How Amazon Prime Day Can Give Other Retail Brands a Boost

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On Amazon‘s biggest sale day of the year, consumers are not alone in watching will be up for grabs.

Brands that do not have Amazon in their name are also looking for ways to benefit from the heightened shopping activity expected on this “retail holiday,” says Jaysen Gillespie, vice president of data science and analytics for Criteo. His company, a retargeting firm that works with e-commerce companies to deliver personalized ads, gathered data from its network that shows that there is an opportunity for other retailers to take advantage of the elevated consumer spending.

Prime Day brings noticeable increases in shopping, he says, but not at Black Friday levels. There is, however, a spillover effect on Prime Day, Gillespie says, and smaller retailers can benefit from the foot traffic drawn to anchor stores at shopping centers.

Based on data gathered by Criteo around Amazon Prime Day in 2016, visits to other major e-commerce sites rose 15 percent, site engagement was up 21 percent, the number of transactions increased 45 percent, and the value of those orders rose 55 percent. Those assessments were derived from online retails and traffic data relative to the same days of the week for the four weeks the led to last year’s Amazon Prime Day.

Though this spree of deals and discounts got its start through Amazon, Gillespie says other retailers have stepped up to take advantage of the feeding frenzy among consumers. “Other retailers are facing a fight to the death with Amazon,” he says. “If they lose a person into the Amazon Prime–ecosystem, it is very hard to recapture future spend from that person.”

In response, some retailers offer services such as expedited shipping to create a shopping experience they believe is comparable to Amazon Prime, Gillespie says, but without the signup fees. There are still exclusive items and media content only available to Amazon Prime customers. “The more you try to look like Amazon, the more you’ve got to respond to Prime Day and offer Prime-like experiences,” he says.

During Amazon Prime Day, he says, other retailers have enjoyed increases in conversions and their conversion rate likely because more consumers are in more of a buying mood. If retailers want to survive under Amazon’s ever-growing shadow though, Gillespie says, they might need to take further actions such as share data with each other and use best-in-class tools to remain relevant with consumers.

Aggressive retailers might also interpose themselves into the Prime Day conversation by monitoring and price matching what gets discounted on Amazon during hourly flash sales, he says. “When those sales end, they might put those same items on sale on their sites to capture the people who didn’t get the deal on Amazon,” Gillespie says.

Criteo plans to gather data on Amazon Prime Day 2017, he says, and plans to do additional analysis based on this year’s activity.

Joao-Pierre Ruth is a Street Fight contributor.

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