Amazon Prime Day: What it means for your dropshipping store and how to take advantage of it

The much-anticipated summer sale event from Amazon is as popular as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Exclusively for Amazon Prime members, the two-day sale generated US $11.79 billion in 2021, the most successful online retail event in Amazon's history, says Adobe Analytics. This figure is more than Cyber Monday 2021 total sales.

Key facts

Boosting sales during a typically slow season

Amazon created Prime Day back in 2015 to celebrate its 20th birthday. It was cleverly designed to attract sales during the summer when online retail purchases are usually slow.

Since its launch, Amazon Prime Day has become a long-awaited annual event for snagging a bargain. Amazon's brand of electronics is particularly promoted with huge savings. Products such as the Firestick, Kindle, and Echo Dot are reduced to the best price to buy in the year.

Last year, Prime Day was held on 21-22 July 2021. The exact dates aren't released until closer to the time, however, it is usually held in June or July. Some sources predict that this year it will be held on 18-19 July 2022.

Why is it beneficial for dropshippers?

The advantages of Amazon Prime Day are numerous, even if you don't sell products that are eligible for Prime delivery, or on Amazon's marketplace at all.

More sales if dropshipping on Amazon

For those that dropship on Amazon, this is the most obvious way to benefit from Prime Day.

There are two ways to sell on Amazon - FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) or FBM (Fulfilment by Merchant). Selling through FBA means that Amazon stores your inventory in their warehouse and they are responsible for delivering your products to the customer. FBM means that the merchant, ie dropshipper, is responsible for the storage and delivery of products.

What does this matter? Well, to sell products under Amazon's Prime service, sellers must be FBA (it is possible through FBM but very difficult). It would seem that only these sellers will experience boosted sales if they are included in the retail event.

However, due to the high volume of traffic on Amazon's website during the sale, your products have a high chance of piggy-backing from the event as customers also browse and purchase non-Prime products.

Competitor sale days to boost your orders

For dropshippers that aren't using Amazon, there is still a way to ride the profitable Prime Day wave. As an alternative, eCommerce sites such as eBay, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Kohl's in the US. In the UK, retailers with epic deals include Curry's PC World, Very, Carphone Warehouse, mostly across electronics, computers, and mobile devices.

eBay set up a Crash Sale on 15 July 2019 when the Amazon site was overwhelmed during Prime Day. Since then, eBay has offered three weeks of sales during the same period as Amazon. This isn't published as being a recurring annual event, but with the success of Prime Day, we expect eBay won't want to miss out.

By using Walmart, for example, as a supplier, your products will automatically be reduced in price during the summer sale. Online shoppers love a bargain and no doubt your orders will go through the roof around the Prime Day bonanza.

How to make the most of the sale season

Take full advantage of this peak sale season when the most online orders are being made around the world. Here are some ideas:

To summarise

The record-breaking data from Amazon's Prime Day makes it a day not to be missed by dropshippers and eCommerce entrepreneurs. The massive marketing campaigns by top retailers and marketplaces during this time bring the masses to shop online. An opportunity worth taking advantage of!

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