Although the exact date for Amazon Prime Day 2021 is yet to be announced, various third-party merchants have already been preparing for the highly anticipated eCommerce event. Many FBA sellers are expecting similar results in terms of revenue to that of Prime Day 2020.
In retrospect, the Amazon Prime Day event last year was a great success. Amazon even shared that Prime Day 2020 “marked the two biggest days ever for small and medium businesses” on Amazon worldwide.
Amazon Prime Day | Brief History and Timeline Review
Prime Day was first introduced as an Amazon key event back in 2015. It was one of the events added to the Amazon calendar as part of the 20th-anniversary celebration of the eCommerce giant.
Unlike the subsequent Prime Day events that lasted more than a day, the first Prime Day only lasted 24 hours with limited participating countries. Here are some Prime Day event highlights over the past years.
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Highlights of Prime Day 2015
This year marks the first Amazon Prime Day event, which was participated in by nine countries, namely the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, France, and Japan.
The first Prime Day event eclipsed the sales achievement of Amazon’s 2014 Black Friday despite being the biggest Black Friday ever at the time. A record-breaking of more than 34.4 million items were ordered globally, translating into 398 items being ordered per second. Amazon FBA sellers enjoyed nearly 300% growth in terms of unit sales during the said event.
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Highlights of Prime Day 2016
Prime Day 2016 was another success for Amazon and its third-party merchants. FBA sellers offering deals to Prime members observed orders nearly tripling during the event. It was reported that more than 1 million pairs of shoes and 2 million toys were sold during the event. Fire TV & tablet, along with Alexa-enabled devices, were likewise in demand globally.
In the 2016 Prime Day event, Belgium was also included. Thus making a total of 10 participating countries for Amazon Prime Day.
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Highlights of Prime Day 2017
Prime Day 2017 saw more than a 50% increase of purchases from Prime members as compared to Prime Day 2016. Some of the most popular purchases include Echo Dot and Instant Pot DUO80. During this Prime Day sale, Mexico and China were added to the growing number of participating countries. In the same year, customer orders via the Amazon App likewise doubled, with millions of customers using the app on Prime Day.
Such a drastic increase in Amazon Prime Day activities, engagement, and sales can be attributed to Amazon extending the Prime Day event for this year from the usual 24 hours to 30 hours.
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Highlights of Prime Day 2018
The 2018 Prime Day event was a global success for Amazon, with more than 100 million products sold worldwide. In the same year, small to medium-sized businesses experienced more than $1.5 billion in sales. The top categories for Prime Day 2018 included the Toys, Beauty, PCs and computer accessories, Apparel, and Kitchen categories. For each category, it was reported that more than 5 million Amazon items were sold.
The success of the 2018 Amazon Prime Day was attributable to the increased timeframe of the event. Instead of 30 hours, Amazon opted to make the 2018 Prime Day a 36-hour event.
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Highlights of Prime Day 2019
The 2019 Prime Day marked the first time Amazon decided to hold the Prime Day event for 48 hours. And a total of 18 countries participated during this Prime Day sale. The extended shopping hours resulted in another record-breaking day for Amazon with more than one million deals exclusively for Prime members. Sales surpassed both the previous Cyber Monday and Black Friday events combined.
The purchased items during 2019’s Prime Day event varied from devices to grocery items. Some top-selling deals included blueberries, organic strawberries, red cherries, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote, and Echo Dot.
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Highlights of Prime Day 2020
There were many challenges experienced and changes implemented during Amazon Prime Day 2020. The primary reason behind such changes was the disruption of the global economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the major changes made by Amazon was the postponement of the Prime Day event. Historically, Prime Day is held in July, but due to the threat of the Coronavirus, the tech giant decided to move Prime Day to October 2020.
However, despite the pandemic, Amazon Prime Day 2020 was a huge success, surpassing $3.5 billion in sales across 19 countries. The event brought huge revenue for third-party merchants, the majority of which was composed of small-medium-sized entrepreneurs.
Some of the top-selling categories for FBA sellers included Health Care, Nutrition & Wellness, and Wireless Accessories.
Amazon Prime Day 2021 Schedule | Significant Dates To Note
Amazon is yet to release details about Amazon Prime Day 2021. Currently, there are rumors that Prime Day 2021 might be moved again, just like last year. It is believed that Prime Day 2021 will commence in June. The likelihood of Prime Day 2021 happening in June this year is plausible, especially since Amazon’s Second Quarter 2021 Guidance “assumes that Prime Day occurs in second quarter 2021.”
Additionally, CNET also reported that this year’s Prime Day event will likely take place “in June this year — not July like in years past, not October like in 2020.”
However, the reports circulating online should be taken with a grain of salt. Until Amazon has officially announced the definite Prime Day 2021 schedule, everything is still subject to change.
Dates to Consider When Preparing for Prime Day 2021
Another indicator that Amazon Prime Day will be held on a much earlier date is the recently released FBA inventory shipment schedule. Amazon encourages sellers to allow extra time to ship their Prime Day stocks.
To keep your FBA inventory shipments on schedule, here are the Prime Day FBA inventory cut-off deadlines for 2021.
- May 31: United States
- June 1: Australia and Mexico
- June 6: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom.
- June 7: the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia
- June 13: Japan
Note: FBA inventory cut-off deadlines for Amazon Canada and Amazon India were not posted due to the postponement of Prime Day Sale in the said countries because of concerns about COVID-19.
What Should Sellers Anticipate on Amazon Prime Day 2021?
The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed reshaped the shopping behavior and experience of consumers worldwide. It is best to prepare your Amazon business for the upcoming Prime Day 2021 event in view of such changes.
Here are some salient points you need to consider to adjust your Prime Day strategy adequately:
Consumer Outlook
Based on Jungle Scout’s Consumer Trends Report for the first quarter of 2021, 74% of consumers search products on Amazon rather than Google or Bing. Additionally, Jungle Scout also shared that 42% of survey respondents plan to shop on Prime Day 2021, while 32% stated an inclination to participate in such an event.
Consumer Spending Trends
Another factor to consider this coming Prime Day 2021 is the spending trends of consumers. Understanding consumer spending habits amidst the pandemic will help you make some adjustments to your Amazon inventory, listings, and pricing.
In 2020 alone, more than 40% of survey respondents reduced their spending. With that in mind, introducing discount deals and coupons would be a great marketing approach to entice shoppers.
Consumer Mindset
With the relentless effort of world governments to achieve normalcy through vaccination campaigns, more and more people are becoming hopeful that things will get back to normal. In line with such a mindset, it is best to anticipate that demands for Amazon products that were negatively affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantine will increase.
Fashion apparels, formal attires, party supplies, outdoor gear, and travel accessories are likely to attract consumers. The majority of these consumers are highly interested in engaging in daily outings such as family gatherings and other outdoor activities.
Preparing for Amazon Prime Day 2021 | What Amazon Sellers Should Do.
Apart from anticipating consumers’ outlook and shopping behavior to prepare your business this Amazon Prime Day 2021, it would also help to consider the technicalities involved in the business.
To prepare your store and overall Prime Day campaign, here are some helpful tips:
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Optimize Your Product Details
It is not enough for customers to find your product on organic search. You should also present them a compelling offer through effective product detail page entries. The typical product details include your product images, pricing, bullet points, variation, and description.
To improve your product details, you should use enticing product images. Additionally, you should not simply copy and paste the generic description of the product found on the manufacturer’s website. Try to add something unique about the product. Present essential details about the product, especially its color, dimension, and variations. When it comes to pricing, research your competition to develop a compelling price point.
When using bullet points for the product detail page, Amazon provided guidelines for you to follow.
- Key product features should be highlighted, including age-appropriateness, country of origin, dimensions, product condition, contents, and skill level
- The order of highlighting product features should be consistent across other products
- Always capitalize the first letter of each bullet point
- Do not include ending punctuations, and write with sentence fragments
- Promotional and pricing information should not be included in the bullet points
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Optimize Your Product Presentation
The best way to present your Amazon product is through images and videos. That is why Amazon encourages every seller to at least have six images and one video for each listing. The general standard for images that Amazon requires is that they should be attractive, clear, and informative. These images should help customers evaluate your product.
The image that appears on the search result or main image, should contain your product on a white background. Succeeding images should showcase the product being used in a relevant environment, different angles, and features.
To know more about specific Amazon product image guidelines, you can CLICK HERE. Similarly, below is a video presentation prepared by Amazon Imaging to help improve your photos.
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Optimize Your Pricing
Amazon Prime Day is a highly competitive event, with competitors making constant price adjustments during the event. In order to offer competitive pricing to customers and gain Amazon Buy Box in the process, you should implement a reliable pricing strategy. Relying solely on the lowest-price appeal will only result in retaliatory price slashing and a precipitous decline of profit margin.
If you want to avoid Amazon price wars and obtain Buy Box, using an Amazon repricer will help you achieve this. In particular, using an AI repricer will automate price adjustments based on essential factors such as competitor behavior and price changes. Thus, giving you an edge over competitors.
If you want to learn more about automatic repricing, check the video below.
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Maximize Promotion Opportunities
What makes Amazon unique from other eCommerce platforms is the solid advertising and marketing capabilities it offers to sellers. The main goal of these services is to increase visibility and sales. Since there are a wide array of Amazon ads to choose from, we’ve highlighted the most relevant promotional opportunities for the Prime Day event:
- Product Bundle
Product bundling is another marketing technique that will drive Amazon shoppers to purchase more products. This strategy simply requires sellers to be creative in grouping together relevant items and selling them as a single unit for one price.
Some of the known benefits of product bundling include increased average order value, decreased marketing costs, and reduced inventory waste, as bundling can help clear out dead stock.
- Sponsored Ads
Sponsored Brands and Products are the top advertising solutions that sellers can take advantage of for the Prime Day event.
Sponsored Products are simply ads for individual product listings that will appear within search result pages and on the product detail pages.
On the other hand, a Sponsored Brand will help you showcase your brand and product portfolio through the appearance of your brand logo, custom headline, and selected products on Amazon search result pages.
- Coupons
Another way of boosting your Amazon Prime Day 2021 sales is through coupons. You can offer discounts for a single or set of products in your inventory to entice customers to purchase your items during Prime Day.
The power of coupons should not be underestimated, especially since it is projected that 145.3 million Americans will use digital coupons this year. Furthermore, shoppers view coupons as an opportunity to save money.
- Lightning Deals
An alternative to coupons would be lightning deals, a time-bound promotional offer. Discounted items are featured for limited hours, usually around 4 to 12 hours.
The main criteria for making your products eligible for Deals is to have at least five Seller Feedback Ratings per month and an overall rating of at least 3.5-stars.
What to do With Leftover Inventory?
In some cases, Amazon Prime Day sellers may have leftover inventory items. Amazon offers some ways to deal with these items to avoid long-term storage fees.
Apart from bundling these leftover inventories with other saleable items, Amazon suggests (1) Considering Amazon Outlet, (2) Markdown of prices, and (3) Buyback negotiations with your suppliers.
Get it Right Today
Preparing your inventory, listing details, and overall Prime Day campaign is crucial for a successful Amazon Prime Day 2021. Additionally, if you wish to improve your Amazon business, the use of Amazon seller tools is also recommended.
