Amazon Prime Day 2021 Promises 2 Million Deals
Amazon Prime Day will be held June 21-22 this year, and the company is once again throwing its weight behind its roster of small business sellers.
The annual discount extravaganza, now in its sixth year, kicks off on June 21 at midnight PDT and runs through June 22 for Prime members in the U.S., U.K., United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Spain, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, China, Brazil, Belgium, Austria and Australia.
The company is postponing Prime Day in Canada and India due to the increasing impact of COVID-19.
More than 2 million deals will be offered across the two days. As it did last year, Amazon is emphasizing small businesses by promising that over 1 million deals will come from SMBs. The retailer has pledged to spend more than $100 million through the rest of 2021 to “fuel the success of small businesses selling on Amazon,” including through special promotion activities.
For example, from June 7-20, Amazon will offer a $10 credit to use on Prime Day to members who spend $10 on select U.S.-based SMB products and brands — a promotion Amazon said it’s fully funding. More than 300,000 sellers are eligible to participate in the promotion, which is more than twice last year.
Amazon has more than 200 million Prime members worldwide, according to Jeff Bezos’ April letter to shareholders. Advertising platform provider Jungle Scout estimates that 48% percent of U.S. consumers have shopped on Prime Day before, and that 73% could this year.
As is par for the course, the company will leverage its wide range of hardware and content platforms, including an event on June 7 with Kristen Bell, Karamo Brown and Mindy Kaling on Amazon Live. Consumers will also be able to view product demos and live chat on Amazon’s video discovery livestream platform during Prime Day.
Brands selling on Amazon during Prime Day will need a full-funnel approach to Amazon advertising this year in order to cut through the noise and capture consumer attention, Dani Nadel, president and COO of Feedvisor, an optimization platform for Amazon sellers, tells RIS. Tactics for success include using the Amazon DSP to target lifestyle, demographic or behavior-based audiences on and off Amazon with dynamic media; leveraging sponsored ads that accompany impactful category search terms; and incentivizing purchases with retargeting tactics and pricing promotions.
“Brands who take a holistic approach to Prime Day 2021, including optimizing product detail pages, utilizing A+ Content and Amazon stores, managing inventory, and using SKU-by-SKU pricing tactics, will be poised for success,” add Nadel. “Additionally, advertising budgets should be optimized in tandem with inventory and pricing strategies to effectively capture more views and conversions on top-performing products.”
Seventy-one percent of U.S. consumers have shopped on Amazon.com in the last three months, according to Jungle Scout, which compares with 29% on Walmart.com and 20% on Target.com.
The event typically spurs other retailers to offer competing events during the week, and Walmart subsequently announced its own "Deal for Days" event to be held June 20-23. Such competing retail events are something that 31% of consumers have said they find to be valuable, said customer engagement platform provider Braze.
Nadel noted that last year’s Prime Day, held in October, impacted holiday sales strategies. “With a return to its traditional summer schedule, brands can focus on other promotional campaigns like back-to-school,” she advised. “This year, issues with the global supply chain, coupled with increased discretionary income due to stimulus checks and tax refunds, means there will likely be increased demand on popular items, which may cause restocking delays, so brands must strategically manage their inventory and shipments.”
