Prime Day all about voice and grocery perks, Narvar

Amit Sharma, CEO at retail loyalty specialist Narvar, has shared his predictions for Prime Day 2018, which kicks off on 16th July and runs for 36 hours, six hours longer than last year’s event.

Prediction #1: Voice

Last year, Prime Day heavily promoted new technologies like Dash buttons and Alexa-powered voice shopping. As voice adoption continues to accelerate, it’s likely Amazon will once again offer can’t-miss deals for voice to further incentivise shoppers. The voice opportunity is massive and major players like Amazon see it as an important customer touchpoint.

Consumers will soon rely on voice assistants at all points of their shopping journey, so it’s smart for the company - and other retailers - to invest in this channel by prompting users to tap virtual assistants for everything from product search to order updates and returns.

Prediction #2: Grocery

Given this is the first Prime Day since Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, consumers should expect to see more Prime grocery perks as well as exclusive deals and savings for AmazonFresh. To compete with Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s, Amazon will likely rely on services like two-hour delivery to hook customers and encourage Prime members to re-evaluate where they shop for groceries.

Lessons learned for retailers: Inspiring loyalty

Amazon continues to raise the bar for customer experience and meeting consumer expectations. As a result, retailers today must be focused on building long-term customer loyalty, but that doesn’t necessarily mean offering discounts and points programmes.

Inspiring loyalty involves communicating proactively and transparently (for instance, about delivery updates and the status of returns) and investing in interactive and personalised experiences that customers find valuable. Amazon does the former well, and retailers would be wise to take a page from their communication playbook. The latter is an area where it has a harder time competing. By investing in these experiences, retailers can differentiate their brand and build long lasting loyalty in an increasingly commoditised landscape.