1 What is Prime Day?

As the name suggests, Prime Day is an event offering exclusive discounts and promotions to Amazon Prime members. Launched in 2015 to commemorate Amazon’s 20th anniversary, it has become a hallmark retail event held each year in the second or third week of July. Prime Day sales hit new highs annually, with the 2024 event surpassing last year’s by 11%, reaching $14.2 billion.

To prevent Amazon from monopolizing July, other platforms like Walmart, Target, and TikTok Shop also hold promotions this month. However, with 78% of customers participating in these July retail events choosing to buy from Amazon⁽¹⁾, no other event seems poised to challenge Amazon’s dominance.

Given that Amazon Prime Day is so ingrained in customers' minds as July's premier event, shoppers often pre-fill their carts (as of 2023, 100% of Prime Day buyers were aware of the event in advance⁽²⁾). This underscores the need for our products to catch the eyes of as many customers as possible before Prime Day. So, how do sellers prepare for this period? From D-60 to D-Day, let me share my tasks for this year’s Prime Day.

1. Numerator, July 8, 2024, https://www.numerator.com/press/more-than-40-of-americans-expected-to-shop-amazon-prime-day-2024-numerator-reports/
2. Numerator, July 8, 2024, https://www.numerator.com/press/more-than-40-of-americans-expected-to-shop-amazon-prime-day-2024-numerator-reports/

2 D-60 Planning and Thorough Checks

As the sun blazed more fiercely day by day, the looming shadow of Prime Day paradoxically brought a chill. This is the time to formulate on-site and off-site marketing plans for Prime Day. With a mix of apprehension—"Can I accomplish all this?"—and excitement—"If I do, it will be a massive success!"—I begin by checking and refining essential elements one by one.

Tasks are organized according to each brand's circumstances, and each product’s detail page is scrutinized. Improvements in SEO and imagery that boost click-through rates by 0.01% and purchase conversion rates by 1% might seem negligible. Still, they make a significant difference during high-traffic periods like Prime Day. Therefore, we update the product detail pages to present the best possible appearance to customers who find our products during the event.

3 D-45 Stocking Up

Even if you shout, "The boss has gone mad!" to draw customers in, it’s futile if you run out of stock. Just as important as optimizing everything is ensuring sufficient inventory in Amazon’s FBA⁽³⁾ warehouses. Since stockpiles surge during peak times like Prime Day, Amazon provides a deadline for sending inventory to guarantee it’s available for sale. Usually, it would be best to ship your inventory about a month before Prime Day to ensure its availability. Thus, at D-45, I review the inventory status of all products, forecast Prime Day sales, and dispatch inventory to FBA warehouses. Of course, depending on sales trends, some products may sell out quickly even after this, so weekly inventory checks and shipments are essential.

3. Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) is a system where sellers send their products to Amazon's warehouses, and Amazon handles the entire order fulfillment process on their behalf.

4 D-30 Maximizing Exposure by Any Means

As mentioned earlier, Amazon customers know that Prime Day occurs in July, so they begin adding items to their carts. Hence, it’s crucial to maximize product exposure starting now. There are various ways to increase visibility, but let’s divide them into 'paid' and 'free' methods for simplicity.

Until recently, our focus was on ads with high conversion rates. However, as Prime Day approaches, we must invest in exposure-driven advertisements. These include 'Sponsored Brands' and 'Sponsored Display' ads. Both types allow the use of images and videos and can be displayed on search results and product detail pages. The key distinction is that 'Sponsored Display' ads have a broader targeting range and can appear outside Amazon.

'Sponsored Display' ads enable audience targeting based on shopping habits—such as customers interested in skincare products or those who primarily purchase discounted items. They can also target based on lifestyle factors, like whether someone recently moved or has children. These ads follow the audience across various external sites, much like those repetitive ads you eventually click on social media. As we gear up for Prime Day, we significantly increase our investment in Display ads compared to usual.

There are also ways to boost exposure without spending money. One method is through 'Virtual Bundles.' Even if you don’t have actual bundled products, you can create a bundle-like detail page that Amazon will ship together. This function is not only beneficial for conversion but also for increasing exposure.

Creating a virtual bundle will appear in search results like another product and be displayed as another option on the product detail page. This prevents other brands' products from being exposed and allows us to show product B to customers who came to see product A.

Last year, virtual bundles were not visible on mobile devices. With bundles now showing on mobile this year, we expected to leverage their potential during Prime Day fully. Our brand, managed by our Amazon team, sold over 3,000 products through these bundles, meeting our expectations. The 'Virtual Bundle' is my favorite Amazon feature.

Another free feature is Amazon 'Posts.' Like Instagram, Amazon 'Posts' display square content and captions. As long as content is uploaded, these posts are visible on the brand store and product detail pages, creating exposure.

5 D-15 Promoting Discounts Loudly and Removing Resellers

Numerous deal sites, such as Slickdeals and Dealnews, feature discounted products from various retailers in the U.S. Posting on these sites often involves paying a fee, so we arrange this two weeks before Prime Day. Additionally, we seek ways to naturally expose our products by posting content on community-based social media platforms like Reddit.

We remove resellers to ensure our products fully benefit from these on/off-site efforts. Amazon is an open market where multiple sellers can attach themselves to a single product. Only one seller will prominently appear, capturing over 80% of purchases, a situation called 'winning the Buybox.'

To secure the Buybox completely, we employ various methods to eliminate resellers before Prime Day. This often involves purchasing the product and reporting the reseller for violating Amazon’s sales policies. While there is a momentary pang of guilt about affecting someone’s business, the satisfaction of seeing a reseller removed is unparalleled.

4. ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number, which is a unique number assigned by Amazon to each product.

6 D-DAY: The Day Everything Must Be Perfect

The day has finally arrived. Prime Day begins at 4 PM Korean time, so the morning is spent ensuring everything we've prepared is adequately implemented. We turn off ongoing discounts to prevent overlap and increase advertising budgets to ensure ads run smoothly all day. We check our brand store, scheduled to go live with Prime Day, for any issues and hurriedly upload any content that cannot be pre-scheduled.

At 4 PM, when Prime Day kicks off just after midnight Amazon time, customers eagerly place orders. Like how we indulge in retail therapy during our commutes, Amazon sees a spike in orders during these times. To ensure our products catch the eye of these shoppers, I forgo my sleep. I constantly check inventory to swiftly address any stockouts and monitor for resellers siphoning our traffic. Additionally, I post in communities like Reddit to align with their morning browsing times.

After two days of this, my journey to deliver a day of great deals to customers concludes.