Prepare Now for Prime Day 2020
Amazon Prime Day is an annual shopping "holiday" that offers exclusive deals to Prime Subscribers. In fact, Prime Day is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Like any other major holiday, it takes time to prepare and strategize if you want to maximize your sales. With over 112 million Prime members in the U.S alone, it's crucial to be well-prepared, especially with Q4 following shortly after.
When Is Prime Day 2020?
Prime Day usually is sometime in mid-July. But in 2020, it's up in the air. Due to COVID, Amazon delayed Prime Day and has not yet rescheduled it.
Our best guess is August or later at this point. So, now is the perfect time to prepare so you'll be ready. A lot of the tips in this article also apply to the Q4 holidays like Black Friday, the Christmas season, and other Q4 holidays, so plan ahead now!
Do You Have Enough Inventory for Prime Day?
In 2019, Amazon Prime Day sales amounted to an estimated 7.16 billion U.S. dollars. That's right, 7.16 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS!
Your worst nightmare as a seller is running out of inventory. Have you started projecting how many units you'll need for each of your SKUs?
To prepare yourself for brisk sales, we suggest starting with your sales history. How many units did you sell last year during Prime Day week? At a minimum, you'll want to match the number of units and if you can add a 10-20% increase.
With Q4 right around the corner, it's better to have a cushion of inventory than to work from behind during the busiest shopping time of the year.
In Amazon's most recent update, your inventory must be in transit by July 23rd and must be received by August 24th to be ready to use for Prime Day. If you haven't already, get your inventory ordered and prepared to ship to Amazon!
Optimize Your Amazon Listings Now
Before considering an advertising or marketing plan, your listing has to be fully optimized. This includes your title, images, bullet points, and A+ content. (Don't forget to optimize for mobile users, too.)
Title
Your title carries the most weight when it comes to search result rankings. The best practice is to include your top keywords in the title and to split test it several times throughout the year. Put yourself in the shoes of your shoppers. What keywords would you use to search for your product? What keywords are your competitors using?
Images
Are your images high quality? Do you have a solid mix of infographics and lifestyle images? Have you checked your competitor's listings to see if your image block is missing something? Strong images build credibility with shoppers and could be the difference between getting a conversion or not.
Bullet Points
The copy on your listing should paint a clear picture of what a customer's life will look like buying your product. Instead of keyword stuffing or getting too technical, tell your brand story, provide a solution, and relate with your target audience. These are all factors that can influence a purchase decision.
A+ Content
This is the best place to display your brand story and product lineup. Are you using images that show off your demographic?
Prepare for Deals on Amazon
Every year sellers have the opportunity to run Amazon-powered discounts. These deals get special marketing placements. You'll see them on the home page and other deals pages that can get your products in front of millions of new customers.
The three deal opportunities you have as a Seller are for Lighting Deals, Coupon Clippings, and Prime Exclusive Discounts. If you haven't already booked your Prime Day Lightning Deal, you've missed your chance for 2020. However, you can still sign up for Coupon Clippings by July 12th. Prime Exclusive Discounts do not have a due date at this point.
What if you're not selected to be a part of a special placement on Amazon? You should still run promotions of some kind. After all, customer traffic is higher on Prime Day and even throughout the whole week of Prime Day.
Here are our best tips for maximum sales on Prime Day:
- Create a strong promotional offer (probably your strongest one of the whole year)
- Stay below 30% off. (Going higher than 30% off, you run the risk of the customer not being able to leave a review.)
- Run promotions the entire week. (Traffic is high the entire week you should not limit yourself to a single day.)
- Use external assets to get the word out. (Let your customers know on your email list and social media that you are running Prime day promotion.)
Advertising on Amazon
If you haven't been optimizing your PPC ads, it's time to get started! You have a couple of months to get your account cleaned up and ready to scale for Prime Day. Also, consider setting up an additional campaign that targets Prime Day keywords.
Some helpful tips for advertising on Amazon:
- Be ready to spend. (Like Q4, Prime Day and the week of Prime Day is a more competitive time you need to budget correctly, so you're prepared to spend.)
- Be ready to adjust on the fly. (The last thing you want is to run out of budget the day of Prime Day. Watch your budget to make sure you are running ads all day.)
- Be ready to learn. (On Prime Day, you will see higher traffic. You'll get more traffic from your ads, so take advantage of it. Learn all you can. Use what you learn for next Prime Day as well as your everyday ads.)
To recap, the first step in preparing for the fast-approaching Prime Day and Q4 season is projecting how much inventory you'll need. Next, optimize your listings, storefront, and ads.
If you want help getting all this done the right way so you can crush sales, book a call with our Amazon experts. Also, be sure to check our training on the 5 Steps To Selling 7-Figures and Beyond on Amazon. You can access both of those and more at TurnKeyProductManagement.com/resource
Jeff Lieber and his team from TurnKey Product Management provided this article. TurnKey is an Amazon consulting company that sells over 8-figures in revenue for its clients each year. Whether you're just starting or are an Amazon expert, TurnKey can help take your sales to the next level. Visit www.TurnKeyProductManagement.com/resource. You'll find free resources and training on how to scale to 7+ figures on Amazon. Plus, you can contact TurnKey there to help scale your business.
