From Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday 2023, discounting activity across Amazon US was both more pervasive and slightly steeper than 2022 averages. This increase in discounting extended to actual price discounts, more ‘deal’ badges on products across the site, and cut across categories.

Biggest Takeaways for Brands

• Event-oriented discount badges are becoming more important to secure – beyond traditional discounting
  • Consumers are actively prompted with prominent search filters around ‘Black Friday Deals’ and ‘Cyber Monday Deals’ during sale event periods, which are directly tied to these badges as opposed to traditional discounts
  • With the frequency of discount badging rising significantly year-over-year, products that don’t have this badge risk being at a disadvantage versus competitors that do during key sale events

• Relying solely on advertising to drive sales during tentpole events is becoming an increasingly risky strategy
  • Amazon is clearly prioritizing and promoting discounts on the site – regardless of category- during sale events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and that trend is almost certainly going to continue
  • While top of search paid placements are impactful during high traffic periods, eschewing discounting entirely is unlikely to yield the greatest return
    • It can be helpful to run price elasticity testing prior to a sale event to have a meaningful understanding of an optimal price cut that will yield the most return

Methodology

Data included in this analysis is based off of pricing, badging, and discounting activity across products appearing within the top 1,000,000 search terms on Amazon during November 2022 and November 2023. Search terms were categorized based on the top-level category associated with the majority of products appearing on the corresponding search results pages.