Today marks Amazon’s eighth year running its highly anticipated Prime Day. Originally a one-day shopping event, Amazon will once again be hosting a two-day event this year, running through tomorrow, July 13th. To better illustrate the magnitude of this retail event, Statista shows that in 2021, Amazon’s Prime Day grossed more than $11.2B in sales—a new record high for the marketplace giant. But while analysts at JP Morgan and Jeffries predict only single-digit sales growth (roughly 3.8B in incremental revenue which is a 7% increase from 2021), perhaps the real story for Amazon’s growth this Prime Day will come from a surge in Prime memberships, especially considering that the typically two-day Prime Day event is reserved for those yearly dues-paying members anyway. But don’t let the targeted dates fool you, we were already seeing Amazon offering some serious deals leading up to today and there’s no debate around the fact that this day truly celebrates two things:
1. Prime customers
2. Amazon’s proprietary electronics suite including Fire Sticks, Fire Tablets and everything Alexa enabled
Naturally, just like last year, we’ll also see some deals surrounding Whole Foods as Amazon continues its ownership over the exclusive whole foods retailer. There will also be unique offerings including deep discounts on items like Disney Pixar merchandise and Marvel movie rentals. RetailMeNot reports a new spin for 2022 Prime Day where every single dollar you spend on small businesses on Amazon, will enter you into a major sweepstakes that can score you prizes like pre-game experiences at Super Bowl LVII plus VIP passes to concerts and events, to name a few. So, with all this fanfare and promotion backed by a heavy-hitting proprietary lineup of electronics and devices, how can anyone possibly capture attention away from Amazon and divert it to their own deals and promotions? The answer lies in creativity and savvy planning.
One way to compete is to get creative and run your own brand-wide promotion day. There are some big competitors hitting back this year including Walmart, Target and Best Buy that will run deals in tandem with Prime Day, July 12th and 13th. Yet another solution can help brands stay competitive during Prime Day: Partnerships. Multi-faceted, the partnership channel is a true champion of brand messaging and reach. Leveraging partners and partnerships allows brands to directly compete with the monolith that is Amazon. It provides imperative operating leverage that offsets the other more inflated cost to do business in channels like these. Prime Day is a great opportunity for brands to increase incentives and rewards for their top-performing partners.
Tips and Suggestions
• Incent partners to promote your more unique and exclusive products or product categories (as Amazon does with their device suite). Just remember: you don’t want to disappoint your customers by having a limited or sold-out product so ensure you have the inventory available to fulfill the potential demand!
• Reward upper-funnel partners that tend to drive new customers, but don’t always receive conversion credit, by enabling attribution features that ensure they earn commissions for conversions they influenced.
• Do a little digging and work with partners who are actively looking for competitive commission rates. For example, some partners may opt to promote a brand’s products over an Amazon product listing because they earn a higher commission rate with the brand directly.
• Don’t neglect your social game! Consumers are everywhere, not just hovering brand’s direct sites. Be sure all your channels are up-to-date with your campaign plan.
Interested in learning more about the power of partnerships beyond Prime Day? Connect with us here.
