Amazon Prime Day 2023: Results, Insights & Tips for Sellers
[This post was authored by Emily Sullivan and Shannon Mullery, Content Specialists at Tinuiti]
Prime Day ran on July 11 and July 12 this year, with the shopping event continuing to grow in popularity and scale. The retail holiday has maintained its singular Prime Day name, despite expanding into what is now a 2-day event. Consumers understand Prime Day as an around-the-clock deals blowout that requires regularly browsing Amazon.com throughout its duration to nab limited-time prices while the sale clock is still ticking.
The savings opportunities kicked off early again this year, with Early Prime Day Deals in abundance on July 10—Prime Day Eve. As is common for Prime Day, many of the Early Prime Day Deals with the steepest discounts were for Amazon’s own popular devices.
In this post, we’ll unpack some of Tinuiti’s early findings on Prime Day 2023, with actionable insights to help in preparing for the next one! We touch on the history of Prime Day, results and key insights from 2023, how (and when) to prep for the next Prime Day, and new initiatives aimed at keeping the excitement going before and during the event, such as this year’s invite-only deals. Looking to dive into the data? Take a look at our recent blog highlighting Amazon Prime Day 2023 Advertising Trends.
Jump to results & key insights from Prime Day 2023.
What is Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day is a two-day sales event on Amazon.com that was originally launched as a one-day sale to celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary in July 2015. The event centers around brands offering deep discounts, rare promotions, and a general opportunity for Amazon’s 200 million+ Prime Members to score nearly anything at a Prime Day price.
Thanks to its incredible success, Prime Day has been emulated by countless other retailers who offer their own promotions during Amazon’s event in hopes of securing some of those sales for themselves. Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are historically among the most competitive retailers, though the popularity of Prime Day touches nearly every ecomm corner.
Adding to the appeal of Prime Day is its typical mid-summer timing, which aligns perfectly with Back to School preparations, but is otherwise not a traditional ‘shopping season’ when exceptional prices across myriad categories would be expected. We might be shopping in our pajama bottoms on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but Prime Day gives us a chance to shop in our swimsuits with hair still wet from the pool.
From initiatives like last year’s Prime Stampcard to this year’s invite-only deals—which helped in drumming up consumer planning and excitement for the event—to deals showcased during Amazon Live sessions and beyond, the thrill of Prime Day 2023 was palpable and the savings potential broad, extending across electronics, home goods, household essentials, clothing and shoes, baby products, grocery and beyond.
Will There be a Second Prime Day in 2023?
Last year, Amazon held their 48-hour inaugural savings event called the Prime Early Access Sale (PEAS). The sale ran through October 11-12 and gave eager shoppers the opportunity to cross items off their lists a bit earlier than expected. The sale included hundreds of thousands of deals on popular items like toys, electronics, home decor, Amazon devices, and more. The event was aimed at jumpstarting consumers’ holiday shopping.
Will this “second Prime Day” happen in Fall 2023 as well? Amazon has confirmed there will be a “Prime Fall Deal Event” in Q4, but the date hasn’t been solidified. So, if you missed out on this year’s Prime Day, make sure you’re ready for the upcoming fall event.
As always, we’ll keep you posted when dates for the Prime Early Access Sale are announced.
Results & Key Insights from Prime Day 2023
Overall, Prime Day 2023 was a resounding success. Amazon reported the first day of Prime Day, July 11, was the single largest sales day in company history. The ecommerce giant also highlighted that over the course of the event, Prime members purchased more than 375 million items worldwide and saved more than $2.5 billion on millions of deals across the platform.
But what does this mean for upcoming holiday sales? Will the success of Prime Day 2023 be a predictor for Q4 success? It seems highly likely. eMarketer recently noted that Prime Day sales growth correlates strongly with overall holiday ecommerce performance so it’s vital that you have your advertising ducks in a row during the upcoming holiday season push.
Amazon uses Prime Day as an opportunity to promote their own products and services, but marketplace sellers claim a decent share of the sales every year. Tinuiti surveyed more than 1,000 Prime Members in our annual Prime Day Study, with a goal of better understanding the shopping plans (and rationale for those plans) for the then-upcoming Prime Day 2023.
Some highlights from the study that predicted strong performance outcomes for Amazon and marketplace sellers alike included:
- 80% planned to shop during Prime Day
- 86% of those who shopped Prime Day 2022 planned to shop it again this year
- 63% of Prime members who didn’t shop Prime Day last year planned to in 2023
- Only 12% of respondents were less excited about this year’s Prime Day than last year’s
- 52% of respondents planned to spend more this year than last
- 58% of respondents consider Prime Day a better shopping holiday on Amazon than Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday
- Of the factors that would most discourage shoppers from making a purchase this year, product price inflation ranked highest
Prime Day helps Amazon fuel their own flywheel of success in countless ways, with the results many brands see during the event proving it can be a win for Amazon, brands, and customers alike.
Prime Day 2023 Hot Takes from Tinuiti Experts
“We found that consumers were much more drawn to deeper deals on higher end price point items vs going for cheaper versions that were also on deal. This signals that consumers were truly after finding the best value this Prime Day more than they were looking to spend the least amount of money.”
— Ken Magner, Strategist, Marketplaces Search at Tinuiti
“The invite-only Prime Deals are Amazon’s way of creating scarcity and driving anticipation for some of their top deals. I would not be surprised to hear down the line if the majority of these deals sold out faster then regular Prime Deals. Lightning Deals are great for exclusivity but the requirement of signing up to get the invite-only Prime Deal makes the consumer feel like they are getting a deal that will go fast creating scarcity for potential customers. It will be interesting to see if these deals continue to get more competitive moving forward into Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend.”
— Wyatt Burley, Specialist, Marketplaces Search at Tinuiti
“As TikTok continues to soar in popularity, and with the growing importance of measuring traffic from the platform, it is clear that harnessing its potential will be key for brands in the coming years. TikTok undoubtedly played a significant role in the success of Prime Day and we anticipate that this trend will grow during major shopping events in the future.”
— Tony Heuer, Strategist, Programmatic at Tinuiti
“Some brands really took the collaboration with Amazon to the next level with custom landing pages and pop-up banners on their Buy with Prime page to really fit the Prime Day theme and provide a great personalized user experience.”
— David Yu, Team Strategist, Marketplaces Search at Tinuiti
“Invite only deals shown ahead of time on PDPs was a great tactic to make people feel FOMO and a sense of scarcity around inventory for those products. To the consumers, invite only deals probably gave that item or deal more weight when compared to other deals. If two products are being considered and X product is invite only and Y product is open to the public X has to be better or more sought after right? Time will tell how traffic, sales, and conversion worked out for those brands offering invite-only deals.”
— Christian Lopez, Strategist at Tinuiti
“We witnessed a significant surge of creators and influencers leveraging social media during Prime Day, cashing in with their curated “idea lists.” Amazon also made it incredibly easy for creators to help promote the shopping day through their convenient tools such as the Amazon Influencer Program, Creator Connections, and Idea Lists. Additionally, the introduction of Amazon Inspire added an interesting dynamic, as it showcased how inspiration seamlessly intersected with Prime Day products.”
— Meghan Knosp, Amazon Search Sr. Manager at Tinuiti
“Prime Day Deal Badging is essential for driving visibility and sales during this event. A brand ran a coupon on day one and a Lightning Deal on day two and saw nearly 10X improvement in sales on day two.”
— Whitney Weaver, Team Strategist at Tinuiti
How Did Brands Perform on Prime Day 2023?
Prime Day was a success for Amazon themselves, and countless sellers alike. PYMNTS reported that Prime Day 2023 “marked a milestone as the biggest event ever for independent sellers within Amazon’s marketplace. The majority of these sellers were small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and their sales growth on Amazon’s platform during the event surpassed that of Amazon’s own retail business.”
Looking at Poppi prebiotic soda, for example—a brand whose 30% deal we highlighted in our 2022 Prime Day Recap—they brought that same strong offer once again. But this time—thanks in part to the Amazon success they’ve seen since the last Prime Day—their placements now include the coveted Best Seller badge. This combined with the 4+ star rating across 20K+ reviews gives potential new customers added confidence to Add to Cart…and so the cycle continues.
Simply put, if you have a truly great product that consumers love or will love, the incredible site traffic Prime Day offers could be your ‘big break’—or among your biggest wins that year—with the right strategic approach.
Poppi wasn’t the only brand tempting consumers with refreshing offers this Prime Day. A few examples of Prime Day winners amongst Tinuiti clients included…
- An eco-friendly cleaning brand had a $1.7 million sales goal on Deal ASINs but hit $2.39 million during the two-day shopping extravaganza — 40% over goal!
- An air purifier brand saw impressive results with 38K units sold, totaling $4.95 million in sales—15.6% YoY growth! The brand finished #3 in USA and #1 in CA, and to top it off, 73% of sales were New to Brand customers
- An affordable, cruelty-free cosmetics brand was +45% from last year’s (also wildly successful) Prime Day, shattering their single-day sales record. The brand followed a similar approach to their previous Prime Day campaigns, which included incorporating multiple Tinuiti service lines with ads redirecting on TikTok, Meta, and Google. The brand maintained an 80% Buy Box ownership, which—coupled with their profit-first strategy that encouraged basket building—helped in realizing an increased AOV. This year, customer retention efforts were added, with 2 email blasts and an SMS text. The brand plans to capitalize on the halo lead by continuing their basket-builder promotion through Saturday, a full 3 days after the Prime Day event officially ended
Are you ready to level-up and see similar results during next year’s Prime Day? If so, check out our top tips for preparing for Prime Day 2024.
How to Start Preparing for Prime Day 2024
Here are some tips for sellers to start preparing for Prime Day 2024 as well as Amazon’s upcoming fall savings event.
1. Start collecting reviews: Asking customers for reviews after large events sales such as Prime Day is incredibly important. Reviews are everything in the ecommerce world as they prompt consumers to make purchase decisions without feeling confused or worried about the product you’re selling.
To get reviews from customers, you can reach out to them via email or include product inserts asking them to leave a review on your page. Amazon’s ‘Request a Review’ button is a feature that allows sellers on the Amazon marketplace to send automated email requests to customers, encouraging them to leave a review for their purchased product.
Keep in mind that managing poor reviews is also important. You should respond to negative reviews promptly and professionally. Acknowledge the customer’s concerns and offer a solution if possible.
2. Use search terms report for Amazon SEO: After Prime Day, ensure you’re utilizing Amazon’s search terms reports to identify the keywords that shoppers are using to find your products. Optimize your product listings with these keywords to improve your visibility on Amazon.
3. Create retargeting and re-engagement strategies: Ensure you’re doing your due diligence to connect with customers via retargeting ads and re-engagement strategies. These techniques can help you reach shoppers who have viewed your products but haven’t made a purchase yet. Utilize Amazon Marketing Cloud to create more customized audiences such as: Prime Day deal buyers to retarget during Q4 holiday season, shopping abandoners or cross selling complementary products.
4. Know that shoppers are checking deals across platforms: In our recent Prime Day Study, half of respondents said they would visit other retail sites on Prime Day in order to compare prices, while nearly a third plan to check out sites that are running sales events that compete specifically with Prime Day. It’s clear shoppers are looking everywhere for the best deals on Prime Day, so it’s important to offer competitive prices and promotions. If you’re thinking about adding emerging marketplaces to your strategy, it might be worth exploring your options before next year’s sales events pick up (and we can help).
5. Plan for next year NOW: Analyze your sales data from Prime Day to identify what worked well and what didn’t. Use this information to improve your strategy for next year’s Prime Day and make sure you’re testing new Betas and ad formats to get a leg up on the competition.
Conclusion
Remember that the rewards of a successful Prime Day last long after the last Lightning Deal has struck and final sale has been tallied. More than just an event that facilitates selling at scale now, Prime Day is an opportunity to make an awareness and conversions splash whose enduring waves can help in building or growing your brand.
If you’re interested in learning more about Tinuiti’s Amazon Services, or our services for emerging marketplaces, contact us today. Be sure to check out our upcoming webinar covering The Most Important Lessons We Learned from Prime Day and for a deeper dive into Prime Day data, take a look at our recent blog highlighting Amazon Prime Day 2023 Advertising Trends. See you next time!
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