Now in its 5th year, Prime Day is one of the most successful “manufactured” shopping holidays in history, perfectly situated in the halfway spot of the year ahead of Black Friday. This week, Amazon announced that Prime Day 2019 will be “a two-day parade of non-stop deals,” starting Monday July 15th.
To get a read on this year’s event, Profitero surveyed 1,000 Prime members each in the U.S. and U.K. in May 2019. Coupled with our 2018 Prime Day analysis, we reveal our 7 predictions for Prime Day 2019, taken from our study 2019 Prime Day Predictions: Look back, look ahead.
Our survey reveals that an increasing number of Prime members, both in the U.S. and U.K, are ready to grab Prime Day bargains this year. Not only that, but shoppers are set to fork out more money too. More than half of Prime members who bought something on Amazon last Prime Day expect to spend more this year, according to our survey.
This year, expect retailers to vie for an ever-growing piece of the Prime Day pie. While nearly all Prime Day shoppers plan to shop on Amazon, more than a third say they’ll shop for deals at other online retailers as well. Brick and mortar will have a play too: 17% of U.S. and 12% of U.K. Prime members shopping on Prime Day will seek deals in physical stores.
Electronics sales spiked during Prime Day last year. This year, we anticipate electronics will again be a best-seller with almost three-quarters of Prime Day shoppers planning to shop for gadgets. But other categories will benefit on Prime Day too. We predict grocery sales will be bigger this year than last, with almost 1 in 4 U.S. and 1 in 5 U.K. Prime Day shoppers looking to make a grocery purchase on Amazon.
Brands don’t need to break the bank (or margins) to play on Prime Day. Sure, big discounts, such as 40%-50%, can provide huge rewards, but our analysis from Prime Day 2018 shows that even brands that offer a modest discount, e.g., up to 20%, can get a 2X sales lift. Your promotions are probably already locked and loaded, so now use Prime Day 2019 as an opportunity to learn and improve your promotional strategy for next year, and even more immediately, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Regardless of whether or not you plan to run a Prime Day promotion, inventory planning and product availability on Amazon will be critical. About half of Prime members we surveyed agree they usually make an unplanned purchase on Prime Day, so anticipate some unexpected demand spikes. It’s smart to get your stock levels in order now, or plan an inventory backstop.
Prime Day is an opportunity for small brands to shine (and even outperform larger competitors) on Amazon. During last year’s event, we saw a whole host of challenger brands in grocery, e.g., Hey Girl Tea and Isofrut, achieving sales lifts of up to 9X on Amazon.com — a clear indication that smaller brands can, and frequently do outperform on Amazon, and not just on Prime Day.
Based on our analysis and experience of working with hundreds of brands, those participating in Prime Day typically benefit from a massive traffic and sales spike that can last weeks beyond the actual event. Profitero analysis reveals that 66% of products that saw a lift in traffic during Prime Day 2018 benefited from an ongoing traffic lift lasting at least two weeks after the event. Delta Faucet aggressively promoted products last Prime Day, and went on to record sales lifts of 3-4X their average daily sales the week after the event.
Click here to download the full study: 2019 Prime Day Predictions: Look back, look ahead.
Be sure not to miss our Prime Day 2019 Recap Webinar on August 15 at 11am ET/4pm BST where we’ll present a 360° breakdown of Prime Day 2019 activities. Register your seat here.