Amazon’s Prime Day 2018 is going to start on July 16 with more than one million deals around the world.
Starting at 12 PM Pacific or 3 PM Eastern Time, Prime Day will run for 36 hours through July 17, a six-hour increase over 2017. This year’s event will also include deals at all US Whole Foods Market stores, which was purchased by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) last year for $13.7 billion.
Prime Day has become an event worthy of notice not just for shoppers but for small businesses who sell via Amazon too. In 2017, customers ordered more than 40 million units from small businesses, double the volume of orders in 2016. Business owners have described the event as their best sales day in several years.
With Prime Day, Amazon has created excitement during one of the slowest sales periods in the calendar year. During the peak of summer, consumers are more interested in having fun in the sun and less interested in shopping. With big deals and a short purchasing window, the marketing effort has paid off well not only for Amazon but for the small businesses using the platform to sell their products.
Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO of Worldwide Consumer, says in the press release, “Prime members will enjoy a day (and a half) of our best deals, with 36 hours to shop more than one million deals worldwide. More than 100 million paid Prime members around the world will find our best Prime Day celebration yet.”
This year Australia, Singapore, Netherlands and Luxembourg have been added to the number of countries able to participate. They will join the U.S., U.K., Spain, Mexico, Japan, India, Italy, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium and Austria.
Deals will cover everything from everyday essentials to TVs, smart home devices, gadgets, electronics, computing devices, kitchen and grocery products, toys, fashion, furniture, appliances and back-to-school supplies. Amazon devices such as Alexa-enabled Echo, Fire TV and Fire tablets will also be discounted.
Benefit for Small Business
As a small business, you will be able to increase your audience with Prime Day by having the eyes of 100 million customers on your brand and products. This type of exposure comes by just being on the Amazon platform without having to spend additional marketing dollars.
Your small business can sell its products on Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Handmade, Amazon Exclusives and more. Customers from around the world will become aware of your brand.
The event can also provide an opportunity to purchase products your business needs by taking advantage of the best deals available until Black Friday. Whether it is office supplies or badly needed computing devices, electronics, appliances or travel, this could be a good opportunity to buy.
Getting Ready for Amazon Prime Day 2018
Amazon has made it easy for customers to keep track of all the deals. They can use the Amazon App from July 9 to 15 for its Prime Day Sneak Peek to take a look at some of the items which will be on sale.
The deals will also be categorized into 40 of the most-shopped-for interests so you can quickly find what you are looking for. And when customers are ready to check out, they can get 5% back on their Prime day purchases if they use an Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card or the Amazon Prime Store Card.
Image: Amazon