Here we go again! After months of speculation, Amazon officially announced an unprecedented second Prime Shopping Event that will take place October 11–12, 2022. Dubbed the “Prime Early Access Sale,” this two-day event is open to Amazon Prime subscribers and will kick off the holiday shopping season early with deals on everyday essentials and big-ticket items. With the event taking place in less than two weeks, brands have a very short runway to work with, so we’ve outlined five key strategies that can be actioned quickly to drive performance during the event.

1. FINALIZE AND SUBMIT PROMOTIONS

The deadline for submitting deals—including Spotlight Deals, Best Deals, and Lightning Deals—has already passed, but brands interested in running a Prime Day promotion still have solid options. Vendors can submit a Vendor Powered Coupon (VPC) offering a discount of their choice on some or all of their products. Sellers may also submit Coupons, as well as Percentage Off and Buy One Get One offers, but our recommended promotion is a Prime Exclusive Discount (PED). PEDs are price discounts available to Prime members and are merchandized with strike-through pricing on the product detail page, as well as within search results and on the Today’s Deals page. During this year’s July Prime Event, PEDs received similar merchandising to Spotlight Deals for Amazon’s most exciting offers.

STELLA TIP: Entice shoppers to purchase by offering at least 20% off all promoted products.

2. ENSURE PROMOTED PRODUCTS ARE FULLY STOCKED AND RETAIL-READY

The Prime Early Access Sale kicks off soon, leaving brands with few options for increasing inventory on low coverage or out-of-stock items. When determining which products to promote, consider current weeks of coverage and eliminate items that do not have sufficient stock to support increased demand during the event. We recommend a minimum of 4–6 weeks to ensure that products remain in stock both during and after Prime Day.

Once your list of promoted products is finalized, review product detail pages to identify areas of improvement. Retail-ready items should have fully optimized titles, bullet points, and product descriptions, at least five high-quality images (product shots, lifestyle images, and infographics), and a minimum of 15 reviews with an average star rating of 3.5 or more. Additional optimizations that drive increased conversion include A+ content and product or brand videos, both of which can increase sales by up to 15%. Retail readiness typically takes at least six weeks to complete—since time is of the essence, focus on promoted products and detail page enhancements that can be implemented quickly, such as optimized titles and image and video uploads.

STELLA TIP: Your product title and main image are the first things shoppers see when searching via desktop or mobile—make sure both are optimized!

3. HIGHLIGHT FEATURED DEALS WITHIN YOUR BRAND STORE

Ahead of Prime Day, update your Amazon Brand Store to showcase products on promotion for the event. This can be as simple as creating a “Featured Products” page with a product grid displaying all discounted items. We recommend positioning this page directly after the homepage for increased visibility.

4. UPDATE ADVERTISING STRATEGY

The Prime Day lead-in period has already begun; however, it’s not too late to adjust your advertising strategy to drive optimal performance over the next few weeks. Review your Sponsored Ads strategy to ensure that all campaign types are live, including Sponsored Product, Sponsored Brand, and Sponsored Display. Next, create new Prime Day-specific Sponsored Brand campaigns that drive to your new “Featured Products” brand store page. These campaigns should feature your promoted products and have start and end dates that align with your offer. Implement more competitive budgets and bids during the Prime Day lead-up period, and closely monitor performance during the 48-hour event so you can adjust to remain competitive.

5. DRIVE EXTERNAL TRAFFIC TO AMAZON

If your brand plans on promoting Prime Day via email, social, press, or PR, drive external traffic directly to the “Featured Products” brand store page using Amazon-generated source tags. These allow you to track key metrics like views, orders, and sales.

The Prime Early Access Sale will be here before you know it, but don’t let the short timeline stress you out. Tackle what you can ahead of the event, and use these five strategies to focus your efforts where they’ll have the biggest impact on driving a winning Prime Day Event.

At Stella Rising, we excel at driving growth via Amazon, marketplace, and retail media. Connect with us if you are interested in enhancing your brand’s strategy across these digital landscapes.