When is a day 48 hours long? When it’s Prime Day! parcelLab CEO Tobias Buxhoidt offers advice on how you can ride on the crest of another growing Amazon buying wave…
Amazon Prime Day is back next week, and it looks like the online retail giant is building this shopping event up to rival Black Friday. This year, its annual sales bonanza will start on Monday 15 July and last a full 48 hours, up from 36 hours last year. Of course, this isn’t just an opportunity for Amazon.
Online retailers can capitalise on this upcoming buying frenzy by creating their own offers, just as they would for Black Friday. These can be promoted using retargeting across social media, pay-per-click advertising, plus by retargeting ads using tools like Criteo.
Another great way to promote your own offers and potentially deflect attention from Amazon is to get personal with your existing customers. Last year’s Periscope report by McKinsey revealed the importance of retailers improving the customer experience through targeted communication, with more than a fifth (21 per cent) of British consumers saying they welcome and expect personalised messages and offers.
Check out the purchase history of your customers, and where possible, send them offers on complementary items via email or text, rather than simply replicating their recent purchase, which basic re-targeting can be guilty of, and tends to annoy rather than attract customers.
A channel that’s often neglected from a marketing perspective, the shipping process, also offers a great opportunity to engage with customers prior to Prime Day. If you control your own post-purchase communications or can influence those of your logistics provider, adding relevant offers, particularly on complementary purchases over the next few days can be particularly effective.
This is because research shows that these post-purchase communication emails have opening rates of between 70-80 per cent. You are more likely to engage with customers at this phase of the buying process more than any other, especially if you are presenting relevant products.
Making advance contact with customers in this way lets them know you’re having your own special Prime Day just for them and builds anticipation for the event. This is particularly pertinent, considering that the Periscope by McKinsey research found that 82 per cent of people do no or very little pre-planning for these online bonanzas, making them open to influence and inspiration.
If you do promote your own offers in conjunction with Prime Day, there’s a chance you’ll attract new customers, because more people than usual will be out there in a buying frame of mind and actively looking for bargains. This means it’s worth making sure the customer’s experience of your delivering is as good as possible so that you can retain these shoppers beyond Prime Day.
Again, don’t forget the shipping experience in this regard. Personalising post-purchase communication encourages 75 per cent of customers to return to shop during the delivery and returns phase, with up to 1 per cent buying there and then. If you don’t control this key part of the online customer journey, you’re not taking full advantage of a key engagement and marketing opportunity. Don’t worry if you’re not able to implement all of these ideas in time for Prime Day 2019 – just make sure they’re up and running for this year’s Black Friday.
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