Amazon Prime Early Access: Do's and Don'ts During the Holidays

It’s Black Friday already! Sort of. With the holidays approaching and high inflation in full swing, consumers want a head start on holiday deals. On Oct. 11-12, Amazon kicks off the season early with its new Prime Early Access Sale. For retailers, it’s an opportunity to increase sales, ROI and visibility. 

But how do you know if it’s right for your company, and how can you take advantage? I’m sharing tips from years of online DTC sales experience, including Amazon Prime Day. This year, using tried-and-tested strategies, Volcanica Coffee reported a 43% increase in Prime Day sales over 2021. 

Here are my top tips to achieve maximum impact during the Prime Early Access Sale and similar events in the future.

1. Prioritize holiday gift options and listings. This is essentially Amazon’s holiday kick-off, so assessing what products you foresee as holiday gift best-sellers is essential. Evaluate and review titles, photos and descriptions to focus on why shoppers should care about your product and purchase it as a gift. Don’t assume that consumers know your products, so use easy-to-understand bullet points and simple descriptions free from jargon. Feature multiple product photos — stills against a white background, images from all angles and products in use. Remember, product styled for the holidays is a bonus, but be sure to remove them in late December. High-quality video production enhances the perception of a product’s quality too.  
2. Send Amazon A LOT of inventory — and send it early. Lack of inventory translates to a loss of sales and decreases search ranking on Amazon. Also, the earlier, the better. Amazon gets a lot of stock, and the last thing you want for your orders to come in is that the warehouse hasn’t unloaded your shipment yet. 
3. Invest in marketing offers and deals. Special offers — from Lightning Deals to coupons, ads or sponsored opportunities — increase sales conversions favored by Amazon algorithms, pushing the product higher up in search results and reaping the benefits of the increased traffic during the promotional sale. 
4. Leverage product reviews. Increased traffic and sales provide a “prime” opportunity to increase product reviews favored by purchasers, media and Amazon. If you have an excellent product and solid customer service, the positive reviews will reflect that and help your sales funnel. You should also consider engaging with a company that helps increase customer reviews, such as Feedback Genius.
5. Capture online traffic. Consumers often research brands by going to their websites before purchasing on Amazon. This is an ideal time to capture that traffic by offering complimentary coupons/deals with email opt-ins on your website. 
6. Evaluate results for increased holiday sales. Analyze ROI and customer feedback and use it to improve your product as you go into the high-sales holiday season.

About the Author: Volcanica Coffee CEO and founder Maurice Contreras started the company after visiting his homeland in Costa Rica. While he was there, he saw an opportunity to import excellent tasting coffee from volcanic regions. The online retailer operates a coffee plant near Atlanta, with 20 employees, including his wife and two adult children.