Whether They Participated Or Not, Most Indie Beauty Brands Saw Sales Rise On Amazon Prime Day

For Amazon, the world’s most gigantic e-tailer, large consumer goods companies and private-label lines move enormous quantities of merchandise, but budding beauty players took cuts of the action, too, on Prime Day, the biggest shopping event in its history.

Despite technical difficulties forcing customers to gaze at cute dog photos instead of deals at the start and costing Amazon an estimated $72.4 million, Prime Day sales last week surged 66% to $4.01 billion, according to Internet Retailer, and bested Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales last year. Amazon reported small- to medium-sized businesses generated more than $1 billion during the 36-hour fourth annual Prime Day and, stomaching the fears that discounts could inflict damage on their brands, independent beauty companies shared in the success and generally registered sales spikes matching or exceeding the overall Prime Day gain.

Oral care authority Popwhite offered its Whitening Primer Toothpaste and Whitening Toner Oral Rinse duo, valued at $48, at $24 for Prime Day, and sales of the duo soared 1,000% over a usual day on Amazon. The brand didn’t heighten its advertising spend for Prime Day nor did it shell out money to Amazon to spotlight its Prime Day deal. Amazon sellers were charged $750 to appear on the e-commerce site’s Prime Day Lightning Deals showcase.

“Prime Day can boost sales for a brand just as much as Black Friday because consumers are all looking out for what is on sale on Black Friday, and Amazon is training them to do the same thing on Prime Day,” says Chris Michel, chief distribution officer at Popwhite. About Popwhite’s sales Prime Day sales jump, he adds the brand’s “current customer base already knows the tremendous value behind the products caused by the whitening effect when using both and, when they saw it was half off, it was a no brainer to grab it at an extremely discounted price.”

Sales of products from natural skincare brand Apple Rose Beauty, which were discounted 25% to 35%, climbed 400% on Prime Day. “I would consider my strategy successful, although I was hoping for more lift,” says founder Kristy Alexander. “I’ve heard studies show that, on average, sellers experience sales six times a normal day on Prime Day. I am still very new to Amazon. My products were only launched on the platform a month ago, so I expect the impact of Prime Day to increase as brand awareness grows on Amazon.”

“Prime Day can boost sales for a brand just as much as Black Friday because consumers are all looking out for what is on sale on Black Friday, and Amazon is training them to do the same thing on Prime Day.”

Speculating on Apple Rose Beauty’s tactics for Prime Day in 2019, Alexander says, “I will look into utilizing some of Amazon’s additional marketing strategies around keywords and possibly reveal upcoming deals earlier so existing customers and brand enthusiasts know what to look forward to and get a chance to pre-plan.” Doling out Prime Day advice to indie brands, Michel says, “Email your customers about your Prime Day sales. Also, try to give them a real deal not just an average deal you do every other week.”

HAN Skin Care Cosmetics presented a Prime Day discount on a single stockkeeping unit – its $16 Rose Berry Cheek & Lip Tint was 20% off – but founder Susan Wong isn’t sure the discount affected the brand’s sales. “I didn’t see a meaningful difference on sales for the SKU compared to last year when we didn’t participate on Prime Day,” she says. “However, last year we saw a bump on Prime Day without actually paying the fee and participating, so next year I think we will opt out given that we saw about the same results with and without involvement on Prime Day.”

Perhaps proving Wong’s point that discounts may not be effective to push products from entrepreneurial beauty brands on Prime Day, brands avoiding discounts logged sales bounces. Children’s haircare brand Fairy Tales didn’t drop prices or bundle items for the Amazon deal spectacular, but notched a 60% Prime Day sales leap. “I’d assume people were shopping for deals and realized they needed Fairy Tales,” says Risa Barash, founder of the brand. “It taught me that I don’t have to do anything. The reports have shown that Amazon’s own brands and electronics were the biggest sellers, so our increase was really based on trickle-down sales. We will just continue to ride their coattails next year.”

Hero Cosmetics, the brand behind Mighty Patch pimple-fighting products, recorded an Amazon sales hike of 60% on Prime Day as well with no discount propelling purchases. Founder Ju Rhyu reasons, “Customers were ready to shop and snag deals, and got to the site because they were incentivized by promotions. But, once they were there, they decided to add to cart other things that they needed or wanted to buy. Call it the Prime Day halo. Given this, I don’t think we’ll participate in Prime Day. While we may have seen a greater lift had we offered a promotion, we’re being careful about our channel strategy, so we’re playing the long game by building our brand and not being too promotional.”

“Customers were ready to shop and snag deals, and got to the site because they were incentivized by promotions. But, once they were there, they decided to add to cart other things that they needed or wanted to buy. Call it the Prime Day halo. Given this, I don’t think we’ll participate in Prime Day.”

The Better Skin Co., a skincare brand that betted heavily on Prime Day by elevating its Amazon ad budget 200% and supplying discounts of 25% to 50%, didn’t score a victory on the occasion. Its sales leading up to Prime Day tripled and doubled in the period after, but CEO and co-founder Murphy Bishop II, also founder and CEO of agency BLEU Brand Development, says site glitches killed the brand’s Prime Day business. “We have a very strong Amazon store that simply would not come up in search – you received the 404 error – nor would our store load for the entire first day,” he details.

Prime Day wasn’t a total bust for The Better Skin Co. Sales on the brand’s site advanced 50% on Prime Day. Bishop speculates that advancement happened because people were in a shopping mood, and because the brand amplified its spending on Google and Facebook ads along with Amazon keywords. He says, “Our website has been pretty consistent and better than expected for the summer months because summer is typically terrible for skincare.”

The Better Skin Co.’s Prime Day disappointment isn’t discouraging the brand from partaking in the Amazon frenzy. “Our goal was new customer acquisition, so we had to have those ads running to get that and, if we were smaller than we are, we wouldn’t have the budget for those ads. I can understand micro brands sitting out of it and, if they get something from it, great, but we are bigger and trying a different strategy,” says Bishop, elaborating, “Amazon is like any retailer. You either take advantage of promotions at it and go after that business, or you someone will take that business from you. There is no shortage of competitors in our business. I feel like, if you don’t compete, you are simply going to be left behind. We ignored Amazon in the first year of our business, and it is my biggest regret so far.”

“Amazon is like any retailer. You either take advantage of promotions at it and go after that business, or you someone will take that business from you. There is no shortage of competitors in our business. I feel like, if you don’t compete, you are simply going to be left behind.”

The sales escalation on The Better Skin Co.’s brand site demonstrates the power of Prime Day beyond Amazon. In a survey, Internet Retailer found 37% of shoppers said they shopped at non-Amazon online stores on Prime Day. On top of its Amazon increase, Popwhite’s site sales inched upward throughout Prime Day, buoyed by a deal. Michel figures the brand has “loyal customer base which felt it better to support us directly than through Amazon, which made us smile. Because of this knowledge, we made the special 50% off pricing of our products available on our site.”

The Better Skin Co. excluded, indie beauty brands were mostly pleased with Prime Day – and bullish on its future. “I like Prime Day from a brand perspective,” says Alexander. “Most small brands and sellers in the beauty space notice a dip in U.S. retail sales in the summer as customers are focused on vacations, travel and time with family. Prime Day injects some excitement and boosts an otherwise slower season.” Michel muses, “The amount of people looking around for deals the days prior to Prime Day and on Prime Day was huge. As more brands join in on the Prime Day specials, the bigger it will become.”

TAKEAWAYS

• Amazon Prime Day sales last week jumped 66% to $4.01 billion, according to Internet Retailer, and outpaced Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales in 2017. Amazon revealed small- to medium-sized business generated more than $1 billion during the 36-hour discount bonanza.
• Most indie beauty brands reported Amazon sales jumps roughly equal to or above the overall sales gain for Prime Day. Popwhite saw sales of its toothpaste and mouthwash duo skyrocket 1,000%. It offered a 50% discount on the duo.
• Indie beauty brands that didn’t offer discounts registered Prime Day sales spikes. Both Fairy Tales and Hero Cosmetics’ Amazon sales swelled 60% on Prime Day even though they didn’t participate in the parade of promotions. Based on their experiences, the brands’ founders conclude they’ll continue to sit out Prime Day.
• The power of Prime Day extended beyond Amazon. Beauty brands recorded sales hikes on their own websites during the shopping event, and many supplied discounts for customers visiting their sites as well as Amazon.
• Beauty brand founders and executives believe Amazon Prime Day is only poised to grow. Next year, several emphasize they’d like to increase their ad spend and awareness campaigns on social media preceding the shopping extravaganza.