Amazon just wrapped up it's annual prime day and today we'll go over a few things we can all take away from their billion dollar day.
While you can’t expect to do product selection or logistics like Amazon, there are some things to learn even as a smaller merchant.
1. Don't Be Afraid to Make Your Own Event
Everyone knows the big retail holidays like Christmas and Black Friday, but Amazon proved once again that you can create your own event with enough value and promotion. Like any good marketing campaign, Prime day has a beginning, middle and end. So if you’re creating your own special selling event, make sure you’re using all of your channels to promote it throughout the buildup and the event itself.
2. Build Urgency to Buy
The best thing about Amazon prime day is that it is built on urgency with special offers that come and go throughout the 2 days. Because people don’t want to miss out, they make a point of tuning in and being ready to go when the time comes. In fact, a lot of people blocked their calendars at work just to make sure they didn’t miss a deal!3. Be As Prepared As Possible
Whether it’s an event of your own making or a bigger holiday or time of year like back to school season, Black Friday, or Christmas it's important to be prepared for anything. That means testing your site, staffing appropriately, and having a fully baked plan for promotion, capture, and follow up. Even more importantly, have a backup plan in case something goes wrong. If something does go wrong, fix it, apologize and get back to business.
In case you missed it, lots of people were having trouble accessing Amazon on prime day and it kept showing error pages leading to lots of initial frustration. Luckily Amazon had thought ahead, and they used cute dogs on their error pages which lightened the mood and relieve some of that frustration. As long as you provide great service, people will forgive a mistake. Having cute dogs in your backup plan, helps too!
