Prime Day Prep: 2021

Prime Day 2021

2020 brought a whirlwind of adventure for eCommerce brands, particularly on the Amazon platform. As if the much-anticipated Prime Day doesn’t provide sellers enough excitement during a “normal” year on Amazon, the unexpected shifts and delays of last year took it over the top.

With Prime Day’s trajectory normalizing and deadlines rapidly approaching, now is the time to map out your promotional strategy for Prime Week 2021. Whether you’re an established seller or just getting started, we’ve compiled a list of our top tips, learnings from previous years, and exciting beta opportunities to leave you feeling prepared and stress-free this year!

What You Should Expect

Ad Revenue

In 2020, OMG clients saw an average 114% increase in daily ad revenue during Prime Day vs. the week prior, rivaling that of Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales increases. We recommend reviewing what previous years’ Prime Days have been like before deciding on a set strategy.

Overall Revenue

Overall daily revenue increased for OMG clients by an average 106% during Prime Day vs. the week prior.

Ad Spend

Average daily ad spend increased by 70% during Prime Day vs. the week prior for OMG clients. 

Total Advertising Cost of Sale

Average daily Total Advertising Cost of Sales decreased by 17% during Prime Day vs. the week prior for OMG clients.

Key Dates to Remember

Source: Prime Day Timeline

March 29

Prime Exclusive Discount sourcing begins on this day and ends 2 weeks prior to the event. Please note: Prime Exclusive Discounts are only available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.

April 16

Deadline to submit Lightning Deals in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

April 23

Deadline to submit Lightning Deals in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Australia.

May 20-June 13

The inbound shipping cutoff for vendors: Deal inventory must be in transit.

• May 20: the United States and Canada
• May 30: India
• June 1: Australia and Mexico
• June 6: the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• June 13: Japan

May 28

Deadline to submit coupons in the United States, Canada, Mexico, France,

Italy, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, the United Arab Emirates,

the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Australia.

May 30-June 13

FBA inventory cut-off date for sellers: Make sure your clients’ shipments arrive at Amazon well in advance of key shopping dates. Inventory should arrive at our fulfillment centers by this date to ensure your advertisers’ products are available for customers during Prime Day.

• May 30: India
• May 31: United States and Canada
• June 1: Australia and Mexico
• June 6: United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, and Turkey
• June 7: United Arab Emirates and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• June 13: Japan

Planning Your Attack

Winning Prime Day is all about planning your promotional strategy with the potential need to pivot in mind. Plan what you can in order to meet key deadlines while having alternative options in place both in the event that your product sells out or your Prime Week deal is canceled.  

Prime Exclusive Discounts

• Prime Exclusive Discounts are one of our favorite types of promotions to run during Prime Day to increase conversion rate.
• They do require  a few things: slightly advanced planning, a minimum of a 20% off discount, FBA inventory, and a minimum of a 3.5-star rating. But the payoff is definitely there.
• This promo type offers a certain level of urgency and exclusivity by displaying a bright  “Prime Day Deals” badge during its flight and only applies to Prime customers (which the majority of consumers are).
• Generally, a submission cutoff will appear closer to Prime Day but is currently listed as “2 weeks out from the event” which is confirmed for some time this summer.
  

Prime Week Lightning Deals

• Lightning Deals are also an excellent option for increased sales during Prime Week but present slightly more red tape than other promo options.
• Some of the challenges to consider with Prime Week Lightning Deals include the following:

• Steeper deal costs ($500/deal)
• Uncertainty of potentially poor-performing deal dates/times
• No guarantee of sales increase
• Frequently thin margins with proposed deal prices
• Less flexibility with off-Amazon pricing for 30 days leading up to Prime Day
• Potential deal cancellation
• Potential overlap with coupons and other promo types if not properly monitored

• That being said, our preference is to selectively use Lightning Deals to elevate our best-performing products, introduce new customers to products that are often repurchased or reduce price and liquidate closeout inventory.
• Some of the benefits of running a Lightning Deal on Prime Day include short-term improved sales rank, increased sales volume, defense against competitors running deals, and setting products up for success during Q4.
• Momentum from Lightning Deals can often be sustained by adding coupons on the page after the deal has concluded and ad campaigns can be coordinated to push Lightning Deals to the top of the Deal page during the designated time frame.

Prime Week Coupons

• The 5% off requirement for standard coupons are ideal for products that do not have the margin to support the 20% off discount required for Prime Exclusive Discounts. 
• This is a good alternative option for those that are either using Vendor Central or Merchant Fulfillment in Seller Central as their fulfillment method since FBA inventory is not required.
• While this coupon type does not display an urgent “Prime Day Deals” badge, it will display the standard “Save” badge which is still appealing to customers who are coming to Amazon looking for deals on Prime Day.
• Having any coupon (even a small amount off) will still show on the page and on advertising (including DSP).
• Despite having a submission deadline of May 28th, in past years, coupons have still been submitted successfully up to and throughout Prime Week while Prime Exclusive Coupons have not.
• This offers a bit more flexibility in terms of setting up coupons leading up to and after a Lightning Deal is scheduled with an unknown time frame.
• These coupon types can also often be used as a fallback in the event of a deal cancellation.
• Running coupons for 2 weeks after Prime Day allows DSP retargeting to perform at a higher level as the coupon badge will show on Amazon Dynamic display ads.

Storefront Deals Page

• Adding a “Deals” page to the navigation bar of your Amazon storefront offers the ideal landing page for Amazon customers seeking a discount on Prime Day.
• It also creates a central hub to direct ad traffic for any test campaigns surrounding “discount”, “inexpensive” and “clearance” related search queries.
• Ad copy can also be adjusted with your Sponsored Brand ads that direct to this page mentioning your “Sale” or “Deal” (provided you schedule your ad to expire when the promotion is over).
• This can also be used as a landing page test for DSP retargeting campaigns for customers who viewed but did not purchase.
• The best part is that building out a “Deal” page is very straightforward and doesn’t require a great deal of time.
• Select the “Featured Deals” module in Amazon’s storefront builder and populate with any ASINs you are considering running a promo on. This module is dynamic and will automatically update when any promos become active.
• We recommend submitting any storefront changes at least 7 days prior to Prime Day (if possible) to allow time to course-correct should you encounter any issues with approvals.

Listing Optimizations

• If you are considering testing various titles, images, or A+ content for improved conversion rate, test these items prior to Prime Week. The last thing you want to be dealing with is indexing or ranking issues during peak traffic.
• Consider using “Manage Experiments” for any eligible listings to split test various copy and creative options well in advance. Opt for the best-performing assets prior to Prime Week.
• If you are not currently using video assets on-page, now is the perfect time to add them to your gallery.
• Any video assets you create for listing optimizations can be repurposed for Sponsored Brand Video Ads.

Amazon Posts

• Step up your Amazon Posts game during Prime Week and repurpose any social media content.
• Once you have a confirmed deal date and time, schedule posts for any products with Lightning Deals during their designated deal dates and times for increased visibility and traffic.

Amazon Live

• Leveraging Amazon Live is an excellent way to tap into the increased Amazon traffic during Prime Week by driving additional views to detail pages from your Livestream.
• If you have brand access, you will have the opportunity to showcase your promotional offerings.
• This program is ideal for brands who already have someone on board that is familiar with OBS and live streaming.
  

Budgets

• Thinking about a budget may not invoke as much excitement as some of the other pieces we’ve touched on, but don’t let that fool you. Making a  well thought out budget plan is the anchor for a successful Prime Day Attack.
• Make sure to plan out budgets early so that you can prep campaigns leading up to Prime Day. This includes the lead up to Prime Day, Prime Day itself, and 2 weeks post Prime Day.
• Part of this prep will be understanding what products have deals/promotions/coupons running and at what times. You want to align your budget plan and timeline with your overall Prime Day Strategy.
• Budgets can be based on a set number, ACoS, Tacos, etc. This is unique to each advertiser’s goals and should be one of the first things finalized so that you can plan out your plan of attack accordingly.

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DSP: Your Secret Weapon

Utilizing DSP for Prime Day is your secret weapon to Prime Day DOMINATION! Ensuring you have a full-funnel strategy prepped will have you ready to rock. Below you’ll find strategies & suggestions to help propel your Prime Day sales.

Capitalize On Prime Day Increased Traffic

• Develop your DSP strategy for Prime Day and beyond. Consider scaling budget not only during Prime Day(s) but also for the two weeks after Prime Day for Retargeting. 
• The increased traffic during Prime Day will significantly increase the audience side for retargeting. Yes, some of this traffic will definitely have converted already and that is why you should put in place exclusions for past purchasers.
• We normally suggest adding a coupon for products you are pushing on DSP for two weeks after Prime Day as an added incentive for your retargeting audience to come back and make the purchase.
  

Lightning or Prime Day Exclusive Deals

• DSP Dynamic Ecommerce Ads will pull in lightning deal and coupon details that will show on the display ad. This is a great way to increase awareness for any promotions you are running.
• You will want to map out what strategies you plan to run as well as corresponding budgets.
• We recommend setting up a separate Prime Day order (campaign) for this so that you can control timing to correspond with promotion and to better visualize performance results.
  

Strategy for increasing brand awareness & traffic to your detail pages:

• DSP is a great way to boost awareness for your products and brand and grow your retargeting audience leading up to Prime Day. 
• A few ways you can boost awareness and traffic are Competitor Targeting, Similar Product Targeting, and In-Market targeting. 
• With so many targeting options available via DSP for funnel building strategies, we recommend you consult with a DSP provider to see what would be the best strategy for you.  
  

Utilize Storefront To Push Deals And Coupons

• If you decide to create a Deals tab on your Storefront, it may make sense to create a DSP order (campaign) that targets people who have viewed any of your deals (but have not purchased) and send them back to your Deals tab. 
• This works well if the products you are running deals for do not meet the 5,000 minimum unique visitors threshold for retargeting.   

      *This strategy does require custom static creative

Our OMG Commerce team is fully focused on Prime Day planning for our clients and we encourage you to do the same. For more Prime Day strategy goodness, check out the latest podcast from Ecommerce Evolution and partner with us to elevate your Amazon business!