Each year, small businesses play an instrumental role in Amazon’s Prime-member exclusive shopping events – Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days, which are well known for giving Amazon Prime members exclusive discounts. For many of these small businesses, Prime Big Deal Days, happening this year on October 10 and 11, is the new start to the holiday shopping season.
“We see this as the unofficial kickoff to holiday shopping and want to be ahead of the curve and top of mind for everyone as they think about baking, gifting, hosting, and stocking stuffers for the upcoming holiday season,” said Ganesh Nair, founder and owner of Karma Nuts.
A survey by online coupon firm RetailMeNot shows 83% of shoppers plan to start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. Businesses are now pushing their production calendars forward to meet demand, and reallocating marketing expenses.
For small businesses, Prime Big Deal Days is a way to prepare their inventories, get holiday promotions in shape and boost sales ahead of the holiday rush.
But more than anything, it’s about getting their products in front of the more than 200 million paid Prime members in 25 countries worldwide. Prime members can shop over a million deals from independent sellers during Prime Big Deal Days.
Great way to boost sales before holiday rush
“Prime Big Deal Days is a great boost to sales,” said Nair. “We want to be able to reach every single cashew lover out there, and Amazon gives us the tools and reach to be able to do that.”
Members ordered more than 100 million items from independent sellers during last year’s holiday kick-off event, most of which were from small and medium-sized businesses.
“Prime Day, including Prime Big Deal Days, are our highest generating sales days each and every year,” said Lydia Boychuk, VP of Marketing at More Labs, whose Morning Recovery supplemental drink has been a bestseller in its category. “It’s been great to watch that revenue growth year over year.”
Gaining exposure through Prime Big Deal Days promotions
“We increasingly hear from customers, particularly younger generations, that they want to shop their values. In particular, they want to shop small, and they’re really interested in supporting small businesses,” said Claire O’Donnell, Director of Selling Partner Empowerment, Communities & Trust at Amazon.
Small businesses and their products are promoted during Amazon Prime Big Deal Days in a number of ways.
Small business products are featured on the Support Small page and in the Small Business Gift Guide. Customers can also locate them through personalized recommendations based on past purchases, browsing history, and items saved to their Lists.
Another way for customers to find small business deals is through the new Small Business Search filter, or by looking for the Small Business badge throughout Amazon’s store. Finally, shoppers can also search for small business products through Buy with Prime or on small businesses’ own websites, where sellers can choose to host an Amazon Prime Big Deal Days discount feature.
“In the past, we have found Lightning Deals and Prime Exclusive Deals to be a great way to drive awareness and trial for our hero products, especially our unique top-selling Cashew Variety Pack,” Nair says.
Boychuk adds that on Prime Big Deal Days “we are offering our customers 25% off of the entire More Labs portfolio.”
Prime members can look for the Small Business badge to find unique products from small businesses in Amazon’s store.
Preparing inventories, supply chains, promotions
To prepare for the promotions and increased exposure surrounding Prime Big Deal Days, small businesses have started their holiday planning earlier this year; readying their supply chains and manufacturers, ensuring that their suppliers, logistics and staff are primed for the higher demand and that their products avoid hitting an out-of-stock situation.
Boychuk says More Labs has been working “over the last few months to improve our catalogue listings, build up our inventory and refine our PPC (pay-per-click) strategy. We experienced challenges in supply chain two years ago and have been vigilant about preparing to ensure we have enough products to delight all of our customers.”
As the trend toward earlier access to holiday sales continues, many small businesses are using Prime Big Deal Days to ring in the holiday shopping season and spread some early customer cheer.