How Important Is Prime Day This Year for Non Essential Brands?

This year, Prime Day is going to bring in the largest audience it’s ever had following the trend of sales rising around 40% YOY. In the midst of a global pandemic, Prime Members rose from 59% to 67% according to an RBC survey and this represents a huge opportunity for brands to capitalize on.

Typically, this tentpole eCommerce event takes place in July with a goal of kickstarting the second half of the year during a slow quarter.

But rumor has it that this year’s annual Prime Day is being postponed until October. Will this affect their expected surge in visits? The data says otherwise.

Bar graph showing Amazon Prime Sales from 2015-2019.

Prime Day is Growing

Year-over-year, Amazon’s Prime Day has been on a dramatic upswing. Just last year, sales exceeded $7.16 billion in just 48-hours – more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined!

They’ve obviously been crushing it, but how does that stack up in a world where purchases are leaning more toward “essential items” like baby products, groceries, and pet supplies? Well, first of all, Amazon changed what they deem “essential”.

Our VP of Client Success at Channel Bakers, Sarah LaVallee, found that Amazon was giving parents a break by slapping the “essential” tag on categories like toys, puzzles, Nerf guns, and video games.

Adding these items to the list could help bring a boost to Prime Day in 2020.

Ramping Up the Non-Essentials

“Isn’t Prime Day just a good excuse to buy things you normally wouldn’t?”, you and every other consumer might ask. And while that’s not the official tagline, Prime Day is an excellent way for non-essential brands to meet their sales goals.

That’s why these brands rejoiced when Amazon did come through on their promise to place purchase orders for non-essential products a little earlier than they originally said they would. Initially, it was a full stop on non-essential PO’s until early April.

According to LaVallee, “We did start to see a lot of clients begin to receive POs that were in non-essential categories. Also around that time, shoppers were beginning to receive their non-essential item deliveries a little faster than previously promised.”

This is great news, especially for the 145MM new online shoppers since COVID-19 began and the 197MM loyal Amazonians.

Getting Ready for the Big Day

If there’s one key takeaway from this article, it’s that non-essential brands should be leveraging Amazon’s shopper purchase behavior data leading up to Prime Day. Develop those data-driven strategies people! It’ll help you hit your overall corporate sales goals, not just within Amazon.

Investing in Amazon’s ability to tie advertising closer to the point of sale will win over new and returning consumers. With that said, looking at Amazon, last year they invested over $100MM in advertising to drive traffic for Prime Day before the sales event.

Strategically it’s a no-brainer that non-essential brands consider combining incremental budget for Amazon Advertising with highly competitive price points as a great plan of attack to succeed during Q4 this year.

With Prime Day now taking place in October it kicks off holiday shopping early, followed by Black Friday and Cyber Week. Historically, October was a month where shoppers researched products but didn’t pull the trigger until Black Friday and Cyber Week.

It will be interesting to see how impactful Prime Day is in shifting consumer spending before Black Friday and Cyber Week.

We at Channel Bakers will be looking at Q4 quarantine shopping to give us new data and fresh insights going into 2021…but everyone’s focus should start with the big one: Prime Day.

Planning for Prime Day begins with shifting budget(s) to where the shopper is going be shopping the most this holiday season, and that’s eCommerce. Your strategy should include stronger pricing and promotions…and your brand should invest in a new way to stay top of mind with shoppers like getting on television screens and connected devices through Amazon OTT.

As a last thought, Tyler Speer, Channel Bakers’ EMEA Director of Business Development, stated, “Prime Day is going to be the best opportunity that you’ll likely have all year long to get back on track to hit your company’s sales goals by getting in front of the shopper where they are shopping the most.”

If you’d like to view Channel Bakers’ full discussion on how brands can “Prime the Pump” in preparation for Amazon, visit this link. To learn more about next steps for non essential brands towards Prime Day, contact our Advertising experts at Channel Bakers.

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