Cyber Week should be brands’ top priority this holiday season. These strategies can help.

BY SYDNEY SLADOVNIK, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT @SYDNEYSLADOVNIK

Illustration: Inc.; Photo: Getty Images

Halloween may not even be here yet, but Amazon sellers have already put their end-of-year plans in action in order to drive sales. Amazon’s October Big Deal Days kicked off the holiday season for many brands, and it was the biggest Prime event for the Seattle-based retailer yet, according to its post-event report. Consumers saved more than $1 billion across purchases made during the 48-hour sales event.

While savings were high, business performance was actually lower than expected across the scope of brands outside of Amazon, according to Salesforce director of consumer insights Caila Schwartz. Usually Prime Day has a “rising tide lifts all boats” effect where both Amazon sales and traffic to non-Amazon brands increase. This year that wasn’t the case, which she says could have been the result of consumer uncertainty resulting from weather events—such as hurricanes Helene and Milton—and the upcoming U.S. election.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud tracked the activity of 1.5 billion general shoppers over Prime Big Deal Days and found that U.S. sales trended 5 percent lower than they did in 2023, while web traffic declined 2 percent. However, businesses that leveraged steep discounts during the event saw sales increase 3 percent. “While discount rates were more enticing than last year, retailers........

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