1. Prime Day 2023 the biggest ever for Sellers, Consumers (and Amazon)
The biggest Prime Day event ever saw Sellers’ sales growth outpace Amazon’s retail business, saved Prime members $2.5 billion in deals and discounts and registered the single largest sales day in Amazon’s history…
This year saw Amazon offer more Prime Day deals than ever before in its history, and the rewards for all are clear now the final figures are out.
11 July 2023 goes down as the single largest day of sales that Amazon has ever seen, and smaller Sellers and Challenger brands have been among the biggest winners.
Down at the Forge…
Here at Venture Forge, we’ve seen our clients experience some remarkable results that defied conventional wisdom – unexpected outcomes from strategic decisions that we investigated in our most recent webinar.
Missed out? Don’t worry 🙂
Whether you took part in Prime Day or not, the webinar is full of fresh perspective and actionable insights – and you can catch up on it all here.
Yearning for more Prime Day stats? Here you go…
- Over the 2-day event, Prime members bought more than 375 million items worldwide
- Home, fashion and beauty were among the top-selling deal categories globally – Fire TV stick, LENEIGE Lip Glow Balm, Apple AirPods and Bissell Little Green Portable Deep Cleaner were among the top-selling deals globally
- Amazon report that some of their small business brands (including Caraway, True Classic, and TUSHY) increased average daily sales by more than 18x on 11 July compared to the days leading up to the event.
Useful links:
- Catch up on our webinar – Unlock the Secrets of Prime Day: Surprising Results from Strategic Choices
- Maximise your Profitability on Amazon
2. Amazon + Influencers = a Sales Dream Team?
Could your Amazon brand benefit from an influencer partnership? Let’s look at the tale of Anisha Gurung and her Amazon Drop…
Anisha Gurung is a London-based fashion influencer with 737k followers on TikTok (@nissheegg) and 302k on Instagram (nisshee_stylealbum).
After working with Amazon to create an exclusive Drop clothing range, it was agreed to make the Collection available for just 30 hours and, to maximise urgency and consumer desire for the items, Anisha kept the launch date secret, with only those following her able to receive an SMS notification when the drop went live.
The result?
The entire collection sold out in hours, with even some of those following Anisha unable to buy the pieces they wanted in time.
Such was the demand from Anita’s audience that she was inundated with comments from eager buyers who had missed out – including a stream of US buyers desperately looking for the collection on Amazon US, even though it was only available in the UK.
Now, this is a perfect partnership with a smart strategy that’s been executed impeccably.
But, with 55% of people telling Capterra they were more likely to buy from a brand that partners with an influencer they follow, there’s no doubt that influencer partnerships have the potential to reap big rewards for brands when done right.
Might an influencer partnership work for your brand?
The answer comes down to a few key questions:
Does your product range work for influencer marketing?
Fashion, lifestyle, food/cooking and health and wellness are the top 4 topics followed by Capterra’s survey respondents on social media (though their preferences vary depending on their generation).
How old is your ideal customer?
Younger generations are far more likely to follow influencers, so it’s important to take your ideal customer’s age into account.
84% of Gen Z respondents and 68% of Millennials told Capterra they follow influencers on social media – but only 27% of Gen X and 11% of Boomers said the same.
Can you find an influencer that aligns with your brand?
The trustworthiness and credibility of your chosen partner are crucial to protect your brand reputation. They and their content have to align with your brand personality and reflect its ideals and values.
Can you find an influencer who values quality over quantity?
You don’t want your brand to be just one of many.
And influencer marketing is just a small piece of the jigsaw…
Even given the potential of influencer marketing to boost your Amazon sales, it’s only a tiny part of the overall marketplace picture.
Capterra’s research also found that respondents rated recommendations from influencers below a number of more traditional advertising methods when choosing which they trusted more, with recommendations from friends/family (78%), brand websites (52%), TV ads (43%), search ads (37%) and online video ads (34%) ranking higher.
Influencer recommendations received 32% votes for “strongly or somewhat trust” (the same as social ads).
Yet it was also the method that was trusted least, with 36% saying they’re sceptical of the credibility of these recommendations.
This underlines not just how important it is to choose wisely, but also that it’s fundamental your brand reinforces any influencer activity with a strong and holistic Amazon strategy that does everything well.
Want to chat through with our experts? The team is on hand to help – click here to get in touch
3. Amazon ends FBA Small and Light in the US! We investigate (in case it rolls out here)
At the end of June, Amazon announced they are replacing US FBA Small and Light with a new programme called Low-Price FBA, effective in the US from 29 August 2023.
The change reduces the price threshold for eligible products back to $10 just 7 months after it was raised to $12.
And, although it offers some financial and delivery speed advantages to low-price items that were not already enrolled in the scheme, many US Small and Light Sellers will see their fees increase by an Amazon estimate of $0.30 per unit – a significant impact to a low-cost segment with the tightest of margins.
Who wins?
- US Sellers of low-price products who were not enrolled in the Small and Light scheme (but could have been, so were entitled to these savings but missing out) will save an estimated $0.77 savings on eligible products.
- Buyers of low-price products will receive them faster, with FBA fulfilment speeds.
Who loses?
- US Sellers using Small and Light with items priced below $10 will pay an average of $0.30 more per item (but their items will now ship with faster FBA fulfilment speeds).
- US Sellers in the $10 – $11.99 range will lose their current discounted rate.
What are the options for these US Sellers (and us, if Amazon roll this out here)?
Options are:
- Absorb the fee increase and operate with thinner margins.
- Resize your packaging to hit a lower size tier, making you able to ship more units per pallet and reduce shipping and storage costs. – Hike your prices to cover cost increases.
- Reduce your prices to meet any new low-price threshold.
Want to get your contingency plans in place?
Start by reading our blog on maximising your Amazon profitability, because eking every penny will not only help you mitigate the impact of changes like this, but is also essential to your marketplace success.
And then give our expert team a call and let’s design a bombproof Amazon strategy that protects your brand against this and other Amazon changes.
4. Did you catch Jake and Elfie’s Amazon Port Debrief?
Amazon took over the Port for a second time at Cannes Lions in June to talk all things Amazon Ads, and we sent Venture Forge PPC experts Jake Browett and Elfie Brocklehurst to bring back their key insights.
After taking a little time to digest what they learned, extract the fluff and gather what’s most useful for you, we’ve popped the lowdown of what’s coming next to the marketplace on our blog.
And of course, we’ve also looked at how we can make the most of upcoming changes and exciting innovations to drive your sales and boost your growth on Amazon.
As a little taster, Jake and Elfie’s insights include:
- Amazon’s drive for Ad space dominance
- AI is finally here for PPC, here’s why that’s great news for our clients
- The Metaverse? No-one cares this year
- Display ads are where it’s at for Amazon, and…
- Data rules all – including why it helps get a far deeper understanding of the customer journey Intrigued?
Hit this link to read more…
