Prime Day Invite-Only Deals About Engagement and Exclusivity
Amazon has introduced a new idea to their Prime Day, the invite-only deal. It reminds me of a retail shopping experience at a Nike Store in NYC. Let me tell you about it.
How does the invite-only deal concept relate to a retail shopping experience at a Nike Store in NYC?
I knew it was a weird retail store when I walked into a Nike Store in NYC to find sneakers for my nephew who was visiting from out of town.
From the clerk: "Yeah, a few times each day, someone new walks into this store expecting to buy Nike Air Jordan sneakers."
The gall of consumers expecting to be able to buy in a retail store! What can you do?
Download an app
Enter a drawing
Hope to get accepted
Wait
If you get accepted, you get the privilege to buy the shoe at full price.
Lucky me, right? (In this case, one of us ended up "winning!") [[btw: sound familiar, Swifties???]]
Amazon's exclusive invite-only deals remind me of this approach. You can see (most) of the deal - the price and the % off. But you can't buy it.
How does Amazon's Exclusive Invite-Only Deals create engagement and perceived scarcity?
Amazon's situation differs in that we are talking about "best of the web" type deals here, but the approach is similar in one way: all these hoops you are required to jump through are about two things:
creating engagement and perceived scarcity
curating precious inventory for what is likely real scarcity
See, to get access to these deals you not only need to browse. You need to click and engage. Now you are invested. If you're invested in one deal, you will likely be invested in looking other deals. Any DTC marketer knows: engagement and time spent on site improves conversion.
How does this strategy compare to exclusive drops used by influencers?
It's a similar strategy to how influencers use exclusive drops to their audience to gauge demand while limiting their production runs of those products.
Expect to see this type of approach increasing in popularity across retail, including this holiday.
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