What DTC Brands are Doing to Maximize Their Reach and Earnings During Amazon Prime Day

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated on June 28th to include Coolibar as the brand reached out prior to it being published.

As Amazon continues to serve as an important hub for e-commerce, Prime Day provides a unique and unprecedented opportunity for creators and influencers to increase their earnings. This event, specially tailored to inspire and empower content creators and DTC brands, aligns with Amazon’s history as an e-commerce powerhouse.

The massive traffic and promotion associated with Prime Day can help DTC brands improve their visibility, boost sales, and strengthen connections with their audiences during this time period. With Amazon’s extensive reach and trusted platform, Amazon Prime Day stands out as a pivotal opportunity for these brands to maximize their influence and increase revenues.

Eat Happy Kitchen’s founder and CEO, Anna Vocino, approaches major sales events like Prime Day and Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) by marking down the prices of her first two cookbooks to the lowest Kindle price Amazon allows for books with extensive food photos ($2.99). A targeted marketing campaign follows, reminding her cookbook fans who already have hardcovers that having the Kindle version means they don’t forget to buy ingredients. Additionally, the discounted price attracts new buyers who may not have previously purchased the cookbooks.

“Prime Day allows me to make my books have a low barrier to entry into my market,” she said. “Usually people join my Facebook recipe group as well, which further solidifies good will between the Eat Happy brand and my consumers.”

Anna is not alone. Daily Harvest, Coolibar, and the DIY cocktail product My Drink Bomb is also going to leverage Amazon Prime Day. Daily Harvest and My Drink Bomb are both entering this particular day for the first time. 

Andrew Noyes of Daily Harvest shared that the company is excited about participating in Prime Day as a relatively new presence on Amazon. After years of building their brand and loyal customer base through their DTC website, they see Prime Day as an opportunity to reach many potential new customers. This event allows them to introduce their nourishing, delicious, and easy-to-prep food to those who may not have heard of Daily Harvest or prefer to try their products outside of the subscription e-commerce platform.

On Prime Day, Daily Harvest is offering 15% off all eight-count smoothie boxes, including Fruity Faves, Indulgent Faves, Get Your Greens Faves, All Time Faves, and Protein Faves. A 10% off deal will be offered in the days leading up to Prime Day, as well as in the days immediately following. This will encourage buzz and excitement. Daily Harvest will retarget ads to previous visitors of their Amazon pages who have not yet made a purchase. Additionally, they are refreshing their product detail pages with new content to better convey their brand proposition.

“We plan to approach Prime Day with the same level of excitement you’d see in a big store opening – not just to drive customer excitement, but to express our own genuine can’t-believe-we’re-on-Amazon thrills,” said Noyes. “Teasers on social media, maybe even some nods to the fact that our customers helped us get here. We want them to [root for us on Amazon], not just transact.”

According to Amazon, Prime Day in 2023 marked the largest single sales day in the company’s history. Over 375 million Prime members worldwide purchased over 375 million items and saved over $2.5 billion on millions of deals across Amazon’s store during the two-day shopping event. The event’s success underscores its importance as Prime Day history’s biggest event. With record-breaking sales and substantial savings, Prime Day continues to strengthen Amazon’s position as a leader in e-commerce.

With Amazon Prime Day, My Drink Bomb hopes to increase brand awareness and acquire new customers. In preparation for launching in a large retail store, the company intends to boost brand awareness. As well as introducing a new product line this fall, they hope to attract new customers with Prime Day promotions. As a result of Prime Day’s increased traffic and visibility, My Drink Bomb plans to expand its customer base and strengthen its market presence ahead of their upcoming retail launch.

“Social media has been one of our best ways to gain new customers over the years.  We will promote the brand by offering new cocktail recipe videos, lower pricing, and brand facts in our social media promotion to drive new customers to try us out at the Prime Day special price,“ said Chloe Di Leo, Founder of My Drink Bomb

My Drink Bomb is also launching several influencer partnerships designed to drive traffic to its Amazon offerings for Prime Day. As part of the advertisement effort, the company will allocate advertising funds to purchase keywords from Amazon. As well as this, My Drink Bomb has maintained a social media presence on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok during this time period, with all social media links directing sales to Amazon at that time. However, it is unclear how much money the brand will be spending on these campaigns.

Coolibar, a DTC sun-protective clothing brand, plans to participate in Amazon Prime Day sales again this year, having seen significant success previously. Last year’s Prime Day resulted in a 4 times increase in sales and over 40% more new customers. This data has informed their strategy for targeting sales and selecting products to discount for this year’s event.

Coolibar’s primary goal for Prime Day is to offer deals on popular products and introduce new favorites. This year, they are offering 35-50% off top summer sellers, including swimwear and weekend casual categories. The same sales will be mirrored on their website, with 2-day shipping available. Coolibar is also optimizing product descriptions and ad strategy for Prime Day and will send emails to subscribers promoting their Amazon store.

“Our goal is to repeat the customer engagement and sales increase year over year. If we can see that type of exposure and follow-through purchase rates, then we know we’re doing well,” said a Coolibar spokesperson. “We’d also like to continue to evolve the product listings that our customers seek most – giving them what they want at prices that appeal best to them.”

Whether customers shop on Amazon or the direct website, Coolibar uses social media to direct them to their Amazon store for trusted deals. In addition to featuring specific sale products, Coolibar will offer giveaways and overall category discounts via social media.