Preparing for Prime Day 2024: Ways for eCommerce Brands to Accelerate Sales during July’s Retailer-Driven Shopping Occasions

 *Since this blog was published, Amazon has confirmed that Prime Day dates for 2024 are on July 16th & 17th. 

With July right around the corner, now is the time for brands to prep for Amazon Prime Day. While the official dates have not been announced yet, it is typical for Prime Day to fall somewhere in mid-July. Likewise, other retailers such as Target and Walmart typically offer specialty sales, price matches, or “deal days” to compete with Prime Day.

During last July’s Prime Day, Amazon reported that total sales during the two-day event surpassed a staggering $12.7 billion. Prime members bought more than 375 million items worldwide and saved more than $2.5 billion on Prime Day deals, making it the biggest Prime Day event ever.

It goes without saying that Prime Day is an opportunity for eCommerce brands to win big with consumers. What does your brand need to know ahead of the event? Here’s what MikMak found out: 

Meta channels led in traffic for the last Prime Day compared to other social channels

Prime Day happens twice a year, so when looking at MikMak data for the most recent one in October, we see that Meta channels led the way in terms of Purchase Intent Clicks, or in-market traffic. Following Meta channels Facebook and Instagram was TikTok. YouTube and Snap ultimately completed the top five social channels when it came to driving traffic to Amazon in time for Prime Day.

Toys were the top category for Amazon last Prime Day; Personal Care made waves

When looking at the top categories for Prime Day last October, Toys led the way, compared to other categories. However, Personal Care was ranked either 1 or 2 across all retailers. 

This was also reflected in the top products, as last October’s most popular products in the MikMak Shopping Index were largely Toys or Personal Care products.

What’s happening now, and what we expect to see for Prime Day 2024 

Overall, according to the MikMak Shopping Index, Amazon is seeing traffic increase, with over 40 percent more traffic in the last three months compared to the prior three months. However, this growth is not seen across all categories. Right now, Personal Care, Toys, and Household Products are seeing the most growth in traffic to Amazon. Meanwhile, Walmart continues to see more traffic in the Grocery category compared to Amazon. 

However, Amazon still continues to build efficiencies to attract and engage shoppers with its enhanced AI capabilities and its ad products.

Meta is expected to drive the most traffic to retailer-driven shopping occasions, compared to other social channels

When looking at the three major retailers (Amazon, Target, Walmart), Meta, TikTok, and YouTube are all driving the most eCommerce traffic when compared to other social channels. However, the order in which these platforms are driving traffic varies across retailers.

There is more variance when looking at the top categories by retailer. Amazon’s current top categories include Household Products, Personal Care, and Beauty. Walmart sees Personal Care leading the pack, followed by Household Products and Beauty. Target also sees Personal Care as its top category, followed by Beauty and Grocery. 

Drive your consumers to the best deal available 

During retailer-driven shopping occasions like Prime Day, shoppers will be hunting for the best deal on your product. To make this process easier for the shopper, it may sometimes make sense for a brand to drive a specific campaign or SKU to just one retailer. 

Here’s a cheat sheet of when it’s best to drive to one retailer over a retailer-agnostic approach:

To understand how your brand can utilize MikMak to stay ahead during retailer-driven shopping occasions like Prime Day, and collect valuable insights to inform strategy, schedule a demo with MikMak today.