DTC brands are promoting their Amazon stores to support faster holiday delivery
In the coming weeks, many brands will turn to Amazon to ensure customers can get products delivered by Christmas.
With five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, many direct-to-consumer brands’ shipping deadlines will arrive quicker than usual after the Black Friday weekend. As such, a number of brands will be directing customers to shop from their Amazon stores — especially in the week before Christmas — in order to take advantage of Prime’s two-day shipping promise and ensure that all of their items arrive on time. Some DTC startups are starting to promote the option through their Buy with Prime extension. The challenge for brands is figuring out how to align their sales calendars with Amazon’s and when to push various promotions.
Gender-neutral skincare brand Geologie rolled out its early access Black Friday deals on November 18 on its website. The brand also rolled out a sale on Amazon to align with Amazon’s Black Friday-Cyber Monday deals period, which runs from November 21 to December 2. After that, Geologie products on Amazon will not feature the Black Friday or Cyber Monday Deal tags.
Stephen Racano, head of growth at Geologie, told Modern Retail that the company’s last shipping cutoff for DTC orders will be on December 18 through the expedited shipping option. “Up until this date, we will primarily promote our gift set on Geologie’s website,” Racano said. “But then will direct users to Amazon or our Buy with Prime checkout option from the 19th to the 22nd for the last-minute shoppers.”
Racano said Geologie plans to primarily communicate its promotions to customers through email notifications, SMS and organic social posts. Once the DTC shipping deadlines pass, these notifications will then encourage customers to order through Amazon to get items time in time for Christmas.
The company began using the Buy with Prime extension earlier this year and began noticing a rise in customers choosing Buy with Prime during Amazon’s Big Deals Day in October. The month-over-month use of Buy with Prime spiked 45% this month. “We are also up 143% in Amazon month-to-date sales,” Racano said.
“We expect this to increase through the holiday period, peaking in the last few days of shopping,” Racano said.
Stanley Lim, an assistant professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told Modern Retail that as shipping cutoffs sneak up on customers, it’s smart for brands to make their Amazon Prime storefronts more prominent to website visitors. That’s especially true when it comes to brands using the Buy with Prime feature, which prominently promises two-day delivery.
“The key is to communicate urgency and reliability while maintaining a cohesive brand experience across DTC and Amazon,” Lim said.
With Amazon leaning more into Black Friday deals, Lim said that “brands can run special deals on their Amazon stores, such as limited-time discounts or free expedited shipping for Prime members to capture traffic redirected from their own channels.” He added that to ensure traffic is funneled to Amazon, brands should be running Amazon-focused ads and email campaigns that target last-minute shoppers.
Still, this all requires companies to plan ahead to meet any necessary deadlines.
Lim said companies selling on Amazon should be aware of the potential pitfalls and prepare accordingly for hiccups like capacity constraints with Fulfilled by Amazon, as well as higher fees during peak periods. For its part, in August, Amazon recommended that third-party sellers stock up their Black Friday inventory in fulfillment centers a week earlier than last year. There is also the issue of visibility within Amazon’s ecosystem, requiring brands to invest in advertising on their listings.
Racano said Amazon gave sellers a tight turnaround to prepare for the peak. Amazon had an FBA inbound deadline of October 19, meaning Amazon’s warehouses had to receive inventory by this date for guaranteed Black Friday-Cyber Monday deliveries. That came just 10 days after October’s Prime Big Deal Days event, which took place on October 8 and 9.
“We leveraged our sales data from that window, and historical trends from previous BFCM periods to quickly determine appropriate inventory levels,” Racano said. Amazon also recently launched new tools that allow brands to tailor brand-specific promotions for a variety of audiences Racano said these include “high-potential new customers, complimentary product remarketing, cart abandoners and high-value repeat customers.”
Sexual wellness brand Foria has also kicked off its seasonal promotions with the help of Shopify’s Buy with Prime integration.
Foria’s co-founder and CEO Jon Brandon, said that this year the company decided to run a number of promotions that integrated Amazon’s Black Friday-Cyber Monday deals window. “We’re offering shoppers 30% off most of our products on both our website and on Amazon from November 22 through December 3,” Brandon said. Some exclusive gifts with purchase will be offered throughout the BFCM week.
Foria began using the Buy with Prime integration in December 2023, right before Christmas. Brandon said it has since become an effective secondary fulfillment option during particularly busy seasons. This year, the company created a dedicated Buy with Prime landing page on its website that allows Prime members to directly purchase eligible Foria products. The Amazon promotions mirror Foria’s DTC discounts.
Through its 3PL, Foria’s Christmas delivery cutoff dates will be December 16 for standard shipping and December 19 for expedited. “We’ll be shifting our retail focus to Amazon and the Buy with Prime options when we’re within a week of Christmas,” Brandon said.
Foria is planning a similar approach to funnel last-minute shoppers to its retail partners’ brick-and-mortar stores, such as Ulta. “We’ll be directing our customers to in-person retailers using our store locator feature for other last-minute gift purchases,” Brandon said.
Similarly, this year, men’s grooming brand Manscaped is kicking off its Black Friday sale simultaneously on its website and its Amazon store.
Jimmy Liao, vp of marketplace at Manscaped, said that in December, typically, the company notices customers start to feel the pressure of purchasing gifts that will arrive in time for Christmas. This year, that period will sneak up even quicker after the Black Friday weekend rush.
Since 2019, For December, Liao has used a tiered promotional run back through December to create a sense of urgency as Christmas week approaches. The heaviest discount of the season, 25% off sitewide, is currently running for Black Friday week. It will decrease as it gets closer to Christmas. Some Amazon flash deals are part of this run. He described it as a “diminishing discount strategy,” in which products are offered at their steepest discounts early in the month and gradually increase toward retail pricing as the holiday approaches.
“This strategy not only encourages early purchasing but also helps recover and offset the deeper discounts offered prior to December,” Liao said.
On Amazon, Manscaped is investing in its standard daily advertising along with some Prime Exclusive Deals or Lightning Deals. Liao said that as customers catch up with their shopping in the coming weeks, they will feel the tight ordering deadlines for guaranteed Christmas week delivery.
“The only way to reliably achieve this is to shop on Amazon or physically in a retail store,” he said.