When Amazon brings back its annual Prime Day sale this week, changes will include invite-only deals and a “noticeable” increase in personalization, Fast Company writes. But can the two-day discount bonanza keep getting bigger? As Prime Day has grown — from 34 million items sold during the inaugural 2015 event to 300 million last year — so has competition from rivals Target and Walmart, which are both holding overlapping sales events. E-commerce is also less of a focus for the company, with Bloomberg reporting that Amazon Web Services accounted for all of its $12.2 billion operating profit last year.
By Ruiqi Chen, Editor at LinkedIn News
Amazon’s Prime Day 2023 will be all about personalization
The online shopping behemoth will debut a number of new features this year, including invite-only deals and reimagined lists.
“The breadth of this event has gotten tremendously big,” says Carmen Nestares Pleguezuelo, head of Amazon’s U.S. Prime memberships. “Your Prime Day and my Prime Day are different. We’re going to tailor Prime Day exclusively for [the customer].”
By leveraging machine learning, tweaking existing features, and introducing a few new ones, Amazon aims to put the deals that are most likely to appeal to you directly in your line of sight. It’s not the first year Prime Day has been personalized (that would have been in 2021—and engagement shot up 400%), but it’s likely going to be the most noticeable.
Some of those campaigns might be familiar, such as “recommended deals for you” or “inspired by your recent history.” But also present will be deals on items you’ve bought before and everyday essentials, making you aware of savings on things you buy frequently or are inspired by them. The front page of the site will also alert you to deals on items that are on your wish lists.
To make the site hyper-personalized for Prime members, Amazon is using AI and deep learning, says Nestares Pleguezuelo, looking at everything from shipping and browser histories to wish list. While there’s not necessarily anything new about that, the Prime Day implementation of it will be to a higher degree than you’ve seen before.
Internal tests have shown the new tools do, in fact, encourage shoppers. “Shop along” events, where Amazon employees watch customers as they browse the site, have shown people’s desire to more quickly access their list. It could also help engage Gen Z, as younger customers have less patience in hunting for deals.
Among the new features that will be rolled out for Prime Day 2023 are:
- Invite-only deals: Rather than hoping to catch the biggest deals and beat out every other user, this year you’ll be able to request an invite to purchase the product in advance. That’s available now and the lucky ones who do get a shot will be notified on Prime Day with instructions on how to purchase the item. They’ll have until the end of the day to do so.
- Reimagined lists: Customers can view and manage saved items within a centralized spot—“Your Lists”—which will automatically group saved items into relevant product categories, such as “Health and Beauty,” “Clothing, Shoes, and Accessories,” “Books,” and (yes) “Deals,” featuring all saved items that are on sale.
- Buy Again 2.0: Items you’ve purchased before that are on sale (such as light bulbs, dog food, or deodorant) will be highlighted in a special area on the site and in the app.
The personalization and emphasis on Prime comes at a bit of an awkward time for Amazon. In late June, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued the retailer, accusing it of enrolling customers in its Amazon Prime program without their consent and “sabotaging their attempts to cancel” those memberships.
“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan in a statement. “These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike.”
Amazon disputed the charges, saying “we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership. As with all our products and services, we continually listen to customer feedback and look for ways to improve the customer experience, and we look forward to the facts becoming clear as this case plays out.”
Regardless of how that suit plans out, expect personalization to become more and more a part of Amazon’s shopping experience. The ambition, says Nestares Pleguezuelo, is to have personalized deal events for customers at some point.
“We’re on this journey,” she said. “How long it will take us, I cannot answer. It’s one of the most exciting things I’m working on.”
Source: FAST COMPANY
