Amazon's Prime Day event is no longer just a two-day shopping frenzy; it's a strategic, multi-day sales event that has evolved to offer sellers more opportunities and new challenges. If you've noticed changes, you're not alone. The landscape of Prime deals is shifting, requiring a fresh approach from sellers who want to maximise their success.
The New Deal Structure: What You Need to Know
You're right, the deal fees have changed. In 2025, sellers see new costs associated with participating in the main Prime Day event. One example is the
$500/£50 fee for a Lightning Deal, and some reports show
Best Deals costing as much as $1,000/£100, for Amazon US and Amazon UK respectively. These fees are a significant upfront investment, on top of the required discounts you must offer. It's a clear signal from Amazon: they're prioritising sellers who are serious about their deals and willing to pay for premium placement during the event.
However, you've also correctly identified a crucial alternative: the
Prime Exclusive Price (PEP). This is Amazon's way of offering more flexibility. You can get the coveted Prime Day badge and increase visibility to Prime members for a much lower fee. This game-changer allows smaller sellers or those with tighter margins to still participate and get traction without the heavy investment of a traditional Lightning or Best Deal.
Why Pay $500 or £50 When You Can Use PEP?
This is the core question for sellers, and the answer lies in the
level of visibility and promotion.
- Placement and Discovery: A Lightning Deal or Best Deal gets
prime placement on the main Prime Day page, within the Deals section, and often on the product detail page itself with a clear "lightning deal" badge and countdown timer. This high-profile placement drives massive amounts of traffic and urgency. Customers are actively browsing these pages specifically for deals.
- The "Deal" Mindset: A customer seeing a Lightning Deal knows it's a limited-time, limited-quantity offer. This creates an intense sense of urgency that a simple price discount can't replicate, encouraging immediate purchase.
- Algorithm Boost: Participating in these top-tier deals can significantly boost your product's sales velocity and BSR (Best Seller Rank), which can have a lasting positive effect on your organic search ranking even after the deal is over.
A
Prime Exclusive Price offers a strong benefit—the Prime badge—which is crucial for conversion but
lacks the featured placement of the top-tier deals. While a PEP may appear in search results and on the product page, it won't be featured on the main deals page, a major traffic driver during the event. The fees you pay for Lightning and Best Deals are for that premium visibility and the heightened sense of urgency that leads to explosive sales.
Boosting Visibility Beyond Prime Deals
Relying solely on Amazon’s deal placements can be risky, especially as fees and competition grow. Paid advertising is becoming a crucial companion strategy—helping sellers capture traffic even when they’re not featured in a Lightning or Best Deal slot.
Sponsored ads and
smart targeting can extend visibility across search results and product pages, ensuring your offers don’t disappear once the clock runs out on Prime Day promotions.
If you’re looking for expert support with managing ads, deals, and overall growth, our
Amazon Account Management services can help you build a strategy that balances deal participation with sustainable paid campaigns. This approach not only drives sales during Prime events but also strengthens your brand presence for the long term.
Looking Ahead: The October Prime Big Deal Days
Your observation about Prime Day's length is spot on. In 2025, Prime Day expanded to four days, which seems to be the new norm. This longer format gives shoppers more time to browse and sellers more strategic flexibility. You can stagger your promotions, test different deals on different days, and avoid the intense, single-day rush of previous years.
As we approach the
Prime Big Deal Days in October, the strategy remains the same: it's a dress rehearsal for the holiday shopping season. Amazon is establishing two major shopping holidays a year. This second event is a critical opportunity for sellers to boost sales, gain momentum, and test their holiday season offers and inventory. It’s a smart move to run deals during this event to capture early holiday shoppers and get a head start on your Q4 sales.
