How Brands Can Capitalize on Prime Day 2022

Now is the time for brands to gear up for Amazon Prime Day 2022. While the dates have yet to be announced, preparations are well under way for the massive online shopping event.

In 2021, consumers purchased $11.2 billion worth of goods on Amazon.com during Prime Day, up 7.7 percent from $10.4 billion in 2020. The annual shopping event offers brands a clear opportunity to create awareness by highlighting their products during this high traffic occasion. However, there are several best practices brands need to keep in mind (and prepare for now) to ensure a successful event. ​

Deciding on the right deals, keeping up with inventory, and taking the right approach to marketing can all positively impact customer engagement. Not only will this translate to a successful Prime Day, but it will also drive sales well beyond the annual shopping holiday.

Know the Deals

Brands need to take a strategic approach to the deals they offer on Prime Day. For starters, brands should look at the competition and work to differentiate from them. Many brands run the same or similar deals multiple years in a row, so looking at what competitors did in the past can give brands a good idea of what they might do this year. For a deal to be successful, it needs to offer value not just relative to a company’s usual offerings, but value compared to other competitors’ Prime Day promotions.

Brands should also look to their own products to determine the items that are ripe for promotions. For instance, running deals on top sellers with good margins can help increase brand awareness for other products or accessories. Overstock and seasonal deals that demonstrate elastic demand are also a smart choice and have the added benefit of moving out excess inventory.

Finally, brands should consider their own performance from previous years. It's important to understand what worked and what didn't because doubling down on a failed promotion from the year before likely won't pay dividends. Key places to look at for each product include:

• Elasticity: How much demand is created by changing the price of a product and which products are most affected?
• Utilization: Did last year’s promotion achieve its goal? If not, what can be done differently this time around?
• Margins: With a rapidly changing supply chain and inflation rising, what effect has there been on profit margins in the last year and how can brands adjust promotions accordingly?

Preparing Inventory

Inventory planning is another key component to a successful Prime Day. Running out of product, late deliveries, and not thinking past Prime Day are all things that can hurt a brand’s reputation.

Brands should lean in on inventory shipments to avoid any issues with their deal being cancelled due to lack of inventory. All deal inventory should now be ready to ship to reduce the risk of running out of stock on Prime Day.

Another factor to consider is what happens after Prime Day is over. There's typically a surge of Amazon Prime subscribers registering for the annual shopping event, which then guarantees their membership for another 30 days of shopping on the platform. While its most important to have products on the shelf for Prime Day itself, brands can expect an uptick in orders thereafter as well.

Optimize Exposure Through Advertising

There are several strategic ways to engage with Amazon’s advertising platform to ensure marketing spend is properly allocated for Prime Day. Brands should specifically consider a balanced investment in Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) as well as the company’s demand-side platform, Amazon DSP, to extend the reach of their deals.

AMS is essentially paid search marketing within Amazon. It allows brands to target search results and product detail pages. It's generally a low-funnel tactic that can drive high return on advertising spend (ROAS). Putting budget toward AMS will increase a product’s position on search and drive the highest visibility and conversion rate for products on Prime Day. It's a great way to increase exposure for the brand, but it's especially costly on Prime Day due to increased competition for keywords. Instead of relying solely on AMS, brands should create an integrated advertising campaign that reaches consumers searching for the brand, a solution, or competitors both on and off Amazon.

This is where DSP comes in. DSP is a method for brands to reach consumers outside of Amazon’s site, retargeting customers who have searched for similar products in the past. It's programmatic marketing that uses exclusive Amazon first-party data to target customers across devices and formats. It's a great way to generate brand awareness ahead of Prime Day and leverage Amazon’s relationships with popular third parties like IMDB TV, Twitch, Paramount+, and others.

Prime Day and Beyond

Prime Day represents a huge opportunity for brands to learn more about their products and competitors while attracting new customers and invigorating loyal customers. On top of a massive day for shopping, deals can create a spike in sales that extend beyond the deal timeframe through a “halo effect.” Some brands have experienced sales growth the month after running a deal for both the featured product and the rest of their product catalog. By taking steps to properly prepare, from setting the right deals to successful inventory planning and promotion, brands can set themselves up for a successful Prime Day in 2022.

Jamaal Hackett-Cook is senior director, strategy and client development at Ideoclick, a company that makes e-commerce work for your brand with cutting-edge technologies, expert e-commerce services, and visionary leadership.