Jun 14, 2023
Written by
Shelby Petrie
Deals and discounts have always been strong incentives for consumers, but with this year’s rising inflation and interest rates, the deal-driven mindset has all but dominated the shopping experience.
That said, Prime Day is coming at a prime time, as consumers look to make the most of their spending in 2023.
Prime Day is an annual two-day event hosted by Amazon for its Prime subscribers. It began in 2015 to celebrate the company’s 20th birthday and continues to be a highly anticipated shopping event each year. The dates are kept under wraps until the weeks leading up to its occurrence. Prime Day 2023 is confirmed to take place July 11 - 12. With more than 173 million people in the US using Prime in 2023 (practically two-thirds of the population!), Prime Day is sure to be popular once again.
While inflation remains a heavy weight on the consumer’s wallet, there has been a slight glimmer of returning spend at the start of Q2. Consumer spending rose 0.8% MOM in April, after previously seeing virtually no upticks and, in some cases, even a negative change. Granted 0.8% is not going to sound any alarms, but it’s still a positive indication of some resilience and drive in the market.
Amazon is not immune to these economic impacts and is seeing softer growth as well. However, there are five product categories where the company is expected to have its share of total ecommerce sales increase slightly:
Health and personal care is Amazon’s largest growing category. It made up just 7.4% of their sales in 2020 but is projected to reach 11.0% by 2024. This highlights the current trend of consumers purchasing more essential goods online these days.
Growth this Prime Day may be more muted than in years past, but there are still plenty of ways for advertisers to unlock success. In addition to reviewing your past performance data (both advertisers and publishers can use our Peak Shopping & Holiday Analysis Dashboard in Insights to easily review previous Prime Day performance), we recommend these reliable affiliate strategies:
In a survey, 67% of consumers reported having intentions of buying items on sale and 53% reported that inflation will have a moderate to significant impact on their spending this year. Brands will need to keep this consumer sentiment in mind when trying to capitalize on this year’s Prime Day halo effect.
According to eMarketer, in 2023 over 66% of the population is purchasing via their mobile devices, and 77% of consumers are shopping digitally. Mobile shopping is on a steady rise and social platforms play a large part in this. TikTok is taking the Gen Z market by storm and Amazon has even rolled out a new TikTok-like product discovery feature on its app.
At the end of the day, shoppers are feeling the pinch of rising costs and are looking for flexible shopping and payment options that suit their needs. Affiliate is omnipresent in the omnichannel customer journey, making it easy to find a solution that fits any shape or size.
According to Mintel, over half of consumers are shopping both online and in-store. Try weaving offerings into your affiliate program such as Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store (BOPIS), text-to-shop, scan-and-go checkout, and more.
There may not be an exact science when it comes to mastering ecommerce amidst economic uncertainty, but there are certainly ways that brands can prepare and proactively adjust to come out on top. Prime Day will remain an annual shopping pillar for brands looking to promote around peak seasonality and with these affiliate strategies at the forefront, performance is primed for success.
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