Insights from Amazon Prime Day 2024: What Beauty Industry CMOs Need to Know

As the dust settles on Amazon Prime Day 2024, it's evident that this shopping extravaganza continues to reshape the e-commerce landscape, with significant implications for beauty brands.

This year's event, held on July 16-17, set new records. Consumers spent approximately $14 billion over the two-day period, representing a 10.5% increase from the previous year. It's clear that Prime Day has evolved from a mid-year sales event to a major force in the retail calendar, now accounting for 1-2% of Amazon's net global sales.

What's particularly noteworthy for the beauty industry is the unprecedented participation from premium brands. Many of these brands have historically been cautious about engaging with Amazon, but this year marked a shift. This change signals a growing recognition of Amazon's influence in the beauty space and the potential of Prime Day to drive substantial sales.

Strategic Benefits for Beauty Brands

Participating in Prime Day offers several strategic advantages for beauty brands. The massive traffic provides an unparalleled opportunity to showcase products to a vast, engaged audience, attracting many first-time buyers and expanding customer bases.

It's an excellent opportunity to clear excess stock or promote new product lines, while the surge in customer interactions provides valuable data for future marketing and product development strategies.

However, it's crucial to view Prime Day as part of a broader e-commerce landscape. There's a proliferation of retailer-specific shopping events, from Target's Circle Week to TikTok's Deals For You Days. Effectively, July has transformed into a month-long shopping festival, presenting both opportunities and challenges for beauty brands.

Data-Driven Insights for Optimizing Strategy

According to research from Fospha, the strategies of top-performing brands across different lifecycle stages reveal key insights that beauty CMOs should consider.

Fospha's data shows top-performing brands adopt a balanced approach between upper- and lower-funnel activities. As brands mature, they tend to diversify their channels even more to reach new customers.

These insights suggest a nuanced approach to Prime Day and other e-commerce events. While Prime Day is undoubtedly important, it shouldn't be the sole focus. A presence across multiple shopping events can maximize reach and impact.

Applying These Insights to Prime Day and Beyond

For beauty brands, these insights suggest a strategic approach to Prime Day and other e-commerce events. While Prime Day is important, maintaining a presence across multiple shopping events can maximize reach.

“Prime Day success is built on months of preparation and demand generation,” says Sam Carter, CEO of Fospha.

Brands that thrive during key sales events like Prime Day are the ones that invest significantly in upper funnel activities throughout the year in preparation for these ‘peak’ events, particularly on platforms like Meta and TikTok.

The importance of proactive strategies to build product demand well ahead of major sales days cannot be overstated. Brands that focus on awareness and engagement in the lead-up see the most impressive outcomes.

Leveraging the wealth of data generated during Prime Day can inform future marketing efforts, from product recommendations to ad targeting. This event offers an opportunity to drive brand awareness and consideration, not just conversions, which can yield benefits long after the event concludes.

Whether a brand is a startup establishing its presence or a mature player exploring international markets, the Prime Day strategy should align with overall business objectives.