February 11, 2023
Units
Sold vs. Average
Sales
Baseline Lift
Units
Sold vs. BFCM 2021
Advertising
Conversion Rate
This year, we saw performance impacted by a few variables never before experienced.
Firstly, we saw the COVID e-commerce spike trend down a bit, which was indicated by consumers falling back to in-store shopping on Black Friday at a higher rate. As a result, Sunday and Cyber Monday performed the best of the 5-day main event, which runs from Thanksgiving Thursday to Cyber Monday. Black Friday still saw a lift but not as profound as the last couple of years.
Secondly, Amazon ran 2 Prime Day events in the same year for the 1st time ever, with the 2nd event, “Prime Early Access Sale” (dubbed Fall Prime Day), occurring in October only about 5-6 weeks before Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotions began. Because of this, consumers got a head start on their holiday shopping earlier than ever.
Third, there was a mass Amazon Advertising Console technical glitch, resulting in underspending on Black Friday.
Nevertheless, VENDO was able to deliver on wins for its brand partners as detailed below.
Also known as “Turkey 5”, this is what consumers think of when they think of Black Friday/Cyber Monday and thus this is when the traffic floods in and subsequently the most purchases are made. Deep discounts are expected, so to be competitive, we must cater to consumer expectations as much as possible and balance that with each brand’s specific objectives, for example, profitability vs. growth.
Note: for brands that are eligible for Deals of the Day aka Top Deals, we would prioritize those. In addition, we would consider prioritizing for Lightning Deals that get scheduled at the beginning of the main event, with the Prime Exclusive Discount kicking in shortly after it ends (typically, 30 minutes to a few hours).
The idea behind this stage is it will drive more traffic and sales thus greasing up the algorithm right before the main event. In addition, because Amazon begins promoting the event in the weeks leading up, traffic, intention to buy, and competitiveness will increase.
Recommended Duration: 3-7 days Recommended Discount: 10-20%
Note: on average, 15% saw the strongest performance
Deal Type: Coupon
Note: this deal type does not impact the pricing eligibility requirements for the main event Prime Exclusive Discount, thereby minimizing the likeliness that it gets suppressed.
The idea behind this stage is it will drive more traffic and sales thus maximizing the likeliness that the wins we saw during the pre, and main event have been solidified in the algorithm. In other words, maximizing the likeliness that we will have a higher baseline for both sales and organic search ranking.
Duration: 3-7 days Discount: 10-20% Deal Type: Coupon
Leading up to big tentpole events, we work hard to drive up organic ranking (Category Ranking, BSR/Best Seller Ranking, and Keyword Ranking), so that our brand partners’ products can have increased visibility to capitalize on the mass influx of traffic.
We conduct ranking efforts through various methods; most notably: on-Amazon advertising, off-Amazon advertising (Google performs particularly well due to the search-based functionality overlap and we also noticed a high correlation with TikTok ad traffic and ranking increases), and trialing campaigns.
We conduct ranking efforts through various methods; most notably: on-Amazon advertising, off-Amazon advertising (Google performs particularly well due to the search-based functionality overlap and we also noticed a high correlation with TikTok ad traffic and ranking increases), and trialing campaigns.
