Deal Ineligible? Here are other Seller Discounts You Can Offer

Maria,

Prime Big Day Deals 2024 (aka October Prime Day) is just around the corner, happening on 8th and 9th of October. Deal submission deadline for sellers has been long over and if you weren’t able to create a deal before the deadline or none of your ASINs were eligible, no need to worry as there are other ways to participate.

First, what are Amazon deals?

Deals are promotional offers that run for a limited time. There are two types of deals: Lightning Deals and Best Deals. A Lightning Deal can run from 4 to 12 hours, as determined by Amazon. A Best Deal can run for a select number of days. The deal is applied automatically without a code. Both deals can feature special merchandizing like a Deals Badge to help them stand out.

Second, what makes a product eligible? Here’s a criteria:

Eligible products are automatically displayed in the Eligible ASINs section of the Deals Dashboard when they meet the following criteria (subject to change based on country and time of year):

  • Quality: Products must have a sales history in Amazon stores and at least a 4-star rating.
  • Product variations: Deals should include as many product variations as possible (for example, size, color, and style). For some products, such as clothing and shoes, at least 65% of variations should be included in the deal. The pre-determined minimum percentage of product variations is specified when you create the deal.
  • Category: Restricted products and products that are offensive, embarrassing or otherwise inappropriate are not eligible. Examples of ineligible items include e-cigarettes, alcohol, adult products, medical devices, medicines, and baby formula.
  • Fulfillment method: Products must be Prime-eligible. You can choose either Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or Seller Fulfilled Prime in Shipping Settings.
  • Condition: Only items in new condition are eligible for deals.
  • Seller Feedback Rating: You must receive a minimum of five ratings per month
  • and have at least an overall 3.5-star rating.
  • Return Rate: Products with high return rates will be ineligible for deals.
  • Promotional price: You must be compliant with our policy on reference prices and have a validated reference price.

Disclaimer: Because of other criteria that Amazon is unable to disclose, it is possible that certain ASINs may not receive a recommendation although they meet the criteria listed above. Amazon Deals is an invite-only program.

If you’re a new seller, or you just transitioned from vendor to seller, or you just launched a new product less than 3 months ago, highly likely that your products won’t be eligible for any deals yet.

Ergo, if none of your products are eligible, here are other ways to participate:

  1. Prime Exclusive Discounts – Prime Exclusive Discounts are only available to Prime members and can be applied to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) products. The discount appears on product detail pages, showing a regular price crossed out so Prime members can see how much they’re saving.
  2. Coupons / Vouchers – these give customers a percentage off or a specific amount of money off a single product or set of products. Any shopper can take advantage of a coupon. They appear on product detail pages, and customers can “clip” them or use a code to apply the discount to their purchase.
  3. Promotions – there are three different types of Amazon seller promotions: percentage-off; buy one, get one free (also known as “BOGO”); and custom social media promo codes.
  4. Sale Price – personally, this is an underrated promo offering and based on experience, has the highest success rate out of the other 3. Why? Because putting a sale price will show a strikethrough price (almost always), giving the customers an impression that they’re saving money.

To create a SALE PRICE, go to Manage Inventory > choose an ASIN then EDIT LISTING > OFFER tab. Input a sale price, which you can find below ‘Your Price’, and input the sale start and end date. Sale price is better than changing the actual price (your price) because as soon as the sale end date passes, the sale price will immediately revert to its original price.

Here’s an example of a product having an ACTIVE SALE PRICE:

As you can see on the image below, a sale price was added which triggered Amazon to tag it as having the ‘lowest price in 30 days’. The red tag and the strikethrough price significantly helped this listing which resulted to increase in sales, naturally.

The search results were also showing a red tag which is obviously appealing to customers (see following image).

This product was not eligible for any deals yet because we just finished transitioning from vendor account to seller. But that didn’t stop us from participating in the upcoming Prime Big Day Deals. We also decided to start the sale price a few days early and increase our advertising spend to generate more sales. Q4 already started and if you don’t take advantage of this season, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.

Don’t forget–deal submission deadline for Black Friday/Cyber Monday is on 11th of October!

Got questions? Drop a comment or send me an email.

Milestones