Prime Week 2025: What We Learned from Amazon’s Longest Event Yet

This year, Prime Day became Prime Week — and the ripple effects will shape how brands prepare for the rest of 2025.

Amazon’s flagship sales event stretched well beyond its traditional 48-hour burst. With deals rolling out over five days, shoppers had more time to browse, compare, and buy — but they also spent more deliberately. For brands, this extended event revealed both new growth opportunities and new operational challenges.

At Color More Lines, we partnered closely with clients to navigate the high-stakes week. Here’s what we saw, what worked (and didn’t), and what it all signals for Q4 and beyond.

The Event Has Changed — So Has the Shopper

The biggest change wasn’t just the duration. It was the behavior.

This year’s extended window meant:

• Higher total order volume, but spread out over more days

• Delayed deal chasing: Many shoppers waited until mid-week to pull the trigger

• Increased second-chance purchases: Retargeting on Days 3–5 drove solid ROAS

• More mobile traffic: Mobile-first shoppers dominated early-day deals

And while the average order value (AOV) was relatively flat year-over-year, many brands saw more returning customers and bundled purchases — a sign that loyalty strategies are gaining traction.

Insider Tip: Brands that sequenced tiered deals (e.g., Day 1 = 15% off, Day 3 = 25% off bundles) outperformed those with static discounts.

What Worked (and What Didn’t)

Prime Week 2025 rewarded brands that came in with a strategic media mix, fast inventory replenishment plans, and a flexible pricing structure. Let’s break it down.

Top Performing Strategies

1. Always-On Ad Campaigns Brands that ran consistent PPC (rather than pulsing it on just the first two days) maintained better momentum and CPC efficiency.

2. Early Warm-Up Brands that teased deals via email, SMS, and DSP the weekend prior saw a 14–20% boost in Day 1 traffic.

3. Creative Rotation Some brands saw success by rotating creative mid-week—especially headlines and image assets—reducing fatigue and reviving click-through rates by up to 28%. But a word of caution: Mid-event listing changes come with risk. In Amazon’s eyes, any update (even minor) can trigger content re-approval, and if a change is flagged—even incorrectly—it could result in listing suppression. Even worse, approved changes may draw attention from Amazon bots that surface unrelated compliance issues, potentially jeopardizing your top-performing ASINs at the worst time.

4. Retargeting + Cross-Sell Leveraging Amazon audiences and DSP to retarget deal-viewers helped recover cart abandonments and push BOGO-style offers.

What Fell Flat

1. One-and-Done Discounting Brands that launched a single promo and didn’t evolve it throughout the week saw lower engagement after Day 2.

2. Over-reliance on Lightning Deals These drove short spikes but didn’t meaningfully impact weeklong sell-through without parallel ad support.

3. Ignoring Mobile UX Pages that weren’t optimized for mobile saw disproportionately higher bounce rates — especially on Day 1 and Day 4 (highest mobile traffic days).

What Prime Week Tells Us About Q4

This year’s event revealed a few key trends we expect to echo in Q4:

• Shoppers are pacing themselves. They’re browsing more, buying in phases, and looking for added value beyond a steep discount.

• The line between performance and brand marketing is blurring. Creative strategy mattered — brands with differentiated visuals and tighter product messaging outperformed generic listings.

• Bundles and subscriptions are on the rise. Brands that made it easy to “stock up and save” or “subscribe and save” saw higher conversion rates and longer customer LTV projections.

• Marketplace competition is fiercer — and more algorithmically driven. Amazon’s ranking system rewarded velocity, page optimization, and ad investment in near real time.

Real Takeaways from the Brands We Work With

While we can’t share every client detail, here are some anonymized highlights from brands we supported across categories:

Category	Key Win	Metric Impact
Beauty	Rolled out 3-tiered promos over 5 days	+42% revenue YoY, +28% conversion rate
Home & Kitchen	Launched retargeting with updated visuals	+35% ROAS on DSP, 12% ACoS improvement
Supplements	Optimized mobile UX + subscription CTA	+31% subscriber growth in 7 days

These results weren’t by accident — they came from planning, testing, and adapting in real time.

The New Prime Week Playbook

What should brands do to stay ahead of the curve?

• Start Earlier. Begin teasing promotions and warming up audiences 7–10 days in advance.

• Think Beyond the Discount. Add value through bundles, faster shipping, extended warranties, or exclusive add-ons.

• Make Retargeting a Priority. Build custom audiences via DSP and Amazon marketing cloud to stay in front of shoppers across platforms.

• Use Midweek as a Reset—Only When It’s Safe. If you’re in a low-risk category (like apparel), small updates that follow Amazon’s TOS to the letter may help reengage your audience when momentum slows. But for higher-risk categories—especially supplements or tightly regulated products—resist the urge to change listings during live events. Instead, prep content variations ahead of time, then test and rotate post-event to optimize future performance without risking downtime.

• Optimize for Mobile. Treat your Amazon product page like a DTC landing page — especially for mobile.

Final Word: The Brands That Win Are the Ones That Adapt

The Prime Day playbook is evolving. And in 2025, it’s clear: growth is no longer just about big discounts or short bursts of attention.

It’s about sequencing smart promotions. Capturing shopper intent. Personalizing the follow-up. And having the operational readiness to scale without breaking.

At Color More Lines, we help brands grow faster — and smarter — in high-stakes moments like these. If you’re planning for Q4 (and beyond), let’s talk.

Work With Us or Contact Us for a Free Marketplace Assessment