• by Margaux Logan , June 11, 2021

So by now, you have your Prime Day 2021 strategy in place and are geared up and ready to go for June 21 and 22. Only seven months after the last Prime Day (and perhaps less than six months until the next Prime Day), brands have the opportunity to capitalize on this increased attention at multiple touchpoints throughout the year.

According to Amazon’s own data, Prime Day for 2020 was a massive success and all signs point to continued growth as the company brings it back to the summer season. 

Research from Google predicts that Prime Day 2021 will see an influx of new consumers to its shopping event. An April 2021 Google Consumer Survey showed that approximately 30% of US adults plan to make a purchase during the Prime Day event this year. And of those who plan to shop this year, 30% did not participate in the event in 2020, pointing to an even bigger event for 2021.  

This Prime Day will likely straddle the before and after COVID-19 worlds that we are still navigating. In 2020 for example, home goods and home improvement categories were some of the largest growth drivers for Prime Day, whereas I predict for Prime Day 2021 that we’ll see categories such as beauty and apparel steal the show, as there will be more of an outward focus versus the trend of creating an inviting and functional space in your home like many shoppers did last year. I also predict more shoppers will focus on short-term purchases, which may include purchases that are about summer-fun and back to school vs the typical Prime Day where early Holiday shopping was coming into play. 

It is rumored that there will be two Prime Days this year with Amazon leveraging another fall Prime Day, which would likely extend the holiday shopping period as it did in 2020. I expect to see heavy promotions starting October again this year as Holiday was wildly successful for all in 2020, so brands and retailers can bet on a rising tide for all retail boats. 

As you think about the next major retail event and how your brand shows up, here are some key areas you can’t overlook at you head into Prime Day 2021. 

Keeping an Eye on the Competition 

The key to winning during Prime Day is ensuring that it is incredibly easy for your shopper to make the buy. Monitoring the competition is a natural first step, and you should. But before that, it’s worth taking stock of how your ASINs are looking. Do you have an understanding of what the biggest growth driver of each ASIN is and are you optimizing to those? Are you increasing SKU-level visibility in search to increase your share of shelf? Do you have alerts set up to let you know when you or your competition is out of stock to either dial up or dial down your media spend and make adjustments in real time? Many ecommerce partners can alert you to what the competition is up to, but be sure to understand what your next best action at each moment will be to win the biggest share of the Prime Day pie.   

Content Adaptation 

Brands spend countless negotiation hours to ensure their products have prime in-store real-estate, are promoted well and visually appealing to the consumer. That’s why it’s still surprising to see how the same care doesn’t always translate into the digital shelf. Everything from language to imagery to reviews make a big difference when a shopper has to navigate the aisles to find and purchase from countless brands. The aisles are endless in Commerce, so it’s imperative that you have a team in place to ensure your content adapts across all mediums, retailers, languages, and more to provide a seamless shopping experience. 

Marketplace Optimizations 

In order to prep for a massive shopping event like Prime Day, brands need to kick their retail media optimizations into high gear. To start, ensuring content is optimized for keywords that drive consideration and purchase both in the category and for the brand. Descriptions and supporting product information all need to be optimized and crafted to make your products findable and informational. Products need to be irresistible with brand hygiene next to perfect. A product going out of stock or losing the buy box simply isn’t an option, so preparing for possible longer lead times due to COVID-19 and potential delays is crucial heading into Prime Day. If your primary product has an issue, what will be your secondary product to shift media to?  

Prime Day continues to shift its timing and therefore provides challenges for brands looking to make this shopping event a success no matter what time of year it takes place. If you want to win this year, having these strategies in place will help you stay ahead of the competition and make your product so irresistible, they opt for your brand on Prime Day and again in the future.