It’s official – Prime Day 2023 will take place this summer. While Amazon has not announced the official dates, it recently informed sellers that the deadline to submit deals for the big event is April 23. Channel Key can also confirm that inbound inventory is due by June 15. The New York Times speculates that Prime Day 2023 will take place on July 11 and 12, aligning with last year’s event dates. Amazon typically announces the official days a month in advance.
A Brief History of Amazon Prime Day
Amazon launched Prime Day on July 15, 2015. Since then, it has grown to become the most important ecommerce event of the summer and the second most important Amazon sale (next to holiday shopping). As you can see in the charts above, Prime Day has grown exponentially over the years – both in terms of revenue and customers. Today, more than 186 million Americans subscribe to Amazon Prime (nearly 1 in 3 adults).
Prime Day 2022 was the most successful one to date. According to Adobe, the 48-hour sale generated $11.9 billion in U.S. sales – an 8.5% increase from last year. Amazon reported that Prime members purchased more than 300 million items worldwide during Prime Day 2022.
More importantly, Prime Day 2022 was the highest-grossing Prime Day for small and medium-sized businesses. Customers spent over $3 billion on over 100 million small items in the Support Small Business to Win Big Sweepstakes. By contrast, customers spent $1.9 billion on 70 million small business products in 2021.
Prime Day 2022 was also the highest-performing event in Channel Key history. Average client sales growth reached 38% compared to 2021, a 342% increase over the national average. Below is a sample of year-over-year sales spikes for Channel Key clients in various categories:
- Back-to-School: 328% YoY Increase
- Lawn and Garden: 188% YoY Increase
- Beauty and Personal Care: 223% YoY Increase
- Grocery and Gourmet Food: 68% YoY Increase
- Apparel: 75% YoY Increase
- Home and Kitchen: 56% YoY Increase
- Luggage and Travel Gear: 32% YoY Increase
- Pet Products: 17% YoY Increase
- Sports and Outdoors: 15% YoY Increase
Best Deals & Lightning Deals for Prime Day 2023
The deadline for submitting deals for Prime Day 2023 is April 23. Creating deals is a powerful way to drive traffic and convert sales. Best Deals and Lightning Deals are two of the most popular promotions brands can offer during Prime Day.
A Lightning Deal is a time-bound, promotional offer where an item is featured for a limited number of hours, usually 4 to 12 hours (as determined by Amazon), on the Amazon Deals page. Featuring an item as a Lightning Deal may help increase sales and reduce your inventory.
A Best Deal is a time-bound, promotional offer where an item is featured for a limited number of days on the Amazon Deals page.
To be eligible for either, you must be a professional seller with an overall rating of at least 3.5 stars. Products must also meet the following criteria:
- Have a sales history in Amazon stores and at least a 3-star rating
- Include as many variations as possible
- Not be a restricted product or offensive, embarrassing or inappropriate product
- Be Prime-eligible in all regions
- Be in new condition
- Be compliant with customer product reviews policies
- Be compliant with pricing policies and have a valid reference price
- Be compliant with deal frequency requirements
Which Products are Eligible for Deals?
Eligible products are automatically displayed in the Eligible ASINs section of the Deals Dashboard. Note: Because of other criteria that Amazon is unable to disclose, it is possible that certain ASINs that meet the criteria may not receive a recommendation.
You can create a deal from the list of eligible ASINs in the Select Products tab of the Deals Dashboard. If you do not see a particular ASIN on the Deals Dashboard, this means it may not currently be eligible for a Deal. Eligible ASINs are refreshed every week, so a Deal you see this week may not necessarily be there next week.
Best Deal & Lightning Deal Performance Results
You can view your Best Deals and Lightening Deals’ overall performance on the Manage Deals page in Seller Central. Click View on the specific Deal to see the performance for each SKU in the Deal. The following metrics will be provided to you in the Product Details and Pricing section of your Deal:
- Units Sold: The number of deal units sold during the Deal
- Items Waitlisted: The number of items that the customers added to a waitlist after a deal sells out. A high number of Items Waitlisted suggests that you could have sold more Deal units than the Quantity for Deal that was entered for the SKU
- Deal Revenue: Ordered product sales (Units Sold x Deal Price) for that SKU
- Total Deal Revenue: Ordered product sales for all SKUs that participated in the deal
Additional Marketing Levers for Prime Day 2023
In addition to Best Deals and Lightning Deals, Amazon offers other promotional tools to drive customers to your product listings. Below are three of the most popular Amazon promotions for sellers during Prime Day.
- Coupons
Similar to the coupons you receive in the mail, Amazon coupons provide a discount on select items. Since shoppers want the best deals on Prime Day, using Coupons can effectively distinguish your products by offering additional savings. For example, Channel Key ran a 20% Off Coupon for a client in the Toys & Games category during a previous Prime Day, which improved conversions by 22%. Coupons are also distinguished with Prime Day badging, making them a terrific way to boost sales on both slow-moving and top-selling items. - Prime Exclusive Discount
A Prime Exclusive Discount is a price discount available only to Prime members. Product offers with a Prime Exclusive Discount will show a discounted price with the regular price crossed out. Buyers will also see a savings summary in search results and on product detail pages. Prices adjusted for discounts are displayed on the Featured Offer detail page for Prime members. Since Prime Day is Amazon’s largest sale event of the year for Prime members, this type of deal is a cost-effective way to promote products to shoppers who are ready to spend. Note: the deadline to submit Prime Exclusive Discounts for Prime Day is April 10, 2023 - Deal of the Day
A Deal of the Day is an item that is discounted for one day only. These are displayed all day on the Deals page (and receive the highest placement), which is one of the most popular pages on Prime Day. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to run a Deal of the Day – especially during Prime Day. To be eligible, you must be a Professional Seller with at least five Seller Feedback Ratings per month and an overall rating of at least 3.5 stars. More importantly, you will need support from Amazon to get approval for this type of promotion.
Channel Key Takeaway
Since its launch in 2015, Prime Day has become the most important online sale of the summer. Each Prime Day has generated more revenue than the one before it. If this trend continues (which is likely), Prime Day 2023 could power over $12 billion in sales during a 48-hour period. Details of this year’s event are still scarce, but Amazon’s recent deadline announcements should motivate brands to begin preparations. The longer you wait to launch your Prime Day 2023 strategy, the more challenging it will be to compete during one of the biggest ecommerce events of the year.
