Second Amazon Prime Day Held in Q4
In 2022, Amazon introduced a second Prime Day to round out the year. The Prime Early Access Sale lasted two full days in October 2022 and ran a selection of early deals for Prime members. Heading into Fall 2023, Amazon has officially announced the second annual sale, though this time rebranded to Prime Big Deals Day.
Amazon has increasingly looked beyond the traditional summer Prime Day event to bolster sales and Prime membership (i.e. the 2021 beauty products event, 2022 Pet Day, etc.). Though the Prime Big Deals Day will likely not outperform the annual July Prime Day, even a small percentage of sales on Amazon can convert to major profits for Sellers (and great deals for consumers).
Predictions for the 2023 Prime Big Deal Days
The 2023 Prime Big Deals Day was officially announced in early August, and will take place sometime in October. Despite the smaller performance in 2022 when compared to Prime Day, Amazon still saw major sales from the PEAS. With two Prime Days a year possibly being the new normal, Sellers should follow Amazon’s recommendations to recalibrate their strategies to increase performance. We expect that PBDD 2023 will once again perform less strong than Prime Day 2023, but likewise still see significant enough sales to ensure a PEAS 2024.
2022 Prime Early Access Sale Recap & Results
Similar to the wider discourse, our team had expected the 2022 Q4 Prime Day to fall short of the typical summer event. This was due to the inevitable increased competition from brands and marketplaces off Amazon offering discounts throughout the holiday season, while the summer Prime Day is specific to Amazon.
As predicted, the 2022 Prime Early Access Sale did not outperform the perennially successful Prime Day. Prime Day saw more impressions, more expensive clicks, more spend & sales all at a higher ROAS than PEAS. The data tells us that consumers looked at Prime Day as an actual sales event. PEAS, however, received much less attention in the media and shoppers were unfamiliar with a second Prime deals event only a few months later.
Expert Tips
Though the Prime Early Access Sale is sandwiched between two other major tentpole events (Prime Day & Turkey 5), participating could help bolster your sales — if you play your cards correctly.
- Use the event to jumpstart holiday sales. An early Q4 sale will give brands a great audience to re-target throughout the holiday season, driving more momentum to listings.
- Heavy-up budgets across Prime Day 2 & Turkey 5. If you don’t have the budget for both, prioritize Turkey 5 over PBDD because we know shoppers will be very active during Turkey 5, while a Q4 Prime Day is a bit of a wildcard. Stay on top of your budget pacing though, as the addition of another sales event will change how you typically prioritize budgets throughout Q4.
- Be aware of discounting. Amazon’s Best Deals, Lighting Deals, etc. — all will often require you to meet a certain percentage off the lowest trailing price. If you discount for Big Deals and then want to discount the same products for Turkey 5, you will likely be required to discount the previously discounted price that ran during Big Deals. If you plan to run discounts during both events, consider running different assortments for each to avoid increasing your margin losses.
Need help preparing for Q4 on Amazon? We can help! Macarta is a global full-service marketplace agency specializing in retail media to drive growth and sustained success for our brand partners. Reach out to us here, and let’s get started!