Customer experience
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Flute
Every summer, one of the largest shopping events of the year sends billions of dollars flowing away from independent businesses. But SMBs have real advantages Amazon can't match, and the right strategies can turn Prime Day into an opportunity.
Maria runs a specialty kitchen store just off the main square. For one week every summer, the sidewalk outside her shop gets quiet, and it has nothing to do with the heat. Her customers are scrolling Prime Day deals, loading digital carts, and waiting for a little grinning box to show up on their doorstep. Foot traffic moves to someone else’s cart, and Maria spends the week watching it happen.
If you run a business, you know the feeling. Amazon Prime Day has grown into one of the largest shopping events of the year. In July 2025, U.S. consumers spent an estimated $24.1 billion online across the four-day event, nearly the same as Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
That’s a lot of money flowing away from independent retailers, service providers, and local businesses.
Thankfully, Prime Day doesn’t have to be a total loss. Growing businesses have real advantages that the biggest players can’t match, like personal relationships, flexible payment options, and hands-on service.
Let’s look at six sales strategies to help you stay competitive during Prime Day and the weeks that follow. We’ll focus on how your payments setup can do a lot of the heavy lifting and how to prepare before the big day this June.
Prime Day does two things well:
People who might have walked into your store in August are now checking whether they can get something similar online for less. But you don’t need Amazon’s scale to give customers a reason to buy from you. You just need to meet them where they are, with the offers, payment options, and experiences that fit how they actually want to shop.
Let’s dive into six strategies you can follow to hold your own during the Prime Day rush. Mix and match what works for your business, and lean into the payment-focused tactics, since those are the ones big retailers can’t personalize the way you can.
Going head-to-head on price during Prime Day is usually a losing game. Instead, run your own event that leads up to or follows Prime Day. For example, a pre-Prime Day promo can capture shoppers who haven’t committed yet, while a post-Prime Day event can pull in people who missed out or are still comparison shopping.
Keep the sale focused and easy to understand. Bundles are fantastic for attracting buyers without lowering prices. If you’d prefer to offer a discount, a straightforward 10% off site-wide sale usually lands better than a complicated tiered promotion. And don’t forget the checkout itself; a great offer loses its shine when the payment process is clunky, so make sure your checkout supports repeat purchases, digital wallets, and online options that match how your customers pay.
One of the biggest reasons customers choose online giants during Prime Day is how little effort the checkout process requires. Your card, address, and preferences are already saved, so buying feels like tapping a button. The Baymard Institute found that 18% of U.S. shoppers abandoned an online purchase last quarter because the checkout process was too long or complicated, not because they changed their minds about buying.
The best way to fix this is with tokenized payment data. When a customer pays, their information is saved as a secure token that stands in for the card number. The next time they buy something, they don’t have to re-enter their payment details — they just click “buy now,” and they’re done.
Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay are also tokenized, so accepting them gives repeat customers a fast, secure way to pay online and in-store. The customer gets a premium, no-friction experience, and your business never holds the actual card data, which keeps most of the PCI compliance burden off your plate.
70% of consumers say the availability of their preferred payment method is very or extremely influential in deciding where to shop. That means offering flexible, one-click payment options is key to competing with bigger players during special events.
A small-business rewards program is one of the best ways to bring customers back, and Prime Day offers a great opportunity to launch one or to promote the one you already have. Research published in Harvard Business Review found that increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25% to 95%.
The simplest loyalty programs tend to work best: a punch card, a points system tied to spend, or a tiered program that rewards frequency. You can also tie rewards to specific payment methods, like double points for customers who pay with a saved digital wallet or who enroll in autopay.
If you sell items or services that customers need more than once, consider setting up a subscription or membership program. Here are a few examples of what that might look like:
Subscriptions give you predictable revenue, smooth out seasonal dips like the Prime Day slump, and build the kind of relationship big retailers struggle to replicate. They also make life easier for your customers, since they don’t have to reorder, rebook, or remember to shop for necessities.
Prime Day’s real hook isn’t always the price. It’s the convenience: a customer gets something delivered in a day or two without spending hours browsing aisles. One way to match that convenience without slashing shipping costs is with click and collect. This option, also called buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), lets customers purchase on your website and pick up their order within hours, not days.
The demand is already there. U.S. click-and-collect retail sales are projected to hit $177.9 billion in 2026, up more than 15% year over year, and 85% of BOPIS shoppers report making an additional purchase when they come in to pick up an order.
That’s a built-in opportunity to turn a single online purchase into a larger in-store sale, and it works across categories, from clothing and home goods to specialty foods and service packages.
A customer who buys from you during Prime Day and has a great experience can be yours for years. Use the weeks after Prime Day to follow up thoughtfully, with a thank-you note with a small credit, a text reminder about a related product, or an invitation to your rewards program.
Your payment data is a powerful tool here. Knowing when customers buy, how often, and what they prefer will help you personalize their experience. That personal touch is what turns a Prime Day impulse buy into a regular customer.
Here’s a list of things you can do right now to get ready:
Remember, doing two or three of these well will move the needle more than trying to do all five at once. If you’re not sure what to change in your payments setup, your provider is the right place to start — they can tell you what’s already built in and where to go next.
This Prime Day, the question isn’t whether you can outspend Amazon but whether you can provide a better experience. By offering a variety of unique promotions and simple, invisible ways to pay, you can make it easier and more rewarding for customers to buy from you than from anyone else.
At Flute, we build tools that turn checkout, both online and in-store, into one connected experience — the kind that keeps customers coming back long after Prime Day ends. Ready to see what that looks like for your business? Get started today.
