Prime Big Deal Days (7–8 Oct) - Early View

The October Prime event wrapped up with some really strong results across Amazon and our brands. It’s still early days and we’ll dig deeper once final numbers come in, but here’s a first look at what we’ve seen so far, both across the wider platform and inside our own portfolio.

Amazon-wide View
Record participation & refined deal strategy
Amazon once again reported record engagement across 35+ categories, with shoppers showing strong intent in both big-ticket and everyday essentials.
CPC & ad efficiency
CPCs saw moderate uplift across EU5 markets (around +4–6% YoY), but overall efficiency held up well, particularly for brands that balanced upper-funnel media with conversion-focused activations. CTR and ROAS improved for campaigns launched early and paced steadily through both days.
Category rotation
Tech and Amazon-owned devices remained key traffic drivers, but Health, Beauty, Home and Grocery categories posted some of the strongest YoY growth, evidence of more diversified consumer demand.
Shopper behaviour
More than half of Prime households placed multiple orders, with notable uplift in replenishable products and gifting lines, a useful signal for BFCM planning.

Our Portfolio View
Across our managed accounts, performance came in well above forecast and strongly ahead YoY, with most brands exceeding Amazon’s central targets by 40–50% and delivering +60–140% YoY growth.
A few key themes stood out:

• Precision over volume — rather than running broad deal lists, we focused promotions on SKUs with healthy margin profiles and proven demand elasticity.
• Smart discounting — targeted %-offs balanced visibility with profitability, ensuring we avoided deep cuts where ROI didn’t justify it.
• CPC movement in line with market trends — we saw a slight increase in CPCs during peak hours, but maintained stable ROAS through selective bidding and pacing control.
• Cross-market consistency — UK and DE delivered particularly strong deal revenue growth; FR showed steadier results due to pricing and compliance constraints.

Overall, results reflected strong commercial discipline: measured participation, profitable discounting, and smart bid management throughout the event.Category Insights
Beauty & Personal Care

• Delivered some of the highest YoY growth within our portfolio.
• Products that focused on value (bundles, gifting, self-care positioning) converted best.
• Hero SKUs with brand story and strong creative outperformed heavily discounted items.

Health & Nutrition

• Traffic and GMV up across multiple EU markets.
• Moderate price elasticity observed, smaller, essential SKUs performed better than large packs or premium-priced items.
• Some competitive pricing pressure, particularly in DE, will be reviewed further.

Home & Lifestyle

• Maintained solid traffic with improved CTR on everyday and “seasonal prep” products.
• Conversion strongest where value messaging was paired with genuine product differentiation.

Key Learnings for BFCM

1. Selectivity drives profitability — targeted deal curation outperformed broad participation.
2. Value communication matters — price isn’t the only motivator; creative and positioning play a bigger role.
3. Monitor CPC windows closely — early activation can still deliver efficiency, but peaks need real-time pacing control.
4. Pricing compliance needs planning — Omnibus and Buy Box dynamics remain a constraint in some EU markets.
5. Cross-market coordination remains key — especially around spend allocation and forecasting for high-traffic days.

We’ll share deeper analysis next week, including detailed CPC and ROAS curves, traffic vs conversion trends, and category-level breakdowns.
For now, early signals are clear: profitable growth, smarter discounting, and disciplined execution set a strong foundation heading into Black Friday.