster rate than expected, plan to send more inventory to FBA or plan to ship the products yourself using third-party fulfillment or your own warehouse.
- If your sales are slow consider reviewing your PPC campaigns and increasing bids for certain keywords.
- Monitor the status and overall performance of your account with a tool like myHorizons. Take care of any problems that arise immediately so that there is no downtime for your listings. At Envision Horizons we offer 24/7 coverage.
Keep Up With What’s On The Horizon
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Get Assistance Running Your Amazon Business
If you want assistance running your Amazon business, or are curious about how to reach your full potential selling on Amazon, see if you qualify for a free audit from Envision Horizons.
Also, consider subscribing to a software solution such as myHorizons. Easily stay up to date on your brand’s performance during Prime Day across sales and advertising, and get automated brand management suggestions from our new machine learning tool.
