With all the hype surrounding Prime Day, it can be easy for brands to feel like participation is a must – but is it really? We asked our experts…
The simple answer? It’s great for some – but it’s not for everyone.
And just because you’ve done it before? It doesn’t necessarily follow that you should do it again.
Like all things Amazon, whether your brand should take part in Prime Day is like any other trading decision – it depends on your individual situation at that particular time; your category, strategy, position and objectives.
Control your own sales destiny
In fact Becca Woollin, our brilliant Account Director, is firmly of the view that Prime Day isn’t as much of a big deal to consumers as brands might believe.
For Becca, those seeking peak periods to drive sales uplift should look to Q4 – “it’s all about Black Friday,” she explains.
But actually, she’d prefer brands to seize their own destiny.
“Rather than relying on big seasonal peaks from Amazon, understand how you can make the most out of what’s happening in your category.
“Be aware of what’s happening around your competitors – how often are they discounting, what levels are they dropping to – and then you can start to create your own peak periods.
“They might not be as intense from an influx of traffic perspective but you will start to be able to track and pinpoint exactly how to manipulate your category – and your competitors.”
Amazon? It’s just another retail channel
For our CEO Andrew Banks, this just goes to underline something many brands forget or misunderstand – Amazon is just another retail channel.
That means that trade planning is key, just as it is for the other sales channels in your business.
“There’s a bit of a fallacy that Amazon needs to be traded differently to other sales channels,” he explains.
But Amazon Prime events, whatever name they’re given, are just another date to add to your trade planner – the same as generic events like Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day and category-specific events like Back to School.
“For me, go back to good old-fashioned retail trade planning and ask what the trade calendar is like for your category and retail e-commerce as a whole – then build your activity and plans around that.”
And if you are doing Prime Day? Think *how* you should be doing Prime Day
“I would be asking questions about how you should participate in some of these Amazon-specific events,” adds Andrew.
“Do you need to discount? There’s going to be a big influx of traffic coming in on Prime Day, do you want to just take advantage of that?
As ever, for the Venture Forge team, these decisions come down to one crucial question – “What’s the impact on your bottom line?” If you’d like our expert help to answer that for your brand, get in touch today.