Opinion: Amazon Prime Day is brazen shopper acquisition

For existing members, it’s a reminder of the value and exclusivity that comes with Prime.

For Amazon, it’s an opportunity to stimulate spending in an otherwise sluggish period.

But make no mistake, Prime Day isn’t really about the discounts. This is a brazen effort to tempt new shoppers into Amazon’s sticky ecosystem.

Prime Shopper Acquisition Day is perhaps a more accurate name for the event.

“Prime Day isn’t really about the discounts. This is a brazen effort to tempt new shoppers into Amazon’s sticky ecosystem”

Over the past five years, Amazon has taken Prime from a scheme largely based on providing delivery perks to an all-encompassing, content-streaming, book-lending, photo-storing beast of a loyalty programme.

And let’s not forget that Prime is the gateway to a growing number of Amazon services that require incremental fees like Amazon Fresh and Prime Now one-hour delivery.

Amazon’s goal, like that of any ‘ecosystem’ brand, is to make Prime so attractive that it becomes completely indispensable. Shoppers would be “irresponsible” not to join, in founder Jeff Bezos’ own words.

Prime Day 2017 should appeal to a wider audience in the UK following last year’s launch of a pay-monthly membership option, allowing Amazon to reach shoppers who are either unable or unwilling to fork out £79 for an annual fee.

In the US, Amazon has gone even further in its efforts to appeal to lower-income customers with the launch of Amazon Cash and the planned acceptance of food stamps.

“In the US, Best Buy is about to add 700 Alexa showrooms to its stores”

This year, Prime Day will also be an opportunity for Amazon’s most loyal shoppers to familiarise themselves with voice technology by accessing exclusive discounts on items ordered through Alexa.

This is a tactic Amazon has been quietly pursuing in select categories as it recognises the need to subsidise growth in order to drive greater adoption of voice technology.

A major challenge here – something that will be alleviated through the Whole Foods acquisition – is the fact that it is very hard to introduce new technology to shoppers without a physical presence.

In the US, Best Buy is about to add 700 Alexa showrooms to its stores.

Trojan horse? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t rule out a similar deal here in the UK.

In the meantime, Prime Day should incentivise more consumers to test out Alexa’s shopping functionality when hunting for bargains.