Amazon, Amazon Advertising, Marketing

How to Create Amazon Deals: Overview, Requirements, Best Practices

February 15, 2022

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Content Marketing Specialist at Kaspien, Inc.

Drawing on a background in sales, Ariel has spent the last 6+ years specializing in optimized content creation for e-commerce. She is currently a member of Kaspien’s Inbound Marketing team, collaborating with subject matter experts to create content on industry-leading best practices for optimized branded content.

What Are Amazon Deals?

Deals are a large part of the shopping experience on Amazon. They provide extra incentive to pull the trigger, especially on luxury and pricier items. Amazon determines most of the terms for deals, but sellers get to select which deals to run. There are three types of deals, each suited to different goals: 7-Day Deals, Lightning Deals, and Deal of the Day.

The Deals Dashboard

Deals are listed on the Deal Dashboard. From the dashboard, you can view a list of all available deals for your entire catalog or you can search for a specific ASIN. The dashboard lists:

What type of deals the ASIN is eligible for
The date range that the deal would be offered
The price at which the product would be offered within the deal

The minimum quantity of products that would need to be dedicated to the deal, although you can add more (once it runs out, the deal is over!)
How much the deal will cost you to run

Let’s explore the types of deals you’ll see in the dashboard.

Requirements for Amazon Deals

To host a deal, sellers must have at least five seller feedback ratings per month and an overall rating of at least 3.5 stars. Monitor the Account Health Dashboard and Customer Feedback Manager to make sure your rating stays high enough. The promoted product must also:

Have sales history in Amazon Stores
At least a 3-star product rating (though we recommend only promoting ASINs with 3.5+ stars)
Include many variations in color, size, etc. (especially in clothing & shoes)
Not be a restricted product or be offensive or inappropriate

New condition
Prime eligible in all US states and Puerto Rico
Compliant with customer product reviews policies
Compliant with pricing policies
Compliant with deal frequency policies

Lightning Deals

Amazon’s Lightning Deals are some of their most popular forms of promotion on the marketplace. This type of deal is over in a flash, running a maximum of 6 hours before it expires. Shoppers access these deals on the “Amazon’s Deal” page. Amazon displays the time remaining and percentage of units still available on the deal, creating a sense of urgency that encourages shoppers to purchase while the price is low.

By increasing sales velocity, Lightning Deals also improve organic product rank, which means that even after the deal ends, the product is better positioned than it was before the deal. This results in a halo effect for the product and related items, driving additional sales. These effects can be amplified even further by targeting these products with advertising, leading more eyes to the deal. Use Lightning Deals to improve brand awareness, increase incremental sales, boost sales rank, win the Buy Box, and move stagnant inventory.

Fees range from $150-$600 per ASIN, depending on the time of year and the product category. Expect deals to increase steeply around large Amazon events, such as Prime Day and Cyber Monday.

Deal of the Day

These are similar to Lightning Deals but have a longer time span. These deals, like the name suggests, are available for 24 hours and are found on the “Today’s Deal” page. These deals have an orange “Deal of the Day” symbol located above the discounted price.

The difference with Deal of the Day is that they cannot be arranged through the Deal Dashboard. They are coordinated through a dedicated Amazon Account Manger by invitation only. They don’t have a set fee, but Amazon will only offer these deals to sellers with a proven high sales record.

Amazon 7-Day Deals

These deals are found on the “Amazon Deals” page and receive a “Limited Time Deal” badge on the search engine results page (SERP). 7-Day Deals have a base fee of usually around $300. For larger shopping events – like Black Friday – this fee can be around $1,000. Due to this extreme price fluctuation, it is important to take your projected sales and promotional budget into account when scheduling the deal.

How to Create Deals on Amazon

The process of creating a deal is fairly straightforward. Navigate to the Deal Dashboard and click the button in the upper-righthand corner, labeled “Create a New Deal.” Amazon then walks you through a very simple 4-step process.

Select Products

When starting a new deal, you’ll start on the “Select Products” section. You can either scroll through the list of all deals available to run, search by types of deals, or look up specific ASINs.

The list will show you what date the deal will run, the price that is offered during the deal, the minimum number of units that must be dedicated to the deal, and the additional fee to the brand for running the deal. Click “select” next to the deal you’re interested in.

Schedule Deal

The next screen presents you with multiple dates or date ranges, depending on the deal you’re looking to run. Next to each option will be the specific cost of running the given deal. You’ll see these vary by date a lot more around major shopping holidays and events.

Configure Deal

The third step is to define the details of your deal. Select which variations to include in the deal. Amazon states on this tab, “Include as many product variations as possible to avoid deal rejection. For some products, at least 65% of variations should be included in the deal, although this can change by marketplace and time of year.”

The deal price will default to the highest price you’re allowed to charge while running the deal, but you can adjust it even lower for deeper discounts.

Review and Submit

On the final page you have the opportunity to review all of the details of the deal and are shown a preview of how your deal will look to consumers. All that’s left is to submit the deal.

Best Practices for Creating Deals on Amazon

Promote your top-performing ASIN with a large number of positive reviews. As this deal will get a fair share of eyes, it is important that you lead with your best foot forward. When consumers click on your listing and see the impressive and trustworthy page, they are more likely to convert.
Select products that already have high conversion rates. They have already proved themselves to be popular and desired by consumers.
Only choose products that sell close to MSRP. Doing so allows room for discounting, granting both parties margins. Amazon will not approve the deals that don’t meet their financial threshold.
Once your Amazon deals are set up, they need to be checked often. They are not the sort of thing that you can simply set-it-and-forget-it. Many issues, including pricing and inventory, can cause a deal to be canceled before they run. Any issues that arise must be resolved no later than 25 hours before the deal’s scheduled start time.
Deals work well when run in conjunction with Promotions, as well. Keep in mind that Promotions and Deals can stack, so make sure you’re aware of the total final discount customers can achieve to insure you’re maintaining necessary margins.

Amazon Deals Case Study

Background

A kids’ toy company with higher price-point items set ambitious sales goals for their peak season on Amazon. We advised running a Deal of the Day, which required the brand to allocate at least $300,000 worth of inventory, making it no small investment.

Our Strategy

We were confident that starting the brand’s peak season with a deal would deliver the results they wanted by improving product rank and visibility going into the season. The Deal of the Day offered a 30% discount for 8 ASINs over a 4-hour period. We paired the promotion with an aggressive sponsored ads and DSP strategy to maximize product visibility while the deal ran.

Our Results

#13 in Toys, up from #1,100
15x increase in units sold from previous day
150% increase in units sold week-on-week
68% higher trend in units sold the week after

Stay In-The-Know About Amazon

Stay tuned to the blog for more information on promotions and how to combine them with Deals for greater success. Did you find this helpful? If so, consider subscribing to the blog for weekly updates on developments and strategies for succeeding on Amazon and other e-commerce marketplaces.

Ariel Dearth