In less than a week, Amazon
Prime Day will toss the retail world into a mid-summer frenzy. The
e-Commerce giant is counting on its one million-plus deals to bring consumers
in by the droves. With the shopping event expanding from 30 hours to 36 hours
and Amazon
potentially reeling in $3.4 billion
in worldwide sales, retailers feel the ultimate pressure and are
left with one question — “What are we going to do for Prime Day?”
The RTP team
discusses how retailers should handle Prime Day, and whether the event is a
true opportunity for merchants to capitalize on, or just another venue for
Amazon to continue its dominance.
Debbie Hauss,
Editor-in-Chief: As a shopper, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the offers
during Prime Day 2017, so the bar is set a bit low for me this year. I do hope
to see some great Whole Foods deals,
though, as a Prime member. We’ll see. For retailers, though, I do see Prime day
as an opportunity to take advantage of the attention around the event. For
example, looking to get consumer attention ahead of Prime Day, Wine
Library (a N.J.-based family business built by social media guru
Gary Vaynerchuk) sent out a recent email promo that stated: July 16th
is Amazon Prime Day. July 10th and 11th is Wine Library’s Library Pass 2 Day
Event! I think the tactic of getting promos out ahead of Prime Day is
a smart one that all retailers feeling the heat from Amazon should consider.
Adam Blair, Executive
Editor: Is it almost Prime Day again? It seems like just yesterday that I
took down my Prime Day decorations and re-gifted Aunt Alice’s Prime Day
fruitcake. But seriously, one of the advantages of essentially creating your
own holiday, as Amazon has done with amazing speed and
success, is that you get to set the rules. And those rules, like the odds at a
casino, are stacked in favor of Jeff Bezos’ “house.” The best deals will be
reserved for Amazon’s 100 million Prime members — and now the retailer has
brick-and-mortar Prime Day outlets as well, thanks to its Whole Foods acquisition.
Unfortunately, competing online retailers shouldn’t count on
much additional traffic from the 36-hour day (I predict that it will be
“Prime Week” by 2020). As my colleague Bryan Wassel points out in his article, Prime Day isn’t a Nordstrom annual
sale that creates spillover traffic for other retailers located in the mall.
Gotta go, the Prime Day carolers are coming up the walk.
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Glenn Taylor, Senior
Editor: This is a situation, like many when Amazon comes into play, where
retailers are going to have to discover and rely on what they do best. It’s
easy to try to be a copycat in these situations, or to play catch-up. But if
it’s not authentic, shoppers are going to notice. This year, Kohl’s and Macy’s have both done decent jobs curbing some of the criticisms
against them as they attempt a turnaround, but the deals they’re running this
week (“It’s A Big Deal!” for Kohl’s and “Black Friday in July!” for Macy’s) appear
to be counterintuitive. Throwing constant promotions at consumers without
differentiating the offerings is one of the main reasons the department store
sector fell so far behind in recent years. While these retailers always reeled
in record sales during holidays, their long-term success suffered. Retailers
should be focusing more on their own peaks and valleys, based on when consumers are determined to shop, and
fit their promotions into their own schedule — especially if they’re trying to
stand out.
Bryan Wassel,
Associate Editor: Perhaps the retailers that should be most nervous about
Prime Day are the supermarkets — after all, this is the first year Whole
Foods will be included in the shopping holiday. While most Prime Day shoppers
focus on electronics or home goods, Amazon’s proposed discounts at
Whole Foods stores almost certainly will bring in curious customers who haven’t
yet found a reason to shop there. While a 36-hour discount on produce might not
be enough to shift long-standing grocery loyalties by itself, Sylvain
Perrier, President and CEO of Mercatus, noted
that the event also will be a massive data-gathering opportunity. Competing
supermarkets should be prepared for Amazon to track the biggest sellers during
Prime Day, and to put pressure on those categories going forward.
