Sellers are preparing for Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Days of 2023. Prime Days are the online retailer’s biggest sales of the year, and insiders predict the sale will fall on July 11 and 12, though Amazon hasn’t confirmed the dates yet. 

Mike Scheschuk, president of small and medium business at marketplaces software vendor Jungle Scout, shared some predictions for the sale with Digital Commerce 360.

Amazon sellers embrace social media 

Amazon sellers plan to use social media to find customers for Prime Day this year, Scheschuk told Digital Commerce 360.

In the past, sellers would submit deals to Amazon to be featured, and that’s still an option, “but it’s not the only way to get visibility during the selling event,” he said. In 2023, 41% of sellers are marketing their deals on social media, a 15-point increase over 2022, per Jungle Scout data. Amazon will rebate some fees to sellers who send social media traffic to the marketplace, he said.

Some sellers use what Scheschuk calls more traditional forms of social media, like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, to send consumers to Amazon. They post videos that are “essentially infomercials” with links to products. That’s become “super common,” Scheschuk said.

TikTok is becoming an increasingly important place for sellers to market, too. 36% of Gen Z consumers say they’re likely to purchase items they see on TikTok, according to Jungle Scout data.

“That’s a huge trend that we’re seeing. A lot of traffic is now coming from TikTok to Amazon,” Scheschuk said. 

Inventory is in good shape

As a seller, Scheschuk says it is “significantly easier to get inventory into the country,” in 2023 compared to 2022, particularly through ports. That means sellers have access to more inventory for Prime Day sales. 

“Our expectation is that you won’t see as many shortages [as last year] and sellers have inventory on hand.” 

Sellers may also advertise better deals for shoppers now that they aren’t dealing with as many shortages, he said.

Consumers are prepared to spend

Consumers say they’re ready to spend more on discretionary categories as inflation slows down, Scheschuk said. He cited the Federal Reserve’s recent decision not to raise interest rates.

Jungle Scout’s most recent quarterly consumer survey showed 28% of consumers said they expect to increase their spending. That’s the largest number of consumers saying that since 2020, Scheschuk said.

Even so, not all consumers are going to spend more. It’s a case of “haves versus have nots,” he said. That quarter of consumers who responded positively could be a boon to Amazon sellers this Prime Day.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Amazon is also No. 3 in the Online Marketplaces database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces.

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