Prime Day 2023: A POV from Hexclad and DUDE Wipes

What strategies or preparations did you undertake leading up to Amazon Prime Day to ensure a successful outcome?

Overall, keep the simplest game plan possible for Prime itself for both the customer and ourselves, so we can focus on firefighting issues when they arise.

An important driver was that we rarely discount our individual items by much on Hexclad.com and there was pent up demand for deals on certain items.

We did not change any prices for Prime Day, and we stuck to a 20% discount across normal retail prices for all items, for both days, regardless of the discount-type. We used Lightning Deals or Prime Exclusive Discounts whenever possible (as opposed to coupons). As a result, the customer’s perspective is very clear, “it doesn’t matter what you buy like a single item, or when you buy it, you’re getting the best deal you can get on Amazon”.

This was part of the strategy to target customers who are either aware of our brand but have still not purchased their first item, or have purchased an item before and not again in a long time. The idea being that presenting a straightforward no-nonsense promotion would be especially attractive to such customers who are looking for a frictionless and low-cost (re-)entry into the brand.

Such targeting was reinforced by our off-Amazon owned media traffic (SMS and email), as we only targeted customers who have not re-purchased for a significant amount of time on the D2C site (for traffic that went to AMZ).

Can you highlight any challenges or obstacles you faced during the event, and how did you overcome them?

Inventory control became an issue as we progressed into the second day, particularly because a number of items were about to go OOS before 9am. We wanted to avoid this as that would take down our virtual bundles. There was also concern that many customers may be viewing in the morning before buying later in the day, who would then think those items were OOS. As such, we called an audible and temporarily removed promos leading up to the morning of the 2nd day so that would be in FBA during the day.

How did you determine the right pricing strategy for your products?

As mentioned above, the main objective was minimizing friction in the buying process, by keeping the simplest discount structure (20% flat no matter what). It should also be noted that we significantly turned down our VB discounts and number of promotions for most of the year preceding PD, adding to the “urgency” and simplicity of the value proposition.

What was the impact on their organic search rank for top products before/during/after?

Not entirely sure, frankly. We never ranked particularly well for most non-brand keywords, however, we have seen noticeable boosts for Woks where we rank 1st and 6th. This is certainly something that we want to do better tracking for Q4.

Were there any lessons or key takeaways from your previous experiences with Amazon Prime Day that you applied this year to achieve success?

Our off Amazon push was strong last year and it worked well – we stuck with it this year and had strong results on site. Separately, our PPC strategy was more strategic this year and 2) However, on a related note, we did conclude that last year’s sales numbers/curve was not relevant to this year and if anything, it was detrimental to base any planning on that.

In light of your success, what advice or tips would you give to other founders or businesses looking to make the most of Amazon Prime Day?

IMO, success in Prime Day comes from the work you put in right now, many months beforehand. On an operational level, your Prime Day should be no different from any other day, albeit at a much bigger scale.

Or a more straightforward line: your “ceiling” depends on what you did before PD, and your “floor” depends on what you do during it.

For Prime Day itself, be sure to have clarity and alignment in the team regarding your goals and philosophy. This is not related to target sales numbers, or SEM efficiency, etc. This is related to fundamental questions such as “Why are we even providing a discount on Prime Day?”, “What is different about a customer on PD than on a normal day, and why do we care?”, and “How much is a sale on Prime Day actually worth to us?”. Misalignment on such principles will become particularly problematic when audibles/judgment calls must be made on the fly.

Introduce yourself, what’s your role, is this your first prime day?

My name is Joey and I work as our Sr. Director of e-Commerce at DUDE Wipes. This is our second time participating on Prime Day at DUDE Wipes. Personally, I have led some 4 brands on Amazon Prime Days since the first Prime Day in 2015.

Can you share an overview of your experience with this year's Amazon Prime Day? What made it successful for your business?

Prime Day felt a little messier this year than in previous years. We built an ASIN specific for Prime Day that could be profitable for both Amazon and DUDE. It’s a hard bundled ASIN with 6 packages of Shea BUTTer Wipes with 3 individual on-the-go wipes for your pocket. The benefit of creating a hard bundle is that Amazon can’t price match against the lowest priced competitor (usually Walmart). We planned the ASIN with Amazon, built inventory, launched in May via Born-to-Run and when it was time for Amazon to place POs, they wouldn’t. They argued that constrained space in the fulfillment centers and lack of demand for a new ASIN prohibited them from issuing any POs. We got creative. We sent offsite traffic to the PDP, tried some variations, ran a coupon to increase lift, and ultimately trigger A9 to show demand. We also reached out directly to our MVM after our VM, ISM, and SAS said they were powerless. The end result was a series of POs worth double what we’d asked Amazon to issue. Getting close to Prime Day, Amazon still felt messy. We didn’t get a final pricing agreement until 7pm on July 10th. However, the day was a success. Lots of traffic, great conversions, and our variated PDP really paid off. We saw massive lift for our Deal ASINs but also for the other ASINs variated on deal ASIN PDPs.

What strategies or preparations did you undertake leading up to Amazon Prime Day to ensure a successful outcome?

We pumped the flywheel in the lead up to Prime Day. We funneled more traffic to our PDPs via search and DSP, fought to increase our organic rankings and gain best seller badges, A/B tested titles, optimized images and copy, ensured A+ content best practices, and built out additional budget for search and DSP campaigns.

Can you highlight any challenges or obstacles you faced during the event, and how did you overcome them?

During the event, we had an ASIN flagged by the compliance team at Amazon and the ASIN was taken down. We immediately worked via tickets in VC and calls to our SAS to get the item reinstated. Otherwise, it was a smooth event from start to finish.

How did you determine the right pricing strategy for your products?

At DUDE Wipes, we save discounts for high traffic events like Prime or Turkey 5. Otherwise, the products simply aren’t on deal. The reasoning is that high traffic events give opportunity to drive trial for new consumers as opposed to continual promotions which can teach customers to wait for a deal before re-buying a product. To this end, we created ASINs that can be promoted on high traffic events without falling prey to poor price matching with Walmart, rendering the ASIN unprofitable for the manufacturer and potentially Amazon, leading to margin funding.

What was the impact on their organic search rank for top products before/during/after?

We fight for best seller badges and organic search ranking year round. We continue to maintain best seller badges and several top five organic ranking positions against most major keywords in our category. Prime Day just accelerates these holdings.

Were there any lessons or key takeaways from your previous experiences with Amazon Prime Day that you applied this year to achieve success?

Last year we went hard on Prime Day and - unknowingly - threw profitability to the wind. That’s because I made the mistake of signing a pricing agreement that committed us to margin funding (i.e. making Amazon’s margin whole when they discount on top of a poor price match). This led to higher topline sales in 2022 but at negative margins. For this year, I took those learnings and helped us build ASINs that could win on events like Prime for DUDE and for Amazon. This year we were significantly more profitable and still able to drive a great deal of new-to-brand trial on Prime Day.

Can you discuss the impact of Amazon Prime Day on your overall business performance and sales? How does it contribute to your long-term growth strategy?

Prime Day is about eyeballs, not discounts. Variate your winning ASINs with the ASIN that you choose to put on deal and watch the flywheel spin for your full catalog. Traffic and conversions can fuel A9 to improve your organic ranking which will give you a beneficial halo effect long after Prime Day. Prime Day is also an opportunity to drive trial with new customers. It can basically be a paid sampling program if done correctly. Pick a winning item with great repeat and strong customer loyalty. Watch new customers try your product because of the discount on Prime Day and stay with your brand with the power of DSP retargeting. For DUDE, Prime Day is an important lever in getting in front of new customers and increasing our flywheel for a beautiful post-Prime halo.

In light of your success, what advice or tips would you give to other founders or businesses looking to make the most of Amazon Prime Day?

Plan for Prime Day. Build a winning item with the right price, variate the ASIN with other ASINs that you want future sales from, spend against category and competitive search on the day, and sit back and count the cash rolling in. It’s sitting ducks in a pond. A day like Prime is full of every type of traffic. It’s a full funnel event… brand awareness, consideration, and conversion marketing opportunities all in one.