Prime Big Deal Days 2024, set for October 8-9, offers sellers a powerful opportunity to generate early holiday sales before the rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With Amazon’s July Prime Day raking in $12.7 billion globally, this event extends the shopping window and allows brands to capture early demand. This is especially important given the shortened holiday season—Thanksgiving falls on November 29th, leaving only three weekends before Christmas. Combine that with the distractions of the U.S. election, and November could be a chaotic month for retail. Prime Big Deal Days gives sellers a chance to start strong before the madness kicks in.
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To fully capitalize on this early opportunity, sellers should use Prime Big Deal Days to test demand, move slower inventory, and build momentum leading into the Cyber 5 sales period. By balancing early sales with strategic inventory and discount management, you can ease the pressure of the compressed holiday season while maximizing profitability in the months ahead. Here are some key tactics to implement for success.
Tactic 1: Implement Strategic Discounting
As emphasized by our CEO Liran Hirschkorn in a LinkedIn post, strategic discounting is key to managing your inventory efficiently and boosting sales during Prime Big Deal Days. To maximize profitability, it’s important to tailor your discount strategy based on product category. For high-demand items like toys and electronics, hold off on heavy discounts—these are likely to sell at full price as the holidays approach.
On the other hand, for slower-moving products like supplements or home goods, offering early discounts can help clear stock and avoid rising storage fees. When planning your discount strategy, consider factors like inventory levels, storage costs, demand forecasts, and the timing of holiday sales to strike the right balance between sales volume and profit margins.
How to Implement Strategic Discounting:
- Inventory Analysis
Start by reviewing your current stock levels. Identify products that are costing you money due to storage fees or have been sitting unsold for too long. Prioritize items that are less likely to perform during peak holiday shopping, such as supplements or seasonal goods (e.g., fall-themed products that may lose relevance after the holidays). These are the products you’ll want to discount first.
- Pricing Strategy
When it comes to discounting, aim for a sweet spot. You want to make the discounts attractive enough to entice buyers, but not so steep that you’re losing profits. Typically, discounts between 15-30% work well for moving slower inventory. Additionally, consider bundling slow-moving items with popular ones to increase the overall order size and move more products at once.
- Leverage Amazon’s Deals Features
Amazon offers several tools to help push sales. Use Lightning Deals to create urgency and increase visibility for your discounted products. Coupons can also make a difference. Offering a coupon makes your product stand out in search results and boosts conversion rates when paired with a percentage-off promotion.
- Monitoring and Adjusting
Keep a close eye on your sales performance. Amazon’s Seller Central reports give you daily insights into what’s working and what isn’t. If a particular discount isn’t driving the results you need, be ready to adjust. You might increase the discount, offer free shipping, or tweak your promotional messaging. Running A/B tests can also help you fine-tune which discount levels, headlines, and placements are most effective at converting shoppers.
Tactic 2: Hold Off on Best Sellers
As we mentioned earlier, tailoring your discount strategy for high-demand products is essential for maximizing profitability. Therefore, holding off on deep discounts for your best sellers can help maintain your product’s perceived value and drive full-price sales as Christmas approaches.
Instead of slashing prices on all products, create a sense of urgency through limited stock availability or offering smaller incentives, such as exclusive add-ons. This approach preserves margins while positioning your best sellers as premium, high-demand items that shoppers are willing to pay full price for during the peak holiday season.
How to Strategically Manage Best Sellers During the Sale:
- Identify Your Best Sellers
Start by analyzing your sales data to pinpoint which products are your best sellers. These are the items that consistently perform well, especially during holiday periods. Look for patterns from previous Prime Day and holiday seasons to see what products flew off the shelves. High-demand products generally don’t need deep discounts to move, especially as the holiday season approaches.
- Limit Discounts on High-Demand Products
For these best sellers, avoid offering significant discounts during Prime Big Deal Days. Shoppers are likely to pay full price for them closer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Instead, offer small incentives like free shipping or modest discounts (around 5-10%) to drive some early sales without eating into your profit margins. You can also use scarcity tactics, such as highlighting limited stock availability, to create urgency without discounting heavily.
- Plan Inventory Strategically
Make sure you have enough stock of your best sellers to meet the increased demand during peak holiday times. Monitor your inventory closely and replenish as needed, but avoid overstocking too early. Hold back a portion of your inventory for the Cyber 5 period when demand is likely to spike.
- Advertising Support for Best Sellers
Even without deep discounts, you can still drive traffic to your best sellers through targeted advertising. Run Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brand Ads during Prime Big Deal Days to maintain visibility and remind shoppers of your top products. Additionally, use Amazon DSP to retarget shoppers who’ve shown interest but haven’t yet converted. This strategy helps you capture early sales without sacrificing future profits during higher-demand periods.
Tactic 3: Manage Your Inventory for Profitability
Effective inventory management is essential during Prime Big Deal Days to avoid rising Amazon storage fees and maximize profitability as the holiday season ramps up. It’s crucial to clear excess inventory while preserving stock for high-demand periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The goal is to reduce storage costs on slow-moving items while strategically timing the release of best sellers for peak demand.
How to Strategically Manage Your Inventory
- Identify Excess Inventory
Pinpoint which products have been sitting in storage too long, especially those with slow sales velocity. These items are costing you in storage fees and will benefit from early discounts during Prime Big Deal Days. Products that don’t typically perform well during the holiday season, such as certain supplements or home goods, should be discounted early to free up warehouse space for higher-demand items.
- Move Excess Stock During Prime Big Deal Days
Offer attractive discounts (15-30%) on products that aren’t likely to sell during the peak holiday season. This allows you to clear inventory, reduce storage fees, and focus on more profitable items later. Bundle excess stock with popular products at a slight discount to encourage customers to buy more while moving slow inventory efficiently.
- Hold Back on High-Demand Products
At the same time, keep a close eye on your best-selling products, ensuring you have enough inventory to meet the expected demand during the peak season while avoiding overstocking too early.
- Time Inventory Release for Peak Demand
Release the bulk of your high-demand products during key sales periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This ensures you’re fully stocked for the most lucrative shopping window. Time your inventory orders so that you have enough stock for peak periods but aren’t paying excessive storage fees leading up to those events.
- Advertising Support for Inventory Management
Use Sponsored Product Ads or Sponsored Display Ads to promote discounted, slow-moving stock during Prime Big Deal Days. These ads help increase visibility for less popular items, boosting sales early. For withheld stock, use Amazon DSP to retarget potential customers who’ve viewed your best sellers. This keeps your top products front-of-mind without cutting into profit margins with early discounts.
Conclusion
By moving slow inventory early, holding back your best sellers for peak sales, and fine-tuning your ad strategy, you can create momentum that carries you through the busiest shopping season. The best part? You’ll do it with a plan that eases the pressure, helps manage stock, and boosts profitability.
If you’re spending over $25,000 a month on Amazon ads, our free Amazon audit can give you the insights you need to fine-tune your approach. We’ll provide a clear roadmap to optimize your ad campaigns, product listings, and overall strategy—so you can confidently make data-driven decisions and maximize your results during Prime Big Deal Days and beyond. Sign up for your free audit today and let us help you take your Amazon business to the next level.
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