Capitalize on Amazon Prime Day—in Your Shopping Cart

Amazon Prime Day began as a promotional holiday in 2015 to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the ecommerce giant. Each year the holiday has grown more successful. In fact, Prime Day last year (July 12, 2016) was Amazon’s largest sales day in the entire history of the company.

Competition with Amazon aside, data shows that other ecommerce brands were able to capitalize on the hype and leverage the affiliate channel for sales increases during that same time period last year. Advertisers in the CJ network—across all categories—saw a slight revenue increase on Prime Day.

The exact date of Prime Day 2017 is still unknown, but speculations are that it will be around the same mid-July timeframe. In anticipation of the event, we’re offering a few ways that you can leverage that consumer excitement through the affiliate channel to drive buyers to YOUR shopping cart this summer:

• Run Heavy Promos after Prime Day: Last year advertisers saw jumps in sales and traffic in the two days leading up to Amazon Prime Day. While you could try your luck at competing with other pre-Prime Day offers, we suggest running heavy promos AFTER Prime Day to seize shoppers who are lingering.
• Big Brands Might Try to Directly Compete: Last year Walmart directly competed with Amazon Prime Day lowering Prices and offering a free 30-day trial on ShippingPass, their version of Prime. Walmart also launched a month-long "Rollbacks" promotion on July 1, and announced free shipping on all online orders through July 15. If you think your brand has what it takes to run with the big guns, shoppers may be willing to diversify their spend if the offers are compelling.
• Adapt Successful Offers to the Summer Season: If you had successful holiday offers or promos from other times of the year, use them again, but cater them to summer seasonal merchandise
• Play Up Shipping Deals: Internet shoppers expect shorter delivery windows at no extra cost. With Prime offering one-, two-, and sometimes same-day shipping, this is a promotional area that must not be overlooked.
• Leverage What Amazon CANNOT Provide:
  • In-Store Offers: Amazon doesn’t have brick and mortar stores at scale, and if you do, play that up. Leverage performance marketing to drive in-store offers that give people similar satisfaction of same-day delivery.
  • Unique Products: Believe it or not, there are still products or product categories that Amazon does NOT offer. Showcase those and combine them with margin neutral promotions.
  • Cash Back & Incentives: Collaborate with your loyalty partners to increase cash back or incentive levels as this is can be more valuable to some shoppers than a good bargain.

From whatever angle it is that you approach this opportunity, all signs point to a Prime Day 2017 that will be even more successful than last year. Be ready to capitalize on this excitement and drive shoppers to YOUR shopping cart. This year Prime Day will be on Tuesday, July 11, 2017.