The bump in sales is always a welcome benefit of being a seller on Amazon during Prime Day, and many are happy to leave it at that. But if you dig beneath the top level sales numbers, there’s much to be learned that can help you hone your positioning going into Q4. When Prime Day has come and gone, sellers should examine their Prime Day performance and ask themselves some key questions regarding their business operations:

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

• What sold surprisingly well? What didn’t?
• Did popular items run out of stock because you had too little inventory?
• Did you overstock other items that did not sell as well as expected?
• Did you run deals on slow-movers to clear inventory? Did the inventory move, or do you need to consider other tactics, including removals to avoid excess monthly or long-term storage fees?
  

Managing your inventory properly will prevent your Amazon product rankings from dropping as a result of running out of stock. Be sure to know your daily sales velocities and lead times so you can order accordingly. Your Prime Day data can help you predict seasonal fluctuations in sales so you can stock appropriately for Q4. Maintaining a high in-stock rate, healthy inventory levels, and fixing any listing issues promptly will keep your Inventory Performance Index in good standing.

FULFILLMENT

• FBM: Were you able to keep up with the increased orders, or do you need to adjust your staffing and/or operations to handle the peak sales during Q4?
• FBA: Did you get your inventory shipped into the Fulfillment Centers (FCs) in time? Were some of your items still in FC Transfer status on Prime Day?
  

Making sure your inventory is being properly fulfilled is integral to maintaining sales velocity and that all-important buy box. Whether you’re FBM or FBA, use your Prime Day performance to identify issues with your lead time so you’re ready to fulfill when the customer is ready to purchase.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

• Did you adequately communicate with your customers, answering their questions and concerns?
• Did you have sufficient staff to handle the increased load during Prime Day and in the days following?
  

Increased sales creates an increased need to take care of your customers; failing to do so means you could lose some of the momentum from Prime Day. Working proactively with customers means reducing negative seller feedback, meaning better results in seller performance metrics and making your products more likely to move. You’re also more likely to have return-customers and customer referrals come Q4 if you leave a good impression and establish trust. And remember, your customer service employees can give you insight into the customer’s experience with your product, enabling you to answer questions and ease concerns before they arise, as well as to improve your designs or packaging. Use that information and prepare now for Q4.

SELLER PERFORMANCE

• Were sales, promotions or marketing campaigns on Prime Day impacted by poor seller performance metrics?
  

If you weren’t getting the sales results you wanted, take a look at your seller performance metrics and your Inventory Performance Index. If any of your seller performance metrics are below target ranges, or your IPI score is 350 or below, you’ll want to improve your metrics. See Amazon’s Guide to healthy inventory management for tips and tools to help you achieve and maintain a healthy IPI.

ADVERTISING & BRAND PROMOTION

• Which promotions and campaigns worked well? Which did not, and why?
• Did you budget appropriately for the increased ad spend on Prime Day? Did your campaigns run out of budget too early in the day causing you to miss out on opportunities to reach shoppers later in the day?
• Did you manage bids so your sales were profitable?
• Did you utilize your social media channels to promote your Prime Day deals to your customer base?
  

Knowing how your PPC campaigns and other promotions performed during Prime Day will help you refine your advertising and promotional strategies for Q4.

The answers to these questions will help you strategize and identify needed improvements for a profitable fourth quarter, and for an even more successful Prime Day in 2020. For additional help, you can schedule a free 30 minute consultation with our experienced advisors at Egility.