Our latest Dynamic Pricing Community webinar was presented by Ruta Donovan, VP Marketing & Growth at 7Learnings, and Jérôme de Guigné, Founder & CEO at e-Comas. This session focused on three key topics: the relaunch of our community, learnings from Black Friday for Amazon sellers, and actionable insights from Black Friday 2024. Here’s a summary of the discussions, key takeaways, and strategies shared by our speakers and participants.
Welcoming back our Dynamic Pricing Community
We kicked off this session by celebrating three years of connections among pricing professionals. With new members joining monthly, our Dynamic Pricing Community continues to grow as a hub for sharing expertise and networking.
Exciting plans ahead
The webinar is the first in our new sequence of bi-monthly events, with the next being a January session featuring pricing expert Danilo Zatta, who will discuss his latest book on price wars. We also introduced new resources for 2025, including our Black Friday Pricing Report and a Pricing Strategy Checklist, available to attendees.
Insights for Amazon Sellers
Jérôme began the session by highlightin some of the unique dynamic faced by Amazon sellers around Black Friday:
- Vendor vs. seller performance: Vendor accounts, managed directly by Amazon, saw more significant sales spikes during Black Friday than seller accounts. This is due to Amazon’s control over pricing and promotions for vendors.
- Prime Day vs. Black Friday: Seller accounts performed better during October Prime Day, while vendor accounts excelled during Black Friday.
- Pre- and post-event trends: Jérôme emphasized that customer behavior extends into pre-event browsing and post-event purchasing, creating opportunities to capture demand with targeted promotions and well-timed advertising campaigns.
- Stocking strategies: Jérôme stressed the importance of preparing inventory well in advance. Brands using Amazon’s FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) program should stock up by October to avoid logistical bottlenecks in November.
Best practices for selling on Amazon
Jérôme also shared strategies to improve Black Friday performance:
- Start early: promotions should begin well before Black Friday to capture early interest.
- Simplify discounts: Flat discounts performed better than complex percentages.
- Leverage advertising: tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud can boost visibility and conversion rates.
- Longer promotion windows: Rather than focusing solely on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, extend promotions over several days or weeks to maximize engagement.
Black Friday pricing report 2024
Ruta Donovan then presented some of the key findings from our joint report with Kearney on Black Friday demand trends:
- Sales spike: Black Friday sees a spike of 153% in demand on the day itself, but gains are offset by falls in demand in the weeks prior to and following Black Friday.
- AI in pricing: A standout insight from our research: retailers using AI-based pricing solutions reported a 39% profit uplift compared to traditional methods. This reaffirms the transformative potential of AI for pricing strategies.
- Discount rates in 2024: Our survey found most retailers expected to maintain a similar level of discount rates to the previous year.
Community insights and challenges
Participants engaged in breakout sessions to share their Black Friday experiences and broader pricing challenges:
- Industry variances: Some industries de-emphasize Black Friday, focusing instead on broader pricing challenges.
- Navigating competition: Early promotional starts by competitors demand agile responses.
- The Omnibus Directive: EU-wide regulations add complexity to discounting strategies, requiring transparency in pricing history.
Looking ahead
This session highlighted the dynamic interplay of community engagement, market trends, and strategic foresight. As we gear up for 2025, the community will continue to explore cutting-edge solutions, like AI-driven pricing and strategies for navigating regulatory landscapes.
Join us in January
Our next session will feature Danilo Zatta discussing competitive pricing and price wars.
If you’re interested in presenting or contributing to our research, apply to join our Dynamic Pricing Community!
