(BPT) – While mid-summer typically sees a lull in retail sales, causing some small businesses to hang on anxiously, waiting for better days, many are looking forward to mid-July as a great time to boost their businesses. Small and medium-sized businesses selling in Amazon’s stores are gearing up for this year’s Prime Day – a two-day parade of epic deals on July 15 and 16 – when shoppers worldwide will flock to the online store for over a million amazing deals.
Prime members looking for incredible deals and who love supporting innovators, artisans and entrepreneurs can find hundreds of thousands of deals on unique, one-of-a-kind products from small and medium-sized businesses on Amazon Storefronts, Amazon Handmade, Amazon Launchpad and more. For an idea of the scale of Prime Day business, last year’s Prime Day sales for small and medium-sized businesses surpassed $1.5 billion. In general, more than half of the items sold on Amazon are from small and medium-sized businesses.
Small business seller Zachary Lewis of Integrity Bottles explains, ‘Prime Day creates a wave all the way to Christmas.’ He plans to offer special deals on 20 products this Prime Day, including a Lightning Deal on 600 of his best-selling, uniquely etched crackle wine glasses. For the past three years he’s been selling through Amazon Handmade, and his sales have almost doubled year-over-year.
‘Amazon Prime Day gives us the opportunity to quickly rank new and existing products. It also allows us to use advertising more cost effectively to spread the word about our company and products,’ Lewis says.
Melissa Horvath of Sweet Water Decor would agree: “Prime Day is like Cyber Monday in July – it’s an amazing opportunity for businesses to get a nice boost in sales during the slow months of the year, when a lot of people are on vacation and enjoying summer. For us, sales tripled even when we offered no Prime deals, so we are excited to see what happens this year with almost our whole shop on sale!”
Horvath’s unique line of gift items will all be offered at a discount for Prime Day, with the best deals being on their candles and prints.
“We generally see a 500% increase in sales on Prime Day, and gaining a new customer base from that day is priceless,” says Nicole Pond, owner of MoonlightMakers. Their business, offering a line of T-shirts, towels and tote bags with humorous and heartfelt messages, will be “going all in with a ton of Prime Day deals,” Pond explains, offering 30% off two of their best-selling dishtowel products and more.
She highly recommends sellers make the most of Prime, explaining, “When we decided to sell on Prime, everything changed for us. We had to increase our staff because we had such a large boost in sales from the beginning, and it has been increasing ever since.” Pond says the extra boost in sales from Prime Day really keeps her business going year-round.
“Since Prime Day is the biggest day of the year on Amazon, I put everything in my shop on sale,” says Julie Pope of Sunlight Silver. “Some of my handmade hoop earrings will be featured on Prime Day, and more items will be on sale as part of the lead up to Prime Day as well, which had deals starting on July 1.”
Pope’s business saw a 455% increase in sales on Prime Day last year, followed by a daily average increase of 35% for the rest of the year. “Participating in Prime Day deals brings exposure to new customers who try out the product, tell their friends and then come back for more.”
