The smartest approach to Prime Day? Treat it as a lever for long-term growth, not a one-off event. Here’s how…
As our CEO, Andrew Banks, posted on LinkedIn, “Prime Day isn’t a strategy. It’s a trading moment.”
Every year, we see brands scrambling for Prime Day deals, discounts and ad space – chasing spikes in visibility and hoping for a short-term lift in sales.
But, without a more strategic and holistic lens, that rush rarely delivers meaningful, sustainable results.
So what do the smart Amazon brands do?
Here’s what we’ve learned from supporting ambitious brands across multiple Prime events…
Strategy always comes first
On its own, participation in a Prime Event isn’t a strategy – it’s a tool that should plug into your broader commercial and channel goals.
So, before you lock in any promotions, you should be asking, “What are we trying to achieve this year?” – are you:
- Driving margins?
- Building share in a high-growth category?
- Protecting retail pricing across your channels?
- Looking to offload overstock, or fund new product development?
Whatever your wider aims are, if Prime Day doesn’t support them, then it risks being an expensive distraction.
Think like a Trader, not a Marketer
Your competitors have already shown their hand in previous events – use that data to your advantage, because you’d be amazed just how revealing it can be.
Dig out last year’s Prime Day stats and look closely at:
- Which SKUs your competitors promoted.
- The types of offers they used – coupons? Lightning Deals? Price cuts?
- How deep their discounts went, and how long they ran.
- What happened next? Did they see positive changes to Best Seller Ranks or review velocity? What happened to their visibility and/or Sponsored Ad share?
- And after the event, did they hold onto their gains or did they fade fast?
All these answers are incredibly useful to your planning, and all the data you need is visible with the right tools.
Once it’s in your grasp, you can use it to build a plan backed by evidence, not assumption.
Be honest about the Business Problem you’re solving
As Andrew says, “start with the problem, not the promotion”.
Prime Day’s usefulness to you comes when you approach it with intention, and that means defining your challenge first.
Do you need to:
- Shift slow-moving inventory?
- Boost short-term cash flow?
- Launch a new SKU into a crowded market?
- Fend off aggressive discounting from a key competitor?
Yes, Prime Day can help – but only if your deals are structured to meet your main challenges head-on.
Your Goals and Amazon’s are not the same
Don’t participate just because Amazon wants you to, because your goals are not the same.
Amazon wants volume, engagement and big, headline-grabbing numbers – but you need profitability, long-term visibility and a customer base you can build on.
So if you’re getting involved, do it because it’s a move that aligns with your growth strategy and your commercial realities.
The Bottom Line
Smart brands treat Prime Day like any other trading opportunity – participation needs to align with their goals, their moves need to be informed by the best data and the execution needs to be precise and purposeful.
This way, you can make Prime Day work for your brand, not just Amazon’s revenue targets – and that’s when the real results kick in for you.
Need an expert hand to build an intentional, data-led Prime Day strategy? Our award-winning team is here to help you plan with commercial clarity and confidence – get in touch today.