Amazon Prime Day: The Complete Guide for Sellers

[Updated 2023]

It’s official: Amazon Prime Day is coming July 11 and 12. 

Prime Day is one of the biggest events in e-commerce each year. Amazon says Prime members purchased more than 300 million items over the two days in 2022, and sales across our partner brands grew substantially. For years, we’ve helped them successfully navigate – and take advantage of – this annual mid-Summer influx of shoppers on Amazon. To make the most of the 2023 event, you too must have a fully optimized presence on Amazon. 

Even if you’re not currently working with us to build your brand on Amazon, we’ve put together some insights, based on our extensive experience, to help you understand where to focus your time and budget, highlight some of the important deadlines to keep in mind, and explain just how to stand out from the crowd on Prime Day.  

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day is a highly anticipated annual sales event exclusively for Amazon Prime members. Launched in 2015 to celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary, it typically takes place over two days and features deep discounts on various products, from electronics to fashion to home goods.

For shoppers, the allure of Prime Day lies in its exceptional deals and offers. It’s often considered a mid-year counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The exclusivity of being a Prime member adds an element of excitement, as these deals are available only to this specific group. It’s also an excellent opportunity for customers to find significant savings on big-ticket items they’ve been eyeing or to stock up on everyday essentials.

For sellers, Prime Day is a golden opportunity to increase sales, attract new customers, and clear out inventory. The surge in site traffic during this period can lead to increased visibility for their products and their brand. Sellers often experience a halo effect, with sales remaining high even after the event, as many new customers tend to return. A recent Amazon survey showed that 53% of shoppers were likely or highly likely to repurchase after Prime Day.

Moreover, Prime Day can provide a significant boost for small- and medium-sized businesses selling on Amazon. Amazon often promotes these businesses during the event, providing them with increased exposure.

Amazon Prime Day is a win-win situation for both buyers and sellers. Shoppers love it because they feel they’re getting deep discounts on products they would buy anyway, particularly on Amazon brands. For brands, it means a lot more eyes on products and a lot more competition to win those views.

What kind of deals are offered on Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day is a bonanza of discounts and deals, offering a wide variety of reduced prices across all categories. Lightning Deals are one of the key deals you’ll encounter during this event. These sales offer a specific percentage off an item, but they’re time-bound and only available until all the promotional discounts are claimed.

In addition, Amazon also offers Prime Exclusive Discounts, which are special deals specifically available to Amazon Prime members. These can range from electronics to fashion to home goods and typically offer significant discounts.

Another standard Prime Day promotion is the Deal of the Day. As the name suggests, these deals only last for one day and cover a specific list of items. Similarly, Spotlight Deals feature discounts on popular brands and top-selling items and are available until the end of Prime Day or until the product is sold out.

In the days leading up to Prime Day, Amazon often rolls out Early Access Deals. These provide Prime members with the opportunity to snag great deals before the official start of the event. In addition, Amazon features Prime Day Launches, which are new and special-edition items exclusively released for Prime Day, giving Prime members a chance to be among the first to purchase these products.

Amazon also typically leads with deep discounts on its own tech products, such as Echo speakers, Fire tablets, and Kindle e-readers, during Prime Day. You’ll also find savings on Amazon’s services like Audible, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Kindle Unlimited. 

And, of course, you may offer your own discounts or coupons on Prime Day, just don’t refer to them as Prime Day Deals.

How do I sign up for Prime Day?

As an Amazon seller, participating in Prime Day can require advanced planning and the ability to meet Amazon’s stringent requirements. For Lightning Deals, the deadline for submissions has already passed. If you want to join next year, submissions usually open three months in advance. For other deals, you need to meet these criteria:

• The item must be in new condition, nationally available, Prime shipping eligible FBA product.
• The Prime Exclusive Discount must meet all regular eligibility criteria.
• The product must have at least a 3.5-star rating or be a launch product with no rating.
• The discount must be at least 20% and no more than 80% off the non-prime member, non-promotional price. The discounted price must be the lowest in the last 30 days, including all deals, promotional and sales pricing.
• Your Seller Feedback Rating for the last year must be at least 4, where available. If you don’t have enough recent feedback, this will be aggregated from all your sales.

Is Prime Day right for me?

With the incredible increase in organic traffic on Prime Day, there’s almost certainly a way to use the event to help grow your business. But it’s possible that signing up to participate in one of the “official” deals is not in your best interest. 

For example, you may be able to ride the wave of increased organic traffic while providing a minimal discount. By increasing investment in your Sponsored Ads and expanding competitor keyword targeting in the two weeks leading up to Prime Day, you may have just as much success. Additionally, instead of participating in a Lightning Deal, you might try launching coupons and redirecting the fees you would have spent on the Lightning Deal to advertising those instead. 

With any promotion, Prime Day or otherwise, it’s essential to go in with realistic expectations of what you might get out of it. Not everybody has margins large enough to endure a 20% discount. Small- and medium-sized sellers should carefully weigh all options before deciding on a course of action. Consulting with an Amazon partner like Amify can also help you navigate these strategy and advertising decisions to ensure you’ve thought through every angle.

How can I make the most of Prime Day?

Capitalizing on Amazon Prime Day means looking ahead to the promotional event to understand the opportunities and fortify your business in advance of the surge of shoppers. In some cases, such as FBA inventory, the deadline has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean all is lost. There is still time to maximize some of the benefits of Prime Day for your business, as well as an opportunity to get an early start on Prime Day 2024. Below is a summary of the timeline and steps we advise clients to follow. 

4-6 weeks prior to Prime Day: Have an inventory plan ready

Remember, you can only sell what you have in stock, so getting your inventory right is hugely important. Unfortunately, the Prime Day inventory inbound shipping cut-off was June 15, so anything you hope to sell on Prime Day would need to have been checked in to Amazon by then. 

As always, there’s a careful balance to strike between having a surplus of product you then need to get rid of over the summer and not enough product to meet Prime Day demand, thereby losing sales. Now is the time to assess your current inventory levels, calculate a forecast and build your ship plans.

2 weeks before Prime Day: Concentrate on building awareness and driving brand consideration 

The more eyes on your product, the more likely your Prime Day will be a success. Increase investment in Sponsored Brand Ads, expand competitor conquesting, drive listing views for remarketing and consider activating DSP campaigns to take advantage of the increased traffic. 

At the same time, consider whether your listings and advertising creative could better support this brand awareness drive. Posts allow your brand to broadcast short, social media style snippets to followers and currently, they’re still free to use. 

Consider creating a batch and scheduling them to go live at least a couple of weeks before Prime Day. Remember that any explicit mention of a promotion, Prime Day or a numerical discount will violate Amazon’s moderation policy. As a bonus, if you have ten live posts, the content will show on Posts placement on your Product Detail Pages. 

1 week before Prime Day: Submit a special Prime Day version of your Brand Storefront

Or at least build a promotions page. As with posts, don’t explicitly call this a Prime Day page 

or feature numerical discounts. Don’t leave this until the last minute, or your new creative almost certainly won’t make it through the approvals process in time. Schedule it to publish a day before Prime Day with an end date that reverts your store to normal within 24 hours of Prime Day finishing.

On Prime Day: Focus on maximizing conversions and supporting high-volume products

You might consider investing in high-converting category terms against high-volume and/or promoted products. Launch your pre-planned coupons as needed to offer discounts.

Be prepared to provide excellent customer service. This includes responding promptly to customer inquiries, swiftly addressing issues, and ensuring a smooth purchasing process. A positive shopping experience can lead to good reviews and repeat customers.

Finally, monitoring performance in real-time and making necessary adjustments can help sellers maximize their success on Prime Day. This might involve tweaking ad campaigns, adjusting prices, or responding to customer feedback.

Bottom Line: What does it take to win on Prime Day?

When it comes to winning on Amazon Prime Day, we believe the path is influenced by a handful of Do’s and Don’ts that every Amazon Seller should know and follow.

Do Plan Ahead: Start preparing for Prime Day well in advance by analyzing past sales data, forecasting demand, and stocking up on inventory.

Don’t Ignore Inventory Management: Running out of stock during Prime Day can lead to missed sales opportunities and negatively impact your seller ranking. So, don’t underestimate the importance of proper inventory management.

Do Optimize Your Listings: Make sure your product listings are optimized with high-quality images, detailed descriptions, and relevant keywords to improve visibility and attract customers.

Don’t Neglect Marketing: Don’t rely solely on the increased traffic during Prime Day. Promote your deals on social media, email newsletters, and other marketing channels to reach a wider audience.

Do Offer Competitive Deals: Price your products competitively and offer attractive deals to stand out among the competition and attract more customers.

Don’t Ignore Customer Feedback: Don’t disregard negative reviews or feedback. Instead, use them as an opportunity to improve your products and services.

Do Use Amazon Advertising Tools: Leverage Amazon’s advertising tools like Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands to increase the visibility of your products and drive more traffic to your listings.

Don’t Overlook Post-Prime Day Analysis: Don’t forget to analyze your performance after Prime Day to identify what worked and what didn’t. This will provide valuable insights for future sales events.

Do Provide Excellent Customer Service: Respond promptly to customer inquiries, resolve issues swiftly, and ensure a smooth purchasing process to enhance the customer experience. 

Win every day with Amify

On Prime Day or any other day on Amazon, you need to make sure that every function of your Amazon sales process is working together holistically. To succeed means your inventory and logistics, strategy, and media and advertising functions are all working hand-in-hand, that your product detail pages are up-to-date and looking their creative best, and your account is in good standing. 

At Amify, we work as an extension of your business, partnering with you at every step of your Amazon sales journey, including on Prime Day and in the weeks leading up to it. Sound like the support your business needs? Let’s talk!