Amazon is one retailer that has perfected the art of turning browsing into buying: In 2024, they generated $638 billion in sales, with $14 billion in sales on Prime Day alone. When you shop on Amazon, you’re not simply browsing. You’re shopping based on an algorithm that already knows what you want — and what you’ll want next.
Someone might open their Prime account looking for a pair of car floor mats and realize they really need a dashboard cleaner, microfiber rags, and an air freshener to get their car in tip-top shape. Amazon anticipates these needs, sometimes before customers conceive of them, creating a shopping experience that feels less like marketing and more like a concierge service.
And it’s on purpose. Amazon is a machine that processes billions of data points — for example, their dynamic pricing adjusts 2.5 million times per day based on competitor analysis and demand. Everything they do is done with the goal of serving up products at exactly the right moment, turning casual browsing into purchases.
But you actually don't need Amazon's multi-billion-dollar infrastructure to create curated, customer-focused shopping experiences. With the right strategy and tools, you can make every customer feel understood, valued, and eager to buy.
When Prime Day hits, consumer’s inboxes tend to fill up with more promotional emails than usual. Social media also overflows with flash sales, and brands take the opportunity to offer all sorts of offers. It’s ecommerce chaos — and generic marketing messages become completely ignored.
This is where personalization becomes your superpower. According to research by Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations. When purchase intent is higher — like during high-stakes shopping events — that number jumps even more.
Think about it: The reason Amazon can earn $14 billion in a single-day shopping event isn't only because of brand recognition (although that helps). It's also because they take a personalized approach that makes shoppers feel like the deals they’re seeing were curated specifically for them.
When you receive a Prime Day email highlighting discounts on items you've actually been considering, it doesn't feel like spam — it feels helpful. Because of that, this is what shoppers have come to expect from all ecommerce retailers. When people have experienced Amazon's tailored recommendations and marketing, they expect a similar experience from every retailer that enters their inbox. And the brands that can do it stand out against a sea of generic promotional noise.
Personalization during Prime Day isn't just about better conversion rates. It's about raising your customer experience standard to the bar Amazon has set — so you can set your brand up for lasting success.
At the end of the day, there’s no one spending on merchandising and marketing optimization like Amazon. Their personalization success comes from their obsessive focus on behavioral data and pattern recognition. They are the masters of predictive shopping — but their strategies are surprisingly simple to replicate.
Here are the foundations of Amazon’s marketing and merchandising strategy that any online retailer can replicate with the right tools:
Product recommendations are the foundation of Amazon’s strategy. When a customer views a product, Amazon's algorithm immediately analyzes thousands of data points, from other customers' purchase patterns to seasonal trends, to show the most relevant alternative and complementary items.
To do this yourself, you can implement AI-powered recommendations that analyze customer behavior in real time. The key is to focus on placing these recommendations strategically across your customer journey — on product pages, in the shopping cart, and at various post-purchase touchpoints. Start with your best selling products and expand based on data you gather after implementation.
Amazon's "Frequently Bought Together" suggestions aren't pre-set. They're based on actual purchasing correlations from millions of transactions. For example, when the algorithm suggests a phone case with your new iPhone, it's because a certain percentage of iPhone buyers also purchase a case within 48 hours.
You likely don’t have billions of data points to work with, but you can get the same effect. Use your historical sales data to identify natural product pairings, then create dynamic bundles that offer genuine savings. To truly add value, the key is automation — let your behavioral data drive which products get bundled together rather than relying on curating them manually.
Amazon's abandoned cart emails might remind customers what they left behind, but they often include reviews from other customers, create urgency with limited-time offers, or suggest alternative products — all based on your browsing history.
With the right tool, you can deploy intelligent, automated marketing that responds to customer actions with personalized messaging. Create sequences that include social proof, time-sensitive offers, and product suggestions based on your customers’ browsing patterns to keep them engaged, even when they're not actively shopping.
Smart brands recognize Prime Day as the perfect opportunity to test and refine their personalization strategies — even if they’re not selling on Amazon themselves. Consumer attention is at a peak during this period, so capitalize on it. Prime Day and other peak seasons are an ideal time to try out new approaches and gather a whole lot of valuable behavioral data.
The sky is really the limit: Run parallel campaigns with different personalization tactics. Test whether product recommendations based on browsing history work better than those based on purchase history. Experiment with messaging that feels more personal than generic. Try out some new subject lines, and try referencing specific customer actions.
The insights you gain during high-engagement periods become the foundation for year-round personalization improvements. You'll learn which triggers work best for different customer segments, which product combinations generate the most sales, and which messaging approaches drive the most engagement.
The lesson in all of the success of Prime Day is that personalization isn't just about driving immediate transactions. It's about fostering relationships that build trust, and in turn, create lasting value. Your competitors might fight over bargain hunters and price-sensitive shoppers, but you know that personalized experiences attract and retain customers better.
When you make shoppers feel valued and understood, those customers become your most valuable asset. They have higher lifetime values, and they’re more likely to recommend your products to others. A relationship-focused approach to personalization creates a true competitive advantage.