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Prime Day 2025: Are Brands Scaling Back? (3 Reasons To Reconsider)
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Retail Media Breakfast Club: Prime Day 2025 Participation Trends
In today's episode, I dive into the results of my recent LinkedIn poll about how brands plan to participate in Prime Day 2025. The numbers tell an interesting story: over half (51.79%) of respondents are either scaling back or skipping Prime Day entirely this year - a significant shift from previous years.
Poll Results:
- Going Bigger: 12.50%
- About the same: 35.7%
- Scaling back: 37.5%
- Skipping it: 14.29%
Why Brands Are Pulling Back:
- New tariff costs (and uncertainty) have made discounting financially difficult, especially for 3P sellers
- Advertising costs continue rising, with Sponsored Products CPCs up 12% during Prime Day 2024
- Amazon's fee structure remains at historically high levels
- Prime Day 2025 will be the first four-day U.S. event, plus eight weeks of "early deals" - stretching budgets thin
Three Cases FOR Prime Day Participation:
1. The Hidden Review Advantage
Jason Landro from Nectar points out that multiplying units sold during Prime Day can dramatically boost your review rate, providing a rankings boost that lasts long after Prime Day ends.
2. The Halo Effect
Data from Envision Horizons showed that even brands not directly participating in Prime Day saw a 60% sales increase compared to average days, with a 45% increase in Return on Ad Spend despite higher competition.
3. Prime Day as a Strategic Product Marketing Laboratory
Katherine McKee suggests using Prime Day strategically for medium-demand products to answer critical questions:
- Is awareness the main obstacle?
- Is pricing off?
- Is the product page set up poorly?
- Does the product have market fit?
Amazon's Perspective
Amazon claims they're seeing a "strong response from selling partners to Prime Day 2025."
Bottom Line
Prime Day 2025 requires more strategic thinking than ever. For some, particularly those with China-dependent supply chains, participation may be impossible. For others, focusing on data collection and review generation rather than pure sales volume might still deliver long-term value.
The era of automatic, all-in Prime Day participation is ending. Brands are becoming more selective and measured in their approach to Amazon's events.
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