How shopper search trends reveal winning tactics for brands on Prime Day
Amazon Prime Day 2022 was the biggest prime day in Amazon’s history,
with shoppers purchasing over 300 million items worldwide.
We predicted that Beauty would be among the biggest categories this year, so we weren't surprised when Amazon reported that some of the best-selling items this year were premium beauty brands such as Laneige and NuFACE. But what else were shoppers looking for and what did they ultimately purchase? We took a closer look at shopper search data on Amazon US, focusing on beauty, and uncovered three key learning points that are relevant for all brands - whatever your category
- looking for Prime Day success.
Methodology
Our report is based on search data from Amazon Vendor Central
which includes:
- Top keywords that shoppers are searching for
- Search Frequency Rank, the popularity of a particular search term
(“1” is most popular) - #1 Clicked on ASIN for each keyword
- % Conversion share for the #1 clicked on ASIN
We compared shopper search data between the two days before Prime Day with the two days during Prime Day. Here’s what we found…
Shoppers use Prime Day to stock up on favorite brands and small luxuries
Winning on Prime Day is all about search, whether you’re a beauty brand
or in a different category. Inflation, rising costs, and depleting margins make it a difficult time for businesses to be offering deep discounts. These days it’s all about survival of the fittest, and the only way to do that is to protect your market share. In other words, you need to dominate the top search results
on the keywords most critical to your brand.
In the days leading up to Prime Day, commonly searched for beauty staples like “lip care products”, “body skin care products”, and “facial treatments” gave way to a big boost in search traffic on branded keywords as well as small luxuries.
We wrote in our prime day predictions about the “the lipstick effect”, the concept that in times of crisis (like COVID or an economic downturn), consumers will indulge in small luxuries for an emotional uplift without breaking
the bank. So unsurprisingly some of those luxuries - “makeup”, “perfumes
for women”, “eyelash growth serum” - saw a burst in the Search Frequency Rank to put them in the Top 20 Most Popular Keywords in Beauty. Electronics
and gadgets are always popular during Prime Day so it’s not surprising to see keywords like “crystal hair eraser”, “curling iron”, and “blow dryer” also in the list.
20 Most Popular Keywords in Beauty on Amazon Prime Day 2022
As you can see from the above, Prime Day was also a time when branded searches grew in the ranks. In fact…
The biggest growers during Prime Day were BRANDED keywords
In our study, six of the Top 10 keywords that grew the most during Prime Day were brand names as brand-loyal shoppers went looking for a bargain
on Amazon (particularly as most other retailers, feeling the heat of inflation
and avoiding major promo periods, weren’t hosting their own Prime Day events).
The top growing beauty brands in keyword search were: Essence, Sunday Riley, Elemis, Lume, Haus Laboratories, and IT Cosmetics. It’s a noteworthy reflection that keeping your brand on the minds of shoppers AHEAD of Prime Day is key to capitalizing on the potential visibility available to your brand during the event. And don’t forget, people aren’t just searching for “essence”, they’re also searching for “essence mascara”, “essence lash princess mascara”, and an endless long tail of other searches related to your brand. Think also about the type of deals that customers value most during Prime Day. In the beauty category in particular, bundle packs and multipacks work particularly well on promotion.
Brand-loyal shoppers driving conversion
Not only are people searching for more branded products on Prime Day,
but the products people click on as a result of that search tend to have a higher conversion rate than generic keywords. So if someone searches for your brand on Prime Day and clicks on your product, there’s a strong likelihood that they’re also going to add it to their basket.
5 Bonus Tips: how brands can capitalize on Prime Day, even after the event
- Put yourself at the front of shopper’s minds in the lead up to Prime Day
by being where your shopper is to gain the greatest impact from your promo strategy. It’s all about omnipresence - be everywhere your shopper is to get the most out of your paid strategy. - Prioritize great content that not only wins on search but also converts the shopper (check out this best-in-class example featuring LEGO that we published on LinkedIn).
- Keep up momentum AFTER Prime Day. Why? Because 53% of shoppers are likely or highly likely to repurchase an item again after Prime Day.
So don’t slow down your investment once Prime Day is over. - Be strategic with the products you discount, especially on Amazon,
and consider how promos and pricing will affect your margin, particularly
with the challenges of inflation and soaring costs. (We noticed a lot of beauty brands offering multipacks, to increase value to customers in these challenging times) - Use digital shelf measurement tools to uncover insights about your brand performance on Amazon - Where do you rank in organic search?
Who’s playing in paid promotions? Data-driven answers to these questions and more can provide immensely useful insights into the effectiveness of your PDPs and campaign performance and how to stay ahead of your competition in the next run.
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