Prime Day Sale Marketing Ideas (Even if you are NOT Selling on Amazon)

Recently, Prime Day sales have surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday in terms of revenue! 

According to research, almost 90% of Americans are expected to shop during Prime Day this year.  

If you are not selling products on Amazon, you can still market your own Prime Day to bring in some extra sales to your store.   

Here are 23 successful marketing hacks that would help you build a successful Prime Day sale. 

1. Introduce your own Prime Day

If you’re not selling on Amazon, offer to match deals and other perks to your website. 

Update the exit intent on your site or make the best use of an announcement bar to launch a Prime Day popup that highlights the best deals on your products.       

Shopify stores can also get super creative with their exit intent with cool, persuasive copies. 

Here are a few suggestions: 

• Prime day, everyday!
• It’s here! Prime Day new arrivals!
• Psst: Prime Day bestsellers are here!
• Prime Day deals—just for you! 

2. Learn from past data to implement new features

If you have run a Prime Day equivalent sale before, then you can analyze data and optimize the overall performance of your eCommerce store.

Some questions to ask while analyzing past data:

• What is your customer’s demographic? (to understand purchase history and shopping behavior)
• Which campaigns worked? (to double down on similar promotional strategies) 
• What were the bounce rates vs time spent on site? (to see which web pages need to be optimized)
• What were the average conversion rates for a product? (to create categories based on good and bad conversion rates)
• What was your average order value? (to recommend relevant products) 
• Were the checkout and payment processes hassle-free? (to overcome customer objections)
• Did you have any technical issues or roadblocks that may have hindered the user experience? (to improve website speed and implement microcopies or navigational cues)
• Which products were top performing and which did not? (to meet demand and avoid stockouts or overstocking inventory)
• Which channels brought in more traffic? (to curate effective advertising and marketing strategies)
• What were the most common reviews or feedback? (to build an informative FAQ page and content strategy)
• Which devices were used for shopping or browsing? (to know which features to optimize on mobile or laptop)

Leveraging past sales data can not only improve profits but also improve a shopper’s decision-making process. 

3. Promote products that are suitable for early holiday shoppers

It’s common knowledge that purchasing gifts during the holiday season can be expensive due to high demand. 

That’s why, shoppers always like to hunt for deals and gifts in advance.  

During Amazon’s Prime Day sale, 62% of buyers purchased at least one gift for the upcoming holidays. 

You can create gift guides and list products to improve product discovery. Publish the gift guide on your blog or on a landing page on your website. You may also use the gift guide as a lead magnet and collect email addresses. 

Furthermore, if you’re implementing influencer marketing, then feature the products as ‘influencer’s fav gifts’. 

4. Incentivize survey responders in the build up to Prime Day

If you’re planning to launch a new product or service for Prime Day, it’s not a bad idea to run a poll with your customers to see what they want. 

Why? 

Gets you an outsider perspective to improve product development – and create superfans!       

But how do you ensure your survey has a high response rate? 

A: Give them a penny for their thoughts (literally)!    

B: While you send out the survey, ensure your copy is as relatable and also sparks interest at the same time. 

Just like Handy’s.           

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5. Apply intent-based SEO to guide shoppers 

Research shows 81% of retail shoppers conduct online research before buying. 

When it comes to a major sale, shoppers would like to understand how they can get the best deals.  

eCommerce stores can create guides on what shoppers can do to equip themselves to better navigate Prime Day sales. 

Also, create inspirational blogs and social media posts to introduce products and their uses. For example, a gift guide for holidays wherein different products are listed.

This way online stores can ensure that their content is more relevant to the user's needs and interests. This can lead to higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) and increase visibility.

A disclaimer for all eCommerce stores – SEO takes time to bring results. 

Search engines continue to evolve and become more sophisticated in understanding user intent. 

eCommerce businesses that adopt an intent-based approach will be better positioned to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changes in search algorithms.

6. Do a rehearsal run before the actual D-Day 

Running a major campaign such as your Prime Day sale can be overwhelming for your team. 

Especially, when it’s your first time. 

Here are a few reasons why you might consider running a test sale:

• To identify technical issues that could impact the customer experience. For instance, slow load times, error messages, or checkout problems. 
• To gauge demand if you plan to have a large inventory or offer discounts on specific products during the sale, it's important to make sure you have enough stock to meet demand. 
• To test if your pricing and discount strategy is effective at driving sales and generating revenue.
• To analyze if your marketing channels, messaging, and offers will be able to generate traffic and sales. You can then accordingly refine your marketing and promotion strategy. 

7. Offer a Prime Day pre-sale to create buzz

Exclusivity can be a powerful emotion. 

When running your own Prime Day, offer customers a chance to get first access to certain products. 

For a pre-sale, choose products with less inventory and high demand to generate urgency. Go for products with high demand and high inventory but with skimmed prices. And lastly, if you aren’t sure about demand, add those products to the pre-sale list to test the market.  

This strategy can help generate revenue even before the official launch of the product or service. 

Consequently, it creates buzz and excitement around a product, helping to build anticipation for the official launch.

8. Optimize Product Discovery to Boost Sales

Keep it simple – is cliched yet strong advice that works more often than not!  

If you have a new shopper during Prime Day, your primary navigation menu must have carefully curated collections and products under each category.   

Figure out what Prime Day shoppers need the most and display the products with the highest savings on the homepage.

To manage high traffic during Prime Day, the search function on your website must be on point. Here are some tips for you:

• Enable autofill search results and suggestions
• Display bestsellers at the top of the results
• Nudge the user with the sale price alongside the original price
• Make the user ratings pop for all products
• Include the “Search by image” option·        

Here’s how Nine West does it.

9. Engage with your VIP customers

One of the best ways to boost Prime Day sales is to reward your loyal customers with VIP discounts.      

This especially works if you have a (tiered) loyalty program. 

Why? 

They drive both acquisition and retention while making their customers feel special.        

With a tiered VIP program, you can establish a strong alignment between you, the exclusive products, and the customers.   

Here’s how Sephora does it with its Beauty Insider program. 

Notice how there’s a clear distinction between the 3 layers? This is a good example of how to make your customers feel special.     

Now, here’s another way to honor your loyal customers. 

Intermix, a designer clothing brand, provides VIP early access discounts worth 50% for their regulars. 

Looking for inspiration? 14 eCommerce Loyalty Programs Backed By Science 

10. Build curiosity with mystery deals this Prime Day

Add an element of surprise to your Prime Day marketing campaign with mystery savings options!  

Do Google Pay and its scratch cards come to mind? This Prime Day, you could do the same too. 

Keep your cards closed and provide subtle hints like Loft does here! 

This not only builds anticipation but also makes for an interactive shopping experience.        

11. Get innovative with push notifications and reminders

Ting!

The sound of your push notification excites your shopper more than anything else.

It brings you more sales. Especially during festivals like Prime Day, shoppers will be on their phones looking for discounts.          

And yet many marketers falter – because they don’t evoke emotions. 

Why? 

They don’t look personalized.

Personalized push notification has close to a 56% engagement rate. 

This allows customers to look for coupons and promo codes elsewhere.  

The below push notification from Pura Vida promotes a new sale of bracelets with an engaging copy and a monetary benefit. 

The same brand uses push notifications as reminders to recover an abandoned cart. 

You might like: 18 Push Notification Templates for eCommerce (& great Examples)

12. Create an urgency nudge with hourly deals

Make it scarce (for a limited period of time) and more people are willing to buy it.  

Happy hour promotions will drive traffic and conversions even during your off-peak hours. Much like when a swimwear brand rolls out offers during winter!   

To avoid a flash promotion going wild during an event like Prime Day, target a very specific section of your audience or location. Besides ensuring these are time-limited promotions, evoke a sense of urgency or FOMO with badges that say “while stocks last.”  

For example, if you announce 15% OFF during the first hour, you could increase the discount value to 25% in the next hour. 

Take a look at how ColourPop does it!

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13. Launch new collections on Prime Day

If your brand is known for coming up with exclusive products, you can think beyond discounts and launch new products for Prime Day.

It’s summer in the US. If I were you, I’d be rolling out early access deals on school and college essentials!   

And yes, you can also throw in a few deals to attract new customers. 

Take a page out of Nordstrom’s book.   

14. Match discounts to your AOV

The popular belief is that discounts hinder AOV. We tend to disagree!               

Blanket discounts are a huge bummer. 

Enter minimum spend rewards. Offer (very small) sitewide discounts and entertain shoppers with discounts on various minimum order values.              

This will help you sell slow-moving products faster on an event like Prime Day – and boost customer retention.  

Here’s how Kosas does it! 

15. Display products with prices between sale and no-sale periods

Showing the regular prices of products with slashed prices has multiple benefits such as transparency and perception of value.  

Implement charm pricing where prices for items are sometimes labeled $9, $99, $499, $999, or anything with a 9 at the end. 

The physiology behind this is that human beings normally start reading from left to right. 

Therefore, if the price is indicated as $399, we interpret it as being closer to $300 than $400 since we look at the first number from the left, which is 3. 

Brands use it to the full extent. See how Best Buy implements charm pricing on refrigerators: 

Read more: Pick the right product price: 8 eCommerce pricing best practices

16. Free & Trustworthy Shipping at a Lower Benchmark

According to research , almost 49% of customers choose Amazon for its shipping options and for staying true to their guaranteed one-day delivery option.

But this might not be feasible for a few Shopify stores.  

This is where Amazon has stepped in with the exciting new feature called “Buy with Prime.” This allows Prime members to shop from your website with the trusted experience they get from Amazon!

And the best part? You don’t need to partner with Amazon for this! 

If this doesn’t vibe with you…

Don’t lose hope – make the best use of delivery options you can offer for your customers.  

A free shipping option on all orders can be a tall ask. But you can do it at a relatively cheaper price point.

For example, if you’ve been offering free shipping for all orders above $200 throughout the year, you could do the same at a minimum order value of $150 or less.

You will not be alone! Dixxon has done it! 

When it comes to ordering tracking…

This Prime Day, our advice for you is to be as transparent as possible by allowing the customers to track their shipments and get real-time updates on their whereabouts.

Here’s how Mavi does it.

17. Use visual cues in your product recommendations 

Product recommendations contribute to 26% of the eCommerce revenue. 

How can you do it right? The usual suspect could be recommendations based on browser/purchase history. 

But you will have new shoppers stepping in this Prime Day! How do you ensure they purchase the right products? 

The bestseller badges instill confidence in your buyers, which drives your success. Throw in visual cues with unique “bestseller” badges to make the products pop.   

Easy and effective. 

Just like how American Tourister does it here! Notice how they use the right badges for the right products?  

Using the best product badges will help you improve conversions by 55%. 

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18. Use social media for promotion for targeted visibility  

Apart from email marketing, social media promotion is a great way to increase visibility and reach a wider audience.

When launching your own Prime Day sale, social media can help generate buzz and anticipation around the event. 

The usual advice is to create a specific brand hashtag, run contests and giveaways, and encourage interested users to create and share content related to your brand or product. 

But there’s more. 

Publish dark Facebook posts, which are targeted ads that are delivered in the News Feed of specific fans of your brand’s page without showing up on the page's wall itself. The dark post can feature text, photos, videos, discount offers, or links to your website.

If you have an Instagram shop, then enable reviews, so that customers can write reviews directly on your Instagram Shop pages. You can use it as a part of your content strategy by highlighting these reviews on Insta posts and stories. 

Want more inspiration? Underutilized Social Media Ideas for eCommerce Brands 

19. Equip your customer service to overcome objections  

When conducting a Prime Day sale, having robust customer service can help to close sales. 

Online customer service has proven to influence 88% of customers when making a purchasing decision.   

Create a dedicated FAQ page relevant to the Prime Day sale so shoppers can search for answers. 

If they have any other queries, offer them options such as live chat or a call with customer support to resolve them.  

20. Use stock alert cues to create urgency  

When your Prime Day sale is live, the sense of urgency will drive shoppers to checkout faster. 

However, when they try to checkout, an ‘out of stock’ message will cause them to be disappointed. 

That’s why, stock alert cues can create a better shopping experience.

Implement live updates which show how many products have been sold and how many are left. 

If your products do go out of stock and will be in stock soon, display a message regarding the same and ask shoppers to join a waitlist. 

Also, if you have a physical store, then show which products are in stock there and let shoppers reserve them in-store.  

21. Clear aging stock for more profits

If you have aging stock on the shelves, it can give the impression that the online store is not keeping up with current trends and can be detrimental to its brand image. 

Moreover, products that remain unsold for a long period of time can end up costing money in storage and maintenance fees, which can eat into profits. 

A Prime Day sale is the best time to clear aging products. 

The immediate benefits of clearing aged stock are freeing up shelf space and making way for new, fresh products that are more likely to sell. 

This way, eCommerce stores can avoid potential losses from having unsold stock that may expire or become outdated. 

Create a separate category to sell aging stock at a discounted price, businesses can still make a profit and avoid losses.

See how Willow Shoes displays a message to let shoppers know products on clearance aren’t liable for returns or exchanges:

22. Try live-stream shopping to increase visibility 

Statistics show that Amazon Live Prime Day streams amassed more than 100 million views, and the top Amazon Live Prime Day stream peaked at 57,000 concurrent views.

During the pandemic, Mitsubishi unveiled its new car on Amazon Live. 

Yes, we know you can’t buy a car on Amazon, but since customers weren’t able to attend car shows at the time, it brought the excitement of a new car launch directly to customers’ homes. 

Live streams can make it possible to introduce products, demonstrate how the products work, and keep customers engaged with live chats, giveaways, and interactive polls.

Live stream shopping also offers an opportunity for retailers to leverage social proof. 

Showcasing products in real-time and encouraging customer reviews and feedback can help to build trust and credibility with their customers.

23. Extend relationships with customers even after Prime Day

There’s an opportunity to make more sales post-Prime Day too.   

With so many happy customers at the end of the Prime Day campaign, you don’t want to ghost them. Take extra care of these shoppers and come up with innovative stuff to make them feel remembered and appreciated. 

Here are a few ideas that might work just fine:

• Encourage refills/repeat purchases
• Send a post-purchase email and ask them for feedback
• Request for newsletter signup in exchange for a discount

Take a look at what Terra Origin has done here!

The brand, in a very clever way, gives out a 5% OFF in exchange for a subscription at checkout to cause negligible disturbance while shopping.  

‍Beauty Insider, on the other hand, chalks out a loyalty reward program free of cost. Members are credited a point for each dollar spent. 

This way, the sign-up process in the future will be quick and hassle-free!

‍Fenty Beauty sends out a well-drafted post-purchase email in a caring way. Besides showing their appreciation, their willingness to help is evident.   

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What products sell the most on Prime Day sales?

In 2022, Amazon Prime members purchased more than 300 million items worldwide, making the event the biggest Prime Day event in Amazon’s history. 

Worldwide Prime Day's best-selling items included products such as Amazon devices, consumer electronics, home, beauty, Apple watch series 7, apparel and accessories, car wash products, and pet products. 

2. How much does the average shopper spend on Prime Day?

On average, a shopper spent $79.49 during Amazon’stwo Prime Day event days. This is 80% more than the average daily spend on the same weekdays. 

3. How much revenue is generated during Prime Day sales?

During Prime Day 2022, the two-day event generated close to $12 billion, a significant increase from 2021's $11 billion, and caused online sales to grow by 141%.

Start Planning your Prime Day Campaign Today

Now that you have all the ammunition you need for the D day, it’s time to start dipping your toes and cash in on the opportunity.

And for Shopify stores like yours, you don’t need to wait for Amazon’s Prime Day to launch your campaigns. 

All that matters is you must plan your campaigns in advance and start rolling out deals with your audience at the earliest. Give your audience enough window and deals to stand out from the crowd. 

And if you’re planning to launch something new to your armory, poll your audience on social media to see what they are looking for. If your products excite the audience, easier it is to bring extra sales.