Amazon’s growth seems unstoppable, as does Prime Day’s. Prime Day 2024 was the largest ever. Again. The event was worth approximately $14B, up from $12B the previous year.
Sales skyrocketed over the two-day period, but how did that impact customer service? The short answer is, as sales increased in response to discounts, flash sales and the other promotions that happened on Prime Day, support staff were put under added pressure.
To understand the consequences of this in more detail, we analyzed queries associated with over 22M Amazon orders during Prime Day 2024 and compared them to the Prime Day 2023 period.
We’ve determined what kinds of conversations increased, and those that decreased, to help you understand the issues your support staff need to be prepared for during peak sales periods. Here’s what we found.
Order cancellation rates increased
Order cancellation rates in the days immediately following Prime Day increased by 14% versus the same time period during Prime Day 2023.
Thankfully, while this increase in cancellations was significant, third-party sellers are seeing steady growth in profits from Amazon—up 16% between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, even when the cancellation rate is taken into account.
It’s expected that cancellations increased because of the excitement of Prime Day and its limited-time deals, which lead to impulse purchases. Customers are generally liable to cancel orders they make in the spur of the moment more so than considered purchases.
During past Prime Days, 16% of shoppers made at least one impulse purchase. But, according to SimplicityDX data, 56% of impulse buyers regret their purchases.
This increase, and the inevitable queries about cancellations, has likely put added pressure on support resources. A solution like eDesk can help in cases like this. On eDesk, support agents can see the full context of each customer query at a glance, including shipping and order data.
As a result, they come prepared with the necessary info to answer queries promptly, and accurately. This leads to increased customer satisfaction and a higher likelihood that they’ll try your products again, regardless of the cancellation.
eDesk connects seamlessly to 250+ storefronts and marketplaces via native integrations. For Amazon, even though they’ve phased out cancellation notifications, you’ll still be able to get these notifications in eDesk. For more information on this process, you can reference our knowledge base article here.
Return rates increased
A related statistic from eDesk data showed that return rates were also up by 19% during Prime Day 2024, compared to Prime Day 2023. However, the eCommerce industry is seeing a general downtrend in returns overall, from 16.5% in 2022 to 14.5% in 2023.
While this stat may also be related to buyers’ remorse, there are more mitigating factors to consider here. Product quality, suitability and more factors contribute to how likely a customer is to return an item.
Thankfully, there are many factors you can control to safeguard against cancellations. Maintaining healthy stock levels, clear product descriptions, competitive prices, and prompt shipping all help maintain buyer confidence in your products, and prevent them hitting Cancel.
Better yet, there are several tactics you can use to ensure customers have a positive experience when they return items.
eDesk helps eCommerce sellers streamline the returns process. Returns info added in eDesk is visible within the context of the support ticket it relates to. Not only does this help with visibility on a case-by-case level, it’s also visible to all agents with eDesk access.
Negative feedback decreased
We also found that, overall, customers’ experience with support was more positive during Prime Day 2024 than during the equivalent period in 2023. Negative feedback sent to sellers saw a significant decrease. It was down 18% year over year.
In terms of positive reviews, while your customers may be very satisfied with their Prime Day purchases, they may not always be forthcoming about it. Writing for Inc, Andrew Thomas estimates that only 1 in 10 happy customers leave positive reviews.
To solve for this, and increase the ratio here, consider a platform like FeedbackExpress. This solution lets you request reviews from your happiest customers, helping you receive more 5* ratings—a key signal that tells Amazon your products are worthy of the Buy Box.
Furthermore, the connection between happier customers, repeat business and increased profits is well proven.
A staggering 89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience. On the other hand, when customers are unhappy, there’s a 91% chance they won’t do business with a company again.
With that in mind, the significant business impact of reviews shouldn’t be ignored.
For insights on how to handle negative feedback more effectively, check out our analysis of how you can leverage it to your advantage.
The bottom line
With increased sales, your support team will always see a correlated increase in queries. By preparing ahead of time for the typical kinds of questions they’ll get, as outlined in this article, you can set your business up for better support experiences for all your customers.
Sign up for a free trial of eDesk for streamlined customer support throughout all the Prime Days to come, and every day you sell in between.
