The only constant in the world of ecommerce is change. Businesses strive to keep up with each shift in the tide, but they can’t always weather the changes alone. That’s why they turn to experts like Power Digital. For more than a decade, this growth marketing firm has helped shape retail strategies for organizations big and small, helping set them up for success.
“The retail space and the omnichannel strategy of selling online is changing rapidly. Across the industry, Power Digital is seeing a shift in the way that consumers are buying,” says Katie Davis, Associate Director of the firm’s retail marketing team. “Brands are discovering that the same recipe that got you there five years ago is not going to find you success in the upcoming years. Helping our brands understand the consumer experience is vital.”
A major focus for Power Digital is helping brands grow—whether that’s through increases in conversion, click-through rates, or first-time customers. And more and more, the team is seeing those increases when it adds Buy with Prime to clients’ ecommerce sites.
Power Digital’s clients are finding new recipes for success by offering Prime shopping benefits directly on their ecommerce sites. Keto-friendly snack and cereal brand Catalina Crunch saw a 20% reduction in customer acquisition costs after adding Buy with Prime to its site. Audio equipment brand Cleer Audio saw a 63% increase in click-through rate for social ads featuring the Buy with Prime badge and a 92% increase in shopper conversion after adding Buy with Prime as a checkout option on product pages.
Reduce customer acquisition costs
Brands need new customers to grow, but acquiring those new customers doesn’t come cheap. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is a rising expense for brands, and a key for growth is keeping that cost low. Customer lifetime value (CLTV), on the other hand, should rise over time as a brand builds a loyal customer base. The Power Digital team believes two of the biggest factors in a brand’s long-term success are CAC and CLTV.
“From a merchant standpoint, we’re finding that the cost to acquire customers is becoming more and more difficult to overcome,” Katies explains. “But if you’re able to keep your cost of acquisition low and increase the value of your customers over time, you can see a strong, profitable long-term business model.”
Katie and her team have discovered that adding Buy with Prime to clients’ sites has helped increase the number of new consumers shopping with the brand, which helps lower overall CACs and increases the opportunity for CLVT.
Catalina Crunch optimizes ads for Prime Day
Power Digital decided to lean into Buy with Prime with its client Catalina Crunch. The team had worked with the cereal and snack brand for years, helping to optimize its retail presence for channels like Amazon.com. Now it was time to invest more in its ecommerce site to keep up with customers’ expectations.
“By using Buy with Prime for fast, free delivery, Catalina Crunch was able to offer its snacks and cereal at a much faster rate than it was previously able to on its ecommerce site,” Katie says.
When customers run out of everyday foods, like cereal and snacks, they usually want them replenished in their pantry quickly. Buy with Prime presented a great opportunity to not only meet the needs of the brand’s loyal, returning customers, but also attract Prime members.
Power Digital added the Buy with Prime button to Catalina Crunch’s best-selling SKUs, like the cookie variety pack, and created a Buy with Prime collection page to help shoppers discover and purchase eligible products. But Power Digital didn’t stop there. The team also used Social Ads for Buy with Prime to dynamically display the Buy with Prime badge on the brand’s Meta ads in hopes of boosting click-through.
The enhancements happened during the exciting lead-up to Prime Day, a peak shopping period when Catalina Crunch was eager to maximize visibility. And for good reason, the two days of Prime Day 2023 ended up being the largest Prime Day ever for independent sellers, with Prime members purchasing more than 375 million items both on and off of Amazon.com. Power Digital hoped to get Catalina Crunch a piece of the action—and the strategic maneuvers ultimately paid off.
“Catalina Crunch saw tremendous results,” Katie says. “Because the social ads that featured Buy with Prime converted at a higher rate than its previous campaigns, Catalina Crunch had a 20% reduction in customer acquisition costs. And this was during the summer season, which tends to be a slower performance period for food and beverage brands.”
Cleer Audio unlocks higher conversion ahead of Black Friday
Catalina Crunch wasn’t the only brand that saw positive results thanks to Social Ads for Buy with Prime. Power Digital also worked closely with its client Cleer Audio to optimize its ecommerce site. Similar to Catalina Crunch, the Power Digital team turned to Buy with Prime during a pivotal sales period: the five days from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. They decided to implement Buy with Prime in November 2022.
“They wanted solutions to make this their best holiday yet,” Katie says. “We knew it was a great opportunity for the introduction of Buy with Prime.”
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday fewer than 30 days out, the Power Digital team went to work. They added Buy with Prime to popular products, like the Alpha noise-canceling headphones and the Ally Plus II wireless earbuds, and added the Buy with Prime banner to a prominent spot on the brand’s home page. Power Digital also added the Buy with Prime badge to paid social ads that ran on Meta, that allowed shoppers to click through to the product page where they could check out using Buy with Prime. The strategy was to inspire shoppers with familiar branding on the social ads and a familiar experience at checkout.
“One of the biggest benefits of putting the Buy with Prime badge on these social ads was to showcase the fast, free delivery,” Katie says. “By offering Buy with Prime, Cleer Audio could offer an extended shipping window during the key holiday time frame.”
To test this strategy, Power Digital ran A/B testing where during a period of time in during the holiday shopping period in November and December 2022, half of social media users saw Cleer Audio ads with the Buy with Prime badge and half saw ads without the badge.
This strategy ended up being a smart move. Results showed a 63% increase in click-through on the ads that featured the Buy with Prime badge. What’s more, during that period, Cleer Audio’s conversion rate saw a nearly two-fold increase from 1.10% to 2.12%, representing a 92% increase in shopper conversion.
“It’s very rare—nearly unheard of—to find one single opportunity that nearly doubles your conversion rate,” Katie says. “But that’s what the Buy with Prime badge and checkout option did for Cleer Audio.”
Being able to rely on Buy with Prime during tentpole events like Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday made all the difference for Catalina Crunch and Cleer Audio. And that makes all the difference for Power Digital’s mission of growing and amplifying brands.
“When these events happen, costs can be through the roof, but everyone knows that these are the times of year when consumers are most primed to buy,” Katie explains. “This is a critical time for brands to decrease their customer acquisition costs, increase the number of shoppers coming through the door, and keep those users as lifelong customers. That’s where the value of Buy with Prime comes in.”
