Amazon hasn't made any official announcements about Prime Day 2023 yet, but Code3 Commerce Strategists anticipate Prime Day will occur during the summer, likely again in July. The tentpole shopping event should always be on marketers' and brands' minds. It’s never too early to start thinking about what success looks like and laying the groundwork for Prime Day.
Without a specific date from Amazon, it's a bit early to start thinking about specific deals and determining your budget. However, there are some early measures brands can take now to ensure success on Prime Day.
Keep reading to find out the best early planning steps you can take for Prime Day 2023.
Evaluating Performance
First, now is an ideal time to review Prime Day 2022 performance, if your brand hasn’t already. Take a deeper dive into the data and note what strategies were successful and which were not. While it may be too early to assign a budget to each tactic, knowing what measures drove the most success should heavily influence 2023 strategies.
In 2022, the best-selling, and most competitive paid search categories were Amazon Devices, Consumer Electronics, and Home. Brands within these categories should pay special attention to their 2023 plans, knowing the shopping event will be important and competitive for their products.
Consider Video
A strategy and trend all brands should pay attention to for 2023 Prime Day is video. In 2022, Amazon reported Prime Day live streams through Amazon Live had more than 100 million views. It’s clear video is becoming increasingly popular with consumers as they shop, and video can be leveraged within Amazon Advertising, DSP, on a PDP, and in many other ways. If video is going to be a part of a brand’s 2023 Prime Day strategy, now is the time to begin working on concepting and developing the assets.
Additionally, there were many new features and tools introduced on Amazon in 2022, including video capabilities for sponsored display ads, Amazon Marketing Stream offering results in real-time, and much more. Within DSP, Contextual Beta was introduced and many new data points are now available. Many of these new strategies can and should be, leveraged in 2023 overall, but especially on Prime Day.
Prime Day Strategies for PDP
Much of Prime Day planning right now should be spent on PDPs, ensuring a good consumer experience throughout a brand’s entire catalog. Changes made to a PDP typically take some time to realize an impact, so a brand should begin work on PDP strategy now. Code3 Commerce Strategists recommend several tasks, including:
- Reviewing keywords and organic rankings
- Strategizing a Prime Day store
- Utilizing Amazon Posts and the new Brand Story feature
Keyword covering is a great area in which to begin. Use a third-party tool to perform an analysis of keywords and organic rankings of top-tier ASINs. This can help identify products that rank well to consider for Prime Day specials as well as give a brand a good overview of ASINs that may need attention ahead of the event. Look closely into keyword coverage, noting any opportunities to implement additional keywords to help discoverability.
Getting Retail-Ready
Review all copy and imagery to ensure that an ASIN is considered retail-ready for Amazon, with fully built-out product image galleries, enhanced content, and detailed product copy. All backend attributes should be filled out and accurate, and a quick review of variations should be completed, to identify any variation opportunities that can be implemented now.
For a focus on visually showcasing products, brands can begin planning and creating a special Prime Day store. This should include a seasonal focus of back to school and summertime as well as Prime Day home page and deals page. Additionally, brands should leverage two recent features from Amazon: Brand Story and Amazon Posts. If a brand has not leaned into either of these features yet, now is an ideal time to test it in advance of the important Prime Day.
Why Prime Day Matters All Year
A solid Amazon Posts strategy can also help brands in other ways throughout the year, including social commerce. Inspire, an in-app shopping feed that’s personalized with shoppable photos and videos, launched in beta at the end of 2022 on the Amazon mobile app. The shoppable feed is curated based on a shopper’s selected interests, and relevant product photos and videos are fed in from customer reviews alongside Amazon influencers and brands. Featured products are tagged on-screen. An easy way to be involved as a brand with Inspire as it’s rolled out to shoppers is to begin building Posts, which if relevant, may appear in a shopper’s Inspire feed.
For many brands, Prime Day is one of the most important events of the year. With increased traffic on all marketplaces, and consumers ready to make purchases, it’s a tentpole occasion brands cannot afford to not be prepared for. Those who invest time and effort in Prime Day strategy early in the year will be the most successful the day of.
If you're interested in a strategic partner to help you plan for Prime Day 2023, contact us today.
