The big summer sales surge is about to begin, with Amazon Prime Day kicking off July 8-11, Target Circle Week (July 6-12), and Walmart Deals (July 8-13). It’s the big show that sellers have spent months prepping for: and now, deals are locked, inventory is in place, and the curtain is about to rise. 

But for sellers in top-performing categories across Amazon, Walmart, and Target, the real work is just starting. 

High-performing categories can be high-risk for sellers 

We expect that apparel, electronics, and home goods will once again be the most competitive categories. If you’re managing those listings, errors in availability, pricing, or categorization could lead to missed sales in a high-traffic window. 

This isn’t just about what sold last year. It’s about what every other brand is focused on now, and how well your team is positioned to compete in categories where margins are tight, consumer attention is limited, and mistakes can be costly. The strength of your listings, product feeds, retail media campaigns, and fulfillment operations will determine whether you break through or are overlooked during this peak sales event. 

What we can learn from 2024 sales data 

Clothing/shoes/accessories was the top-selling category for Amazon during Prime Day July 2024, up 16% year over year, according to Rithum data. This category is one of the most operationally intense, with large SKU counts, high returns rates, and customer expectations around fit, speed, and accurate presentation. 

On the flip side, clothing/shoes/accessories category also top the list in overall return volume, according to Rithum’s 2025 Global Returns & Profit Impact Report. Common drivers include poor fit, vague sizing charts, or missing details in product images or descriptions. 

The mix of strong sales and high return rates puts margin at risk. Listing accuracy is more than a conversion play. It protects post-sale margin. 33% of shoppers return items when the product doesn’t match the description or photos. In high-paced sales cycles, it’s even more important for product titles, images, size guides, and fulfillment settings to be locked in before traffic spikes. Rithum’s AI Magic Mapper helps automate setup and reduce manual errors across large, complex catalogs—especially in apparel and consumer electronics. 

To avoid fulfillment at a loss, brands can also rely on Rithum’s Price Protection. This safeguard prevents costly pricing errors before listings go live, reducing the chance of cancellations, penalties, or margin hits during high-traffic windows. 

Last year, consumer electronics/photo was the second-highest performing category globally. Its popularity is tied to high purchase intent, where shoppers arrive at Prime Day already prepared to buy TVs, headphones, tablets, and smart devices they’ve researched in advance, according to Wiser. These buyers come with high expectations. Listings often require exact specs, compatibility info, and current images. Inaccurate details can result in returns or negative customer reviews (electronics also ranked among the top categories for return volume, according to Rithum’s return report. 

What to check before Prime Day begins 

If you’re in one of the high-volume categories—or expecting to be—make sure your setup is solid. Use this checklist to prepare: 

• Review listings for accuracy, detail, and compliance with marketplace standards 
• Use listing error detection to flag and resolve content or formatting issues 
• Check inventory levels across fulfillment partners and channels 
• Confirm routing, delivery windows, and stock buffers 
• Adjust retail media spend to align with margin and availability targets 

With Prime Day running four full days from July. 8-11, brands need staying power across the event. Budget pacing, creative adjustments, and close monitoring of seller notifications and listing status will help maintain visibility and performance from start to finish. 

Pricing and inventory decisions should be dynamic, especially with tariffs adding cost pressure and shoppers reacting quickly to price changes. Repricer automation can adjust pricing in response to competitor moves, inventory levels, and preset rules. These tools can also be reviewed after Prime Day to refine strategy ahead of back-to-school and holiday cycles. 

Inventory alerts help protect both revenue and spend. Low stock warnings prompt action before products sell through. Sellers can pause ads, shift budget, or trigger replenishment with minimal disruption. 

Once Prime Day starts, there’s little time to correct the course. Rithum’s Advisor can help you respond in real time and guide post-event optimizations using actual sales data. 

Why localization matters for global sellers 

In the U.S., the top Prime Day categories mirrored global trends: apparel, electronics, home goods, and automotive. In the U.K., toys and outdoor gear climbed. Germany saw growth in beauty and wellness. 

These differences matter. Even when SKUs are consistent, listing requirements often aren’t. Shipping dimensions, voltage compatibility, ingredient disclosures, and delivery expectations vary by region and channel. So do packaging rules and marketplace standards. 

Rithum gives brands the tools to localize at scale. Product content, fulfillment logic, and taxonomy mapping can be adjusted for each market without duplicating work or managing disconnected systems. That reduces error and accelerates speed to market. 

How to get more from your retail media spend 

With this year’s Prime Day event extending longer than the typical 2-day time frame (and Walmart extending their sale event across 6 days), brands will need to be flexible with their approach and budget. Beyond scaling when demand spikes and pulling back when stock runs low, it is important to do a larger audit of the competitive landscape to understand which sellers are offering the most compelling discounts and how those offers are appearing across marketplaces. 

“Speculation this year of less 3P sellers active due to tariff impact provides an opportunity for other 1P and 3P brands and sellers to carve out more market share due to less competition,” says Meghan Barden, Director of Global Retail Media at Rithum. “Understanding the entire competitive landscape and overall activity each day of the Prime event is now more important than ever, and we are advising our clients to have an agile approach to the sale from a budget and overall advertising perspective.” 

Rithum connects retail media ad strategy to live product data from our marketplaces feed in our proprietary platform, allowing teams to respond to what is happening in their catalog rather than relying on fixed plans. 

Here’s how to stay in control: 

• Shift spend based on organic lift: Move budget away from products that are already gaining traction 
• Pause ads for low inventory: Avoid paying for clicks on items that are nearly out of stock 
• Align with margins: Factor in fees, storage, and shipping costs to support profitable outcomes 
• Adapt mid-campaign: Adjust bids and targeting based on current performance 

Retail media should support strong product performance and work symbiotically with organic product optimization efforts for a successful presence in Prime Day.  

Walmart and Target reflect, but don’t replicate, Prime Day 

Walmart and Target both saw strong summer sales in 2024. Their top-performing categories were similar to Amazon’s, but key differences stood out. While apparel, home goods, and electronics remained competitive, each retailer had different standouts. 

Target gained traction in general merchandise and industrial products. Walmart stood out in automotive and mass-merchant categories, helped by strong omnichannel promotions and in-store pickup options. 

Success on Walmart, Target, and other marketplaces, takes more than duplicating your Amazon playbook. Each has its own taxonomy, fulfillment expectations, and content rules. Rithum helps sellers navigate these requirements with platform-specific templates, listing validations, and customized routing strategies. 

For Walmart, Rithum’s integration upgrades give brands access to additional tools, including: 

• Multichannel fulfillment that supports store pickup and delivery 
• Walmart Review Accelerator to boost review volume and visibility 
• Lower-cost shipping through Walmart’s carrier network 

These upgrades enable teams to manage listing accuracy and delivery performance more effectively, especially during peak traffic events like Prime Day. When every platform plays by different rules, having the right structure in place keeps your products shoppable and compliant across the board. 

These upgrades help teams manage listing accuracy and delivery performance more effectively, especially during peak traffic events like Prime Day. When every platform plays by different rules, a flexible structure keeps products shoppable, compliant, and positioned to perform. 

Post-event, the work continues. Reviewing performance metrics and analyzing cancellation and return rates can uncover where expectations fell short or exceeded expectations. Segment-level insights from tools like Rithum Report Center help identify which products overdelivered and which need attention. For teams looking to scale these efforts across marketplaces, Rithum Managed Services supports listing, fulfillment, and campaign management with the consistency and coverage that high-volume events demand. Applying these learnings now sets the foundation for stronger execution in back-to-school, and peak holiday season. 

Learn how Rithum can help. 

Top 5 categories by region and retailer: Prime Day 2024 

Based on Rithum’s 2024 Prime Data, here are the top five categories sold by region and retailer: 

Amazon: Global 

1. Clothing / Shoes / Accessories 
2. Consumer Electronics / Photo 
3. Home / Kitchen 
4. Office Products 
5. Automotive / Motors / Marine 

United States 

1. Clothing / Shoes / Accessories 
2. Consumer Electronics / Photo 
3. Office Products 
4. Home / Kitchen 
5. Automotive / Motors / Marine 

United Kingdom 

1. Toys / Games / Hobbies / Crafts 
2. Clothing / Shoes / Accessories 
3. Home / Kitchen 
4. Consumer Electronics / Photo 
5. Sports / Outdoor Equipment 

Germany 

1. Consumer Electronics / Photo 
2. Home / Kitchen 
3. Clothing / Shoes / Accessories 
4. Beauty / Health / Personal Care 
5. Sports / Outdoor Equipment 

 Walmart 

1. Consumer Electronics / Photo 
2. General Merchandise / Mass Merchants 
3. Automotive / Motors / Marine 
4. Beauty / Health / Personal Care 
5. Clothing / Shoes / Accessories 

Target 

1. General Merchandise / Mass Merchants 
2. Clothing / Shoes / Accessories 
3. Consumer Electronics / Photo 
4. Home / Kitchen 
5. Industrial / Scientific 

 Cameron Sutton is Senior Manager, Strategic Account Managment at Rithum. 

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Be strategic with retail media full funnel spend

Retail media has transformed to being more than just a performance media tactic driven by trade or shopper marketing dollars. Brands should be eager to leverage retailer ecosystems to drive maximum returns. Retail media strategies should align with a full-funnel marketing approach, and brands should capitalize on top-of-funnel opportunities before the holiday season. It’s not necessary for brands to deploy media tactics across the entire funnel simultaneously to be effective. Instead, the key is to focus on different stages of the funnel during peak and off-peak times to optimize returns.

Get ahead of customer considerations before holiday campaigns

This is the time of the year to run awareness and consideration campaigns to get the brand in front of consumers while they begin to build their consideration set. Brands will want to be top of mind while shoppers are in mid to low buying time frame and begin their research for holiday sales. This also allows the time for brands gain traction with their ideal target audience. They can test and learn different messaging and evaluate performance in different retailer ecosystems.

Lean into retailer promotional calendars and messaging

Retailers know their target audience and core customers best. So partnering with them to align yourself with their seasonal calendar and messaging can be a key differentiator to stand out amongst competition. Retailers also appreciate it when brands are leaning into centralized messaging as it maximizes their returns as well. Brands should request retailers’ promotional calendar timelines and any key messaging they plan to use during peak seasons. Integrating this information into their own campaigns can enhance alignment and effectiveness.

More is not always better for holiday and promotional campaign strategies

Holiday and promotional seasons have more advertising activity than ever. This can be overwhelming to the consumer and often wasteful for brands blindly spending to be competitive. Spending more during this time frame can be a way to beat competition, but it’s imperative to not spend blindly. Prior to holiday peak season, brands should evaluate past campaign successes, top performing ad units, keywords and messages. Once peak season has arrived, brands will be prepared to spend wisely on priority SKUs leveraging wins from the past.

As the holiday season nears, brands should prepare to enhance their retail media presence. Rather than pulling back on fall spending, focus on full-funnel strategies, leveraging top-of-funnel opportunities before the holidays. Run awareness and consideration campaigns now to get in front of consumers early. Align with retailers’ promotional calendars and messaging to boost effectiveness. Finally, avoid overspending by evaluating past campaign successes and investing wisely in high-performing areas. Marketers that take these steps to prepare for peak season will be better positioned to maximize the ROI of their holiday retail media strategy.

Learn how Rithum can help.

Meghan Barden is director of global retail media at Rithum.

The post How to Maximize Retail Media ROI During the Holidays appeared first on Rithum.

Understanding Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2024

Prime Big Deal Days is Amazon’s exclusive event offering Prime members early access to deals across a variety of popular categories. This is an opportunity for sellers to appear before retail membership-paying consumers. According to eMarketer, 65% of US adults pay for Amazon Prime membership. Retailers with paid membership options such as Costco Wholesale, Walmart+, and others are also growing their membership numbers, according to eMarketer data.

This year, the event will take place in 19 countries, including the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK. Participating sellers are already preparing to ensure that inventory, listings and marketing strategies are ready for the influx of traffic.

With heightened demand, it’s helpful to automate key processes such as inventory management, promotion management, and marketing automation. Rithum’s integrated commerce solution allows sellers to synchronize and optimize operations to meet Amazon’s requirements for Big Deal Days. This helps sellers avoid costly stockouts, incorrect listings, and poor retail media ad performance.

How to avoid errors on marketplace listings

Big Deal Days is the unofficial kickoff to the peak holiday shopping season. High-traffic periods can be overwhelming when managing multiple selling channels. Rithum’s integrated commerce solution offers a suite of features that resolve specific common pain points for sellers.

Rithum’s centralized dashboard provides brands and retailers with a view of operations. This allows sellers to track and synchronize fulfillment, inventory, and orders across multiple channels.

• Repricer automation: Automatically adjusts prices based on inventory levels, competitor pricing, and market conditions. Watch this video detailing Rithum pricing functionality for retailers and brands selling on Amazon, eBay, and other channels here.
• Performance monitoring: Track real-time sales performance and identify issues during the sales event. This allows sellers rapid adjustments.
• Stock alerts: Receive low-stock alerts to enhance inventory management. Sellers can replenish inventory before stockouts occur, which would otherwise result in lost sales.
• Order routing and management: Seamlessly track and manage orders from Amazon and other platforms, reducing errors and improving efficiency.
• Shipping integration: Automatically update and track shipping information, providing transparency for both Amazon and your customers.
• Returns management: Streamline the returns process. Offer a hassle-free experience for customers while reducing your team’s workload.

How to leverage retail media ads during peak shopping events

Retail media advertising is increasingly important to brands and retailers with 81% of advertisers noting it is very important, according to a December 2023 Skai Path to Purchase Institute survey. Rithum’s platform helps sellers optimize their retail media advertising Amazon ad campaigns by dynamically adjusting bidding, targeting, and budgeting in real time. Sellers can fine-tune their retail media advertising performance during the sales event. This helps focus ad spend on the most profitable products.

Rithum Managed Services for Amazon advertising uses a data-driven approach to provide:

• Full-funnel monitoring: Track ad performance and customer behavior to dynamically adjust your campaigns to achieve the best results.
• Automated spend adjustments: Rithum automatically shifts advertising spend from products receiving high organic traffic to others that require promotion, maximizing ROI.
• Profitability insights: Real-time tracking of fees, shipping costs, and storage fees allows sellers to maintain profitable margins during the sales event.

How to apply lessons from Big Deal Days to prepare for the holiday season

After Big Deal Days, Rithum’s team advises sellers on how to gradually reduce retail media ad spend to continue momentum without overspending. This is achieved through incremental ad spending.

Rithum’s retail media team generates custom reports that provide data-driven insights. They use campaign monitoring data which contains thousands of campaigns, ensuring optimal performance and prevents incorrect bids or ad pauses. Holiday readiness reports help brands identify what worked and what needs improvement before the holiday rush. Rithum’s actionable insights show sellers what to consider when refining strategy for peak holiday shopping.

Learn how Rithum’s integrated commerce solution can help by scheduling a demo today.

The post How Sellers Can Prepare for Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2024 appeared first on Rithum.

1. Understand and leverage retail media networks

• Choose the right global and regional retail media networks with a strong presence in your target markets such as: Amazon, Walmart, Target, and others.
• Use platform-specific tools. For example, sellers can use Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) for precise programmatic advertising that targets consumers across different regions.

2. Use localized content and creative

• Ensure cultural and language adaptation. Ad content involves more than translation. It must also be localized to resonate with local consumers. You can achieve this by tailoring your messaging, imagery, and promotions to align with consumer behaviors in each market.
• Consider local trends and preferences. Campaigns should adapt to reflect local shopping trends, holidays, product seasonality and preferences. These include popular sales events such as Singles Day in China or Black Friday in the US.

3. Target advertising based on data

• Leverage first-party data. Use your (and the retailer’s) customer data to create highly targeted campaigns. Segment your audience by shopping behavior, location, and preferences to deliver personalized ads that resonate in each retailer market.
• Use retail media analytics. Monitor ad performance and refine your strategy in real –time using insights from Amazon Marketing Cloud, in-platform reporting, and other retailer-specific reporting capabilities. This data-driven approach ensures that your campaigns remain effective and relevant.

4. Focus on high-value placements

• Strategically place ads where they will have the greatest impact depending on your strategy and goals. Position your ads at the top of search results, on product pages, or within relevant categories. Securing high-value placements can boost visibility and drive conversion.
• Bid smart by implementing dynamic bidding strategies to secure premium ad placements during peak shopping times, such as major local holidays or sales events.

5. Optimize for local market compliance and logistics

• Ensure your ads comply with local regulations, consumer protection laws, and privacy regulations.
• Offer localized customer support in local languages to enhance customer trust.

“It’s critical to balance winning strategies from retail media giants such as Amazon and eBay, while also tapping into regional retailers that reach a niche audience for your brand.”

Meghan Barden, Director, Global Retail Media at Rithum

“As more retailers across the globe launch their retail media network offerings, it is critical to ensure you are balancing winning strategies from the retail media giants such as Amazon and eBay, while also dipping into regional retailers that may have a niche audience you would like to target,” said Meghan Barden, Director, Global Retail Media at Rithum.

Cross-border e-commerce retail media planning for the holiday season

Brands and retailers should plan early ahead of the peak holiday shopping season. 68% of global consumers said they intended to wait for annual promotional shopping events such as Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and other annual sales before making expected purchases, according to the Dynata survey.

Rithum offers robust reporting which brands and retailers can use to analyze past holiday sales data trends in your target markets. Understand what products are in demand, local shipping behaviors, and key dates. Connect with your key retailers to understand their promotion plans, upcoming discounts and overall messaging during the peak season. There can be an opportunity to draft from the traffic they are driving and tap into unrealized opportunities with incremental shoppers.

Ensure you have a sufficient stock of best-selling products. Plan to secure high-visibility ad placements on key retail media platforms. Implement retargeting strategies to reach customers who have shown interest in your products but haven’t made a purchase. Offer incentives such as limited-time discounts to drive sales.

Rithum allows brands and retailers to monitor and adjust your retail media ad strategy in real-time. Keep a close eye on your campaign performance, sales data, and inventory levels throughout the holiday season. Be prepared to adjust your cross-border e-commerce strategy quickly based on what’s working and what’s not.

Use AI-driven insights to optimize retail ad campaigns in real time

Rithum provides direct insights into product attributes and data, like inventory, sales data, and labeling. Brands and retailers can use granular product data to support your strategy. Using AI-driven insights, Rithum’s retail media solution can help you allocate budget, optimize bids, spend strategically throughout the day, and adjust product placements in real-time.

After the peak holiday season, continue to advertise while measuring successes and learnings throughout the seasons. Gather feedback from your holiday campaigns to learn what worked and what didn’t. Use these insights to improve your cross-border e-commerce retail media ad strategy for next year.

Learn how to expose your products to more consumers by creating, monitoring, and managing all your marketplace and retail site advertising through Rithum. Schedule a demo here.

The post Boost Cross-Border Sales with Five Retail Media Advertising Tips appeared first on Rithum.

For consumers, it’s an opportunity to take advantage of summer discounts on popular categories. The best-selling categories for Rithum customers selling during Amazon Prime Day July sales events in 2022 and 2023 are:

• Consumer Electronics
• Home/Kitchen
• Clothing/Shoes
• Automotive
• Lawn/Garden

The sales event is exclusively for Amazon Prime members. Sellers submit their deals months in advance (this year, the deadline was May 3, 2024, with inventory due by June 20, 2024, to qualify for Amazon Prime Day). Amazon Prime Day occurs as other merchants such as Walmart, Target, and Best Buy have also offered deals ahead of the peak sales event.

The event is here – so how can sellers manage inventory, order processing, marketing automation, promotion management, and analytics? By connecting to Amazon through Rithum’s integrated commerce solution.

How to use automation to stay on track during Amazon Prime Day

Rithum’s platform allows sellers to automatically adjust inventory levels and track customer orders. Here are a few tools that provide brands with the ability to avoid overselling and stockouts while providing customers with a positive experience.

• Repricer automation: Dynamically adjusts prices based on conditions, competitor pricing, and inventory levels.
• Performance monitoring: Sellers can identify and address issues that arise during high-traffic sales events in real time, allowing sellers to quickly adapt.
• Stock alerts: Low stock alerts notify sellers when inventory levels fall below a certain threshold.
• Order routing and management: Brands can track orders from multiple channels such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.
• Shipping integration: Integrate with various shipping carriers to automatically generate and update tracking information. This is then communicated to channels like Amazon and end customers.
• Returns management: Can help automate the processing of returns and exchanges, providing customers with a streamlined and efficient experience.

Enhanced customer support and marketplace compliance

During peak shopping periods, Rithum’s support and managed services teams provide additional assistance to help sellers handle the increased workload efficiently.

Rithum also helps sellers comply with marketplace listing requirements and policies. This reduces the risk of penalties or listing suspension during critical sales periods like Amazon Prime Day. Robust reporting around channel errors and tools gives brands and retailers the ability to quickly resolve listing errors and continue selling.

Retail media ad opportunities during Amazon Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day is also an opportunity for sellers to drive retail media ad spending. Amazon is expected to bring in over 80% of U.S. retail media search dollars in 2024, according to eMarketer’s forecast. Rithum can help customers manage their Amazon ad campaigns for optimization and fine tuning before Amazon Prime Day. The service also allows sellers to manage ad campaigns using real-time data to make decisions during the event.

Rithum uses data from your full-funnel ecommerce business. It monitors ad performance and consumer behavior to dynamically adjust bidding, budgets, and ad targeting on an hourly basis using the latest data. It automatically adjusts campaigns based on several factors.

Rithum will pull back on ad spend if organic traffic is proving successful so you can focus spending to promote other products.

Rithum leverages fees and margins in real time to calculate profitability.

During Prime Day, Rithum accounts for shipping costs, storage fees, and Amazon fees to provide a full view of how overall spending is affecting total sales. This can reduce the chance of lost revenue by providing a holistic view of costs to help sellers drive better margins.

How to learn from Amazon Prime Day going into the holiday season

After a marquee event like Amazon Prime Day, Rithum recommends scaling back retail media ad spend incrementally. This way brands can capitalize on successes without deflating progress made during the peak sales event.

Rithum’s retail media team acts as an extension of your team. Rithum closely monitors thousands of campaigns and makes adjustments in real-time to help sellers avoid gaps in ad performance. Our team can help you reduce risks from incorrect bids or unintentional ad pauses, which can result in lost sales.

After Prime Day, Rithum’s retail media team generates data-driven reports to propose changes for fourth-quarter peak holiday selling. Reports are customized to meet each brand’s needs.

There is still time to optimize your retail ad strategy this Amazon Prime Day. Contact Rithum to learn more.

The post Amazon Prime Day: How Sellers Can Navigate Inventory and Retail Media Ads in Real-Time appeared first on Rithum.

Why hold another deal day just three months later? For one, it’s Amazon’s way of kicking off the holiday shopping season. But it could also be because Prime Day in July was Amazon’s biggest event ever with 300 million items purchased globally. According to eMarketer, “Amazon needs more Prime Day-type events as commerce slows, and these occasions drive advertising adoption long term.” 

As inflation continues to take its toll on consumers, marketplace sale days give shoppers an opportunity to take advantage of deals, while giving brands a way to recoup potential losses. 

A Look Back at Prime Day 2022

Shoppers went wild for Prime Day this past July, marking Amazon’s eighth annual event. This year, the event was open to Prime members in 20 countries over the course of two days, resulting in $11.9 billion in total US online spending, which represents an 8.5% year over year increase.

The household essentials category topped the charts with 30% of Prime Day shoppers snagging popular home goods. Other hot categories included health and beauty, consumer electronics, apparel and shoes, and home and garden.

Which category will shine this fall? eMarketer predicts gifts and big-ticket items like TVs (and others typically sold on Cyber Monday) ahead of the holiday shopping season.

How to Prepare for Prime Early Access Day 2022

Don’t let the name deceive you. “Prime Early Access” isn’t meant to be a smaller event to wrap up the year. Analysts are predicting the holiday kickoff will be just as big, if not bigger, than Prime Day 2022. 

That means your preparations for next week’s sale must be largely similar to those you took back in June and July:

• Double-check your Amazon Advertising strategy is solid and promotions are already scheduled
• Test campaigns and ad formats ahead of time to ensure shoppers clearly see your products
• Take advantage of A+ content to increase traffic, boost sales and cross-promote other products 

• Optimize listings with engaging product titles and feature bullets 
• Implement an Amazon repricer to compete with other listings and boost revenue.
• Ensure fast, error-free fulfillment during the sale
• Send inventory to Amazon’s fulfillment centers in time for the event (if using Fulfillment by Amazon [FBA]) 
• Route each order to the most cost-effective carrier with the Rithum Shipping Management Suite

Just remember: Even though Amazon’s fall event kicks off the holiday shopping season, the race isn’t over. Be sure to reserve necessary budget for your regular Cyber 5 promotions and other end-of-year marketing. 

Need more reminders of helpful tactics for Prime-Day-esque events? Check out our Prime Day 2022 checklist for ways to prepare for Early Access Day too. 

Learn more about Rithum Managed Services for hands-on prep that’s tailored to your business — on Amazon and hundreds of other channels.

The post Fall Prime Day is Almost Here! Get Ready with These Tips appeared first on Rithum.

Amazon offers both first-party (1P) and third-party (3P) seller relationships. What’s the difference? It turns out there are a number of pros and cons to each arrangement. 

Amazon 1P vs. 3P Selling

What is Amazon 1P selling?

In a 1P relationship with Amazon, you (the brand) act as a wholesaler who sells directly to Amazon as the retailer. This is a traditional “brand-as-supplier” relationship, with Amazon buying products, selling them and owning all communication with the consumer to complete the sale.

If you want to sell on Amazon as a first-party seller, you must first obtain an invitation from Amazon’s vendor management team. Amazon will send you a purchase order (PO) request, which you fulfill by shipping your products to them. 

Need help securing a 1P invitation from Amazon vendor management? Rithum Managed Services can help. 

What is Amazon 3P selling?

In a 3P relationship, your brand sells directly to customers via the Amazon marketplace. 

You’re responsible for everything from listing products to fulfilling orders to providing customer service. 

Third-party relationships are available to nearly every brand without invitation, though certain product categories require Amazon preapproval. 

Each option offers different characteristics that may suit your business. 

What About 2P Selling?

In a second-party selling scenario, Amazon is the merchant of record, but not the manufacturer. As the retailer, Amazon buys a brand’s products through a distributor or reseller. The listing still displays Amazon as the seller and shipper. 

1P vs 3P: 5 Things You Need to Know

Whether you choose a 1P relationship, 3P relationship or a hybrid of the two, you’ll need to tailor different parts of your Amazon strategy, including:

How You Interact

First-party sellers manage their Amazon relationship via the Vendor Central portal or an e-commerce platform such as Rithum. As a 1P seller, Vendor Central allows you to manage orders, generate sales reports and more. 

Third-party sellers manage their relationship with Amazon through Seller Central, a portal exclusively for third parties. Platforms like Rithum provide numerous ways to optimize 3P marketplace sales with automated repricing strategies, retail media, fulfillment services and more. 

Managing Your Inventory

1P sellers have little control over the SKUs that Amazon chooses to sell. You’re completely dependent on Amazon POs to send inventory, but you also enjoy little inventory risk.

In 3P relationships, you maintain complete control over what products you list and when you list. You assume more risk in managing your own inventory, but you can also create listings in bulk with inventory files and automate inventory through feeds.

Warehousing and Fulfillment

In the 1P model, Amazon purchases and controls your inventory, meaning they’re completely responsible for warehousing products and shipping orders to customers. 

Third-party sellers are responsible for warehousing products and fulfilling customer orders. The one exception to this is when retailers use FBA, outsourcing fulfillment to Amazon for a fee. 

Payment Terms

Amazon’s standard payment term for 1P brands is net 90, which may cause a cash-flow problem for smaller companies. For most 3P sellers, funds are transferred from the Amazon Seller Account to a bank account every 14 days.

Marketing Services and Analytics

Amazon offers a range of powerful marketing and analytics services for both 1P and 3P sellers, including:

• Amazon Advertising 
• Amazon Vine 
• A+ content pages
• Brand Analytics 
• Early Reviewer Program 
• Vendor Powered Coupons

Rithum Helps You Manage Your Amazon Relationship

Both 1P and 3P selling models offer advantages and disadvantages, making both great options to sell on Amazon. The trick is assessing each and determining which one fits your brand best. 

Rithum helps you select the Amazon relationship that makes the most sense for you, and our automated tools and advertising options improve your marketplace efficiency. First-party sellers can streamline their operations by managing drop-ship connections and marketplaces in one platform, while third parties take control of their success with automated tools across the entire buyer journey. 

Contact us today to learn how our Managed Services team provides Amazon-specific expertise to better manage and optimize your Amazon presence. 

The post Selling on Amazon – The 1P vs 3P Dilemma appeared first on Rithum.

But success with the world’s largest online retailer isn’t guaranteed. Without the chops to compete and put products in front of shoppers, brands and retailers won’t make it on the highly saturated marketplace. 

Rithum recently released a Comprehensive Guide to Amazon featuring the must-know strategies every Amazon seller should employ to succeed in such a competitive space. What are your brand’s strengths and weaknesses? Are you grabbing shoppers’ attention and ensuring their loyalty with seamless fulfillment? See what strategies put you ahead of the game.

The Multichannel Growth Flywheel

Simply listing your products on Amazon is no longer enough. The marketplace is now home to 1.9 million active sellers around the world — and they’re all vying for consumers’ attention. 

A growth flywheel is an effective, high-level way to structure your thinking as you develop strategies to succeed on Amazon and beyond. 

The flywheel helps assess and develop strategies in five key areas:

• Connect your products to consumers with error-free listings
• Market your products effectively to drive awareness and sales
• Sell your products by converting browsers into buyers at the moment it matters 
• Fulfill your customer’s expectations with fast, efficient delivery
• Optimize your Amazon strategies to constantly improve results

Let’s take a look at how each area helps you focus on essential selling tactics to become a successful Amazon seller.

Connect Your Products to Consumers

How do you want to sell on Amazon? Choose the best model for your business: 

• A first-party (1P) relationship where you sell your products to Amazon via Vendor Central. Your brand is responsible for advertising, promotions and shipping products to Amazon, while they control the pricing and inventory.
• A third-party (3P) relationship where you sell directly to consumers via Seller Central. You control the advertising, pricing, inventory and any fulfillment or logistics. 

Once you’ve decided how to sell, start your Amazon presence strong with error-free listings. The trick is meeting Amazon’s listing requirements while optimizing them to appeal to your target audience. However, every marketplace you sell on is different, potentially leading to listing errors that could cause your products to appear incorrectly or prevent them from showing up at all. Make sure your Amazon connections are error-free by ensuring your product data is clean, organized and in line with Amazon’s standards. 

Market Effectively to Drive Sales

Amazon Advertising helps sellers boost awareness among consumers and increase sales. But with so many sellers to compete against, a simple manual campaign isn’t likely to cut it. The most successful Amazon sellers vary their marketing across ad types:

• Sponsored Products — keyword-driven ads that appear alongside organic search results to promote individual listings
• Sponsored Brands — top-of-page ads that build awareness for your brand among browsing shoppers 
• Sponsored Display Ads — display ads that appear on product detail pages, the Amazon homepage or third-party apps and websites

Investing in a mix of Amazon ad types ensures different consumers see your products at various stages. Not sure where to start? Rithum offers a complimentary advertising analysis where our Amazon experts will take a look at your Amazon Advertising account to identify areas for optimization.

Sell at the Right Moment

A growing number (41%) of consumers now begin their search on Amazon when their intent is simply to research. The more accurate your product listings, the more trust you build during the consideration phase for eventual purchase.

Put yourself in consumers’ shoes when writing product descriptions. What do they want to know? How will they search and arrive at your product? Research similar products to see what competitors are saying, and optimize your descriptions with the most accurate and detailed keywords possible. 

You can also improve sales by keeping prices competitive — but no one has time to manually monitor price variations across hundreds of comparable sellers. Automated repricing tools automatically adjust your prices to remain competitive and align with your goals. Choose from a marketplace repricer, which uses algorithmic pricing technology to help you win the Buy Box or Best Offer position at the highest possible price, or a velocity repricer, where prices are adjusted automatically based on your goals — whether you want to extract more margin on fast-selling products or lower prices when sales are slow.

Fulfill Amazon Buyers’ Growing Expectations

Consumers choose Amazon Prime for its fast, convenient two-day shipping, and they now expect sellers across channels to keep up. Luckily, Amazon offers two options to make fulfillment fast and seamless:

• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Send a portion of your inventory to Amazon, and they’ll handle the rest. FBA also manages customer support and returns, removing the hassle from your team.
• Seller Fulfilled Prime. You entice customers with the Amazon Prime name and shipping guarantee, but call the shots on packing and shipping. You’re also responsible for returns, which are automatically authorized by Amazon.

Want to understand the advantages and disadvantages of Amazon fulfillment options even better? Check out these 5 Differences Between Fulfillment by Amazon and Seller Fulfilled Prime.

Optimize for Improved Results

Most consumers now look at reviews before making an online purchase. That means your customer satisfaction rating and reviews must accurately reflect your products to entice new buyers. Stay on top of your customer satisfaction levels by monitoring key metrics, such as order defect rate, return dissatisfaction rate and late shipment rate. Once you become a certified seller, Amazon provides a wealth of data to help you monitor these categories.

Optimizing your Amazon presence also means demonstrating growth. You can expand your presence by going global across the marketplace’s 19 countries of operation. Selling internationally increases brand awareness and expands your customer base. To get started, the Amazon Global Selling program allows you to “test the waters” of cross-border trade.  

Don’t just list on Amazon. Rithum solutions help you execute flywheel strategies to succeed on the world’s most popular marketplace and across more than 340 other channels. 

Get more Amazon selling tips and best practices in our new Comprehensive Guide to Amazon and webinar, Developing a Comprehensive Approach to Amazon: Strategies and Tips for Marketplace Success.

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