What is Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day was introduced to the world in 2015 as a celebration of Amazon’s 20th anniversary and serves as an annual deal event, exclusively for Prime members. During Prime Day (or days, as was the case in 2019), Prime members have access to special savings that often rival what retailers offer on other savings-driven days like Black Friday. Members see huge discounts – sometimes the lowest prices on popular products from categories like tech, beauty, home, and more.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon hasn’t announced Prime Day dates for 2020 yet, but if past Prime days are any indicator, there’s a lot to look forward to.
The Prime Day Facts:
- In 2019, members bought a record-breaking 175 million products.
- The name “Prime Day” is a bit of a misnomer, since each sale event tends to last longer than the one previously; Prime Day 2019 was two full days. 2020 will mark Amazon’s 25th anniversary, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they celebrated with a longer stretch of discounts.
- Deals aren’t usually announced ahead of time and are subject to change throughout the day. Some businesses choose to participate, sometimes at a loss, to make sure that they can be found alongside other retailers on a day they know that traffic and shopping will be significantly increased.
- Amazon Prime Day, unsurprisingly, does usually feature steep discounts on Amazon products like the Echo Dot, Fire TV, Fire tablet, Kindle products, and even discounts on services and subscriptions like Kindle Unlimited, Audible, and Prime Video.
- There are more ways to shop on Prime Day than just via web browser. Users can ask Alexa, Amazon’s personal assistant technology, to add stuff to your Amazon cart and in the past, Amazon has offered voice-exclusive Prime Day deals.
- Because Amazon owns Whole Foods, Prime members can expect discounts on certain products from Whole Foods Market.
Why participate in Prime Day?
Prime Day helps customers save, but it benefits businesses too. Companies on the Amazon marketplace can take advantage of Prime Day to engage with audiences and find new customers. It can help some businesses scale quickly and drive significant sales. Combined with strategic advertising, Prime Day deals can help grow an organization’s audience by either introducing them to the brand for the first time or helping to expand awareness of the product line.