What Is Amazon Prime Day?
Prime Day is an exclusive shopping event for Amazon Prime members. It has been running annually since 2015 and now spans two full days -- typically in mid-July.
What makes Prime Day special: Amazon invests hundreds of millions in marketing to drive traffic to the platform. For you as a seller, that means the customers are already there. You just need to convert them.
Prime Day is the second-largest e-commerce event globally after Black Friday / Cyber Monday. In many categories, search volume on Prime Day actually exceeds BFCM because Amazon funnels all traffic to its own platform -- whereas on Black Friday, other retailers compete for the same attention.
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Prime Day by the Numbers: Why You Need to Prepare
The 2025 Prime Day numbers speak for themselves:
- $14.2 billion in global sales within 48 hours
- 375+ million items sold worldwide
- Average 35% traffic increase on Amazon compared to a normal day
- Europe is growing disproportionately: DE, FR, IT, ES, and NL all posted double-digit year-over-year growth in 2025
For EU arbitrage sellers, one fact is especially relevant: Prime Day runs across all European marketplaces simultaneously. If you sell Pan-EU, your potential multiplies.
What this means for your repricing: on a normal day, you compete with your usual 3-8 competitors for the BuyBox. On Prime Day, additional sellers appear who stock inventory specifically for the event. At the same time, demand spikes so sharply that even products with heavy competition sell through quickly. Your repricer needs to handle both scenarios.
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4 Weeks Before: Preparation Makes the Difference
The real work for Prime Day does not start on the event day itself. It starts four weeks earlier.
Restock and Mind the FBA Cutoff
Every year, Amazon announces an FBA inbound cutoff date -- the deadline by which your inventory must arrive at the warehouse to be available on Prime Day. This cutoff is typically 2-3 weeks before the event.
Check every product: do you have enough stock to handle Prime Day traffic? As a rule of thumb, plan for 3 to 5 times your normal daily sales per Prime Day day.
Review Your Repricing Rules
Go through your repricing rules and make sure they make sense for Prime Day. Pay special attention to:
- Min prices: Are they up to date? Do they account for all Amazon fees including FBA storage costs?
- Max prices: Are they realistic or set too high?
- Strategies: Are you using the right repricing strategy for each product?
Calculate Min Prices Properly
The most common Prime Day mistake: sellers lower their prices aggressively without having calculated their break-even point. The result is sales at a negative margin.
For every product, calculate:
> Min Price = Purchase Price + Amazon Referral Fee + FBA Fee + Minimum Margin
Do not set your minimum margin below 2 EUR per unit. Anything lower is not worth the effort -- especially when you factor in the higher return rate around Prime Day (more on that later).
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Repricing on Prime Day: The Right Strategy
This is the core of this guide. Divide your entire catalog into three categories and handle each one differently.
Category A: Fast Movers -- Fight Aggressively for the BuyBox
These are your high-demand products with many competitors. On Prime Day, demand for these products explodes. Your goal: hold the BuyBox at all costs.
Specific settings:
- Set strategy to STEP or STEP_JUMP
- Lower min price to the absolute lowest profitable level (2-3 EUR margin is enough)
- Set the repricing interval to the shortest available
Why? For fast movers, volume is what counts on Prime Day. A product you normally sell 5 times a day can move 25-40 units on Prime Day. Even at 2 EUR margin per unit, that is 50-80 EUR profit -- from a single product on a single day.
Do not try to maximize margin on these products. Competition will be fierce. Whoever loses the BuyBox sells nothing. And selling nothing is the most expensive option.
Category B: High-Margin Products -- Do NOT Lower Prices
These are your products with strong margins and few competitors. Typically niche products or bundles where you are one of 1-3 sellers.
Specific settings:
- Keep strategy on JUMP or MATCH
- Do NOT lower your min price
- Optionally raise your max price slightly (2-5%)
Why? On Prime Day, demand rises in almost every category. Customers who normally compare prices for days buy impulsively on Prime Day. The increased demand means your niche products sell more frequently -- without you having to drop the price.
The mistake many sellers make: they lower all prices across the board on Prime Day. For Category B products, this is pure margin giveaway. If you already own the BuyBox and competition is thin, there is no reason to lower the price.
Category C: Slow Movers -- Use Prime Day as a Selloff
These are your shelf warmers. Products that have been sitting in the FBA warehouse for weeks or months, costing you storage fees. Prime Day is your chance to move them.
Specific settings:
- Lower min price to break-even (accept 0 EUR margin)
- Set strategy to STEP with aggressive undercut
- Optionally activate Amazon coupons for extra visibility
Why? Every day these products sit in the warehouse costs you money. On Prime Day, purchase intent is as high as it gets outside of BFCM. Take advantage of that. Even if you make zero profit on these items -- you save on ongoing storage fees and free up capital to invest in more profitable products.
Try arbytrage.io free for 14 days and set up your Prime Day repricing in minutes. All strategies, all EU marketplaces, one dashboard.
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After Prime Day: The Critical 72 Hours
Prime Day is over. Now comes a phase that many sellers underestimate.
Reset Prices to Normal Levels
Within the first 6-12 hours after Prime Day, reset your prices to pre-event levels. Many competitors forget this or react slowly. If you are fast, you can sell at normal margins in the hours after the event while others still have their Prime Day prices active.
Check your Category A products in particular: the min prices you lowered for Prime Day need to go back to their regular levels.
Factor in the Returns Wave
On Prime Day, many customers buy on impulse. The consequence: the return rate runs 20-30% above normal. This means:
- In the 7-14 days after Prime Day, you will receive above-average returns
- Your actual net revenue is lower than the gross revenue on the event day
- Factor this into your post-mortem before drawing conclusions for the next Prime Day
Adjust Repricing Post-Event
After Prime Day, the market normalizes within 48-72 hours. During this window, the following happens:
- Sellers who sold their entire stock on Prime Day disappear from the listing
- Demand drops to normal or slightly below (post-event dip)
- Prices tend to rise because supply contracts
Use this to your advantage: if your repricer is set to JUMP or STEP_JUMP, it will automatically push higher prices once competitors disappear. In the days after Prime Day, you can often sell at above-average margins.
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5 Common Prime Day Mistakes That Cost You Money
Mistake 1: No Min Price Calculation Before the Event
You lower prices on Prime Day without knowing where your break-even point is. The next day you discover: 40 sales, but 15 of them below cost. Solution: calculate min prices at least one week before and store them in your repricer.
Mistake 2: Treating All Products the Same
You lower all prices by 15% across the board. For your fast movers, that might make sense. For your niche products, you are giving away margin. Solution: use the three-category split (A/B/C) from this guide.
Mistake 3: Turning Off Repricing on Event Day
Some sellers disable their repricer on Prime Day because they fear a price war. The result: competitors lower prices, you stay put, and you lose the BuyBox for 48 hours. Solution: keep your repricer active, but secure it with properly calculated min prices.
Mistake 4: Not Restocking in Time
Your inventory arrives at the FBA warehouse two days before Prime Day but is not checked in on time. You are out of stock on event day. Solution: mind the FBA cutoff date and ship inventory at least 3 weeks in advance.
Mistake 5: Not Resetting Prices After Prime Day
Prime Day is over, but your aggressive min prices are still running. You sell for days at razor-thin margins even though demand has long normalized. Solution: reset repricing rules to normal levels immediately after the event.
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FAQ: Prime Day and Repricing
Is Prime Day worth it for small sellers with fewer than 50 products?
Yes. Small sellers actually benefit disproportionately because the extra traffic is free. Amazon pays for all the marketing. You just need to make sure your repricing is properly configured and you have enough stock. Even 5 well-repriced products can generate a full week of normal revenue on Prime Day.
Should I use coupons alongside repricing on Prime Day?
For Category C products (slow movers), yes. Coupons increase visibility in the Deals tab and complement your repricing effectively. For Category A and B products, coupons are usually unnecessary -- demand is already high. Keep in mind: coupon costs (0.60 EUR per redemption) must be included in your min price calculation.
How early should I switch my repricing to Prime Day mode?
Switch your repricing rules 24 hours before Prime Day. Not earlier, or you sell at lower margins in the days leading up to the event for no reason. Many competitors switch a week early and give away margin without cause -- the demand spike only starts with the official kickoff.
Does this strategy also work for the Prime Big Deal Day in October?
Yes, the same logic applies. The Prime Big Deal Day (also called "Prime Day 2") typically takes place in October and follows a similar pattern: increased demand, more competition, a subsequent returns wave. Revenue tends to be slightly lower than the July event, but the strategy remains identical.
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