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Originally published on June 25, 2019, updated September 13, 2024
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Whether you’re launching a new product or trying to boost sales for a former bestseller, promoting your products on Amazon can impact your bottom line. More sales help boost your organic search ranking, which is even more important as Amazon’s sponsored ads appear above organic search results. Having your product on the first page of Amazon search results drastically increases your odds of converting sales.
Many sellers use Amazon’s advertising services to promote products on Amazon. Prime Exclusive Discounts, coupons, and social media promo codes are a bit different than Amazon's more traditional advertising options because you are offering a deal or free product to Amazon customers. This in turn increases interest in your listing and ideally leads to a major sales boost for your products!
August 2024 Update: Amazon now charges a fee for running Prime Exclusive Discounts during major selling events in the US. See details below.
Prime Exclusive Discounts is an advertising option that is only available for products that are eligible for Prime shipping in all regions within a marketplace. You can only offer a discount for a product that is in new condition. The product needs to have a minimum three-star average rating or no rating. Your discount needs to be at least 10% lower than the non-member non-promotional price (meaning Your Price or Sale Price, whichever is lower). The discount can be set as percentage-off or amount-off, and you can set a minimum discounted price floor for each product.
If your discount is accepted, the product offer will display a discounted price with the regular price crossed out. It also shows a savings summary on the product detail page as well as in search results, notifying prospective buyers about the discount they can receive as a Prime member. Products that are discounted through Prime Exclusive Discounts will also have a special Prime Day Deals badge on Prime Day.
There are additional criteria for Prime Exclusive Discounts during Prime Day. Eligible products need to have at least a 3.5-star rating (or no rating), and the discount must be between 20-80% off the non-Prime member non-promotional price. Your average seller feedback rating must be at least four.
If you need more seller feedback or Amazon reviews, check out FeedbackFive by eComEngine. Sending feedback and review requests is the best way to get those elusive ratings!
Restricted products are not eligible for Prime Exclusive Discounts. Any product that you offer a discount on must be compliant with Amazon’s customer product reviews policies and pricing policies. If the product you offer a discount on doesn’t meet the criteria, the discount will not be published.
You can include a maximum of 100 SKUs in a Prime Exclusive Discount. If your discount doesn’t meet the eligibility criteria, you can edit the discount information for the product and republish it.
There is no fee to offer a Prime Exclusive Discount outside of major selling events. If you change the regular price of a participating product, the discount price will automatically adjust by the percentage-off or amount-off you set for the Prime Exclusive Discount. If this results in a price below your minimum discounted price, the discount will be suppressed. Regular promotions or coupons will be combined with Prime Exclusive Discounts, so keep your other promotions in mind when scheduling discounts.
Amazon charges a $50 fee for each Prime Exclusive Discount you create and run during major sales events in the US. Events include:
The fee will only be charged if the discount had at least one unit sold during the event.
You can apply to have your products featured on the Amazon Deals page or the Prime Day page with Lightning Deals. These are temporary discounts that run for a set timeframe, or until your inventory runs out. Lightning Deals create a sense of urgency which can translate to a temporary boost in sales for you.
If you plan to run a Lightning Deal in addition to a Prime Exclusive Discount, your discount will get suppressed two hours prior to the start of the Lightning Deal. It may take up to an hour after the Lightning Deal ends for the discount to reactivate.
Choose Lightning Deals from the Advertising menu in Seller Central to see if your products are eligible. If so, you can select any eligible product and add the details for the deal you want to feature. This includes the discounted price as well as the number of units you’ll willing to sell for that price.
If you want to feature your product during an upcoming sales event like Prime Day or Black Friday, check the Deals dashboard in Seller Central. There, you’ll see which events are currently accepting deal submissions.
Shoppers love a good deal, and offering an Amazon Coupon can be a great way to differentiate your listing from the competition. If you want to offer coupons for your products, you must be a Professional seller with a minimum Amazon seller feedback rating of 3.5. Your average product review rating is also a consideration. The product is eligible without an average rating if you have zero reviews. If the product already has reviews, it must meet the following criteria:
Products can be Fulfilled By Merchant, Fulfilled by Amazon, or Seller-Fulfilled Prime.
It’s important to understand that you cannot provide Amazon Coupons as an incentive for Amazon customer reviews. Product reviews that are received from purchases with coupons may not always receive an Amazon Verified Purchase badge. You can learn more about eligibility requirements and offering Amazon Coupons here.
2024 Update: Amazon Coupons must have a discount percentage between the 5% off minimum and the 50% off maximum. Your product must have a sales history and a promotion price lower than the "was" price or the recent lowest price. You can also select your coupon audience to target buyers more effectively.
The maximum durations for three different classes of coupons changed in September 2024. The new maximum durations are:
Want to create a more targeted promotion? Social media promo codes allow you to offer a percentage discount on eligible products. You can share the codes with customers through social media as well as influencer marketing content.
After creating your social media promo code, you’ll be provided with a URL for each promotion which is a unique marketing page displaying the promotion details for eligible products. Shoppers can simply add products to their cart directly from the unique URL and your discount will apply automatically at checkout.
Social media promo codes can run for up to 30 days. The discount must be at least 5% and may not exceed 80% off of the product’s current price. The social media promo codes feature is currently only available in the US marketplace for Amazon sellers who are approved in the Amazon Brand Registry or Professional sellers with a positive feedback rating of at least 80% positive seller feedback and a minimum of 20 seller feedback ratings.
I talked to Shannon Roddy, founder of Marketplace Seller Courses (now part of Avenue7Media), about this topic and he said, "There's no issue with offering customers a coupon code or discount and then sending a follow-up email asking for a review through a tool like FeedbackFive. The idea is that the discount can't be offered to the customer as a condition for leaving a product review. It's important to think of Amazon's goal, which is to make sure that the platform is free of misuse and abuse. If your intent is to get around that somehow, you're in hot water. Don't manipulate sales velocity and reviews. But if your intent is to gain more customers while following the rules, there is no issue with offering discounts on your products."
When it comes to discounts and product reviews, you may find that reviews from buyers who received a discounted rate appear as unverified purchase reviews. That's not an issue if you have a lot of verified purchase reviews; but since verified reviews have greater weight in your product's average star rating, it is something to be aware of. In testing, Shannon has found that offering discounts of more than 20% resulted in the removal of the Amazon Verified Purchase badge.
I also chatted with Chris McCabe, who helps sellers with Amazon account suspensions at ecommerceChris. "The amount of the discount is a big difference maker here," he said. "Huge discounts aren't allowed. Modest discounts, sellers still do these and send review links. If many buyers leave positive reviews after getting big discounts, even if you don't ask, that typically leads to an investigation, which could mean a suspension."
Bottom line: exercise caution when offering product discounts. If you are a newer seller who is still getting established on the Amazon marketplace, it is likely not in the best interest of your business to offer steep discounts. Providing a slight discount can help your products stand out during busy seasons, such as Q4.
Do you offer discounts, coupons, or social media promo codes for your products? How do you think these methods compare to other forms of Amazon advertising?
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