- Making Amazon Work For Your Brand
The Secret of Amazon Success: Aunt Fannie’s on Building a Multi-Million-Dollar Brand with Run AMZ
Aunt Fannie’s is an all-natural cleaning products brand. With a focus on clean and cruelty-free formulas, the company knew a platform like Amazon could propel them to rank above top competitors in their space. Learn how a small, focused start-up was able to compete against and win vs brands from P&G, SC Johnson, and Clorox.
Aunt Fannie’s was an emerging brand with exceptional products that was seeing early success on Amazon, but to scale they needed a strategy to penetrate and grow amongst large and established competitors. Aunt Fannie’s partnered with Run AMZ to build and execute a plan to grow the business that included everything from digital merchandising to product assortment, marketing and logistics.
Now, after a four-year partnership, Aunt Fannie’s has grown into a multi-million-dollar Amazon seller with many top-ranking cleaning products on Amazon, cementing the brand not only as a leader in natural cleaning products but outselling blue chip SKUs from brands like Clorox, Swiffer and Mrs. Meyers. Below, we walk through 5 strategic focus areas that helped Aunt Fannie’s reach Amazon FBA success.
5 Amazon Success Factors
Knowing there was stout competition from established and known brands, Run AMZ partnered closely with Aunt Fannie’s to build a plan around attracting mass amounts of new customers, converting at a high rate, and retaining customers into loyal Aunt Fannie’s brand advocates.
To reach Aunt Fannie’s Amazon goals, Run AMZ began by looking at the whole business and then built a plan around how to grow market share. Below are the core areas prioritized throughout the partnership:
- Digital Merchandising Strategy
- Marketing
- Logistics Services
- Product Assortment
- Account Management Strategy
Digital Merchandising Strategy
Before driving increased traffic through advertising and other means, scaling a business against powerful incumbent brands requires a higher-than-average conversion rate and continually increasing organic ranking. A huge driver of both is digital merchandising, a point of focus for Run AMZ in growing Aunt Fannie’s business. This had to happen by simultaneously driving consumer purchases while accurately representing Aunt Fannie’s brand tone, voice and messages.
The result of Run AMZ’s effort in digital merchandising combined with awesome products from Aunt Fannie’s was a conversion rate 2x the industry average, averaging over 22%.
Since Aunt Fannie’s was in the competitive House Supplies category on Amazon, Run AMZ knew that their brand story had to be represented in their Amazon content to successfully differentiate from other name-brand competitors on the platform. The company needed to clearly communicate who they were and why potential customers should care in order to boost their sales and turn Amazon shoppers into loyal repeat buyers.
The Run AMZ content process consisted of 2 phases:
- Listing optimization
- Brand storefront
First, Run AMZ reviewed all of Aunt Fannie’s product detail pages to see what areas could be improved. For Amazon digital merchandising, sellers typically think of it as a “more the merrier” approach: the more images and product information that’s added to the page, the more likely it will convert shoppers. For Aunt Fannie’s, Run AMZ recommended creating new listing images and copy to more effectively attract and convert Amazon shoppers.
Run AMZ created new listing images for all of Aunt Fannie’s Amazon ASINs. Previously, the brand had as little as 1 image per product (i.e., the minimum Amazon photo requirements). But, using asset availability and product demand, Run AMZ recommended 4-8 new images per product in the brand’s catalog – including videos. The goal was to better display each product accurately and clearly communicate features and benefits to consumers. Run AMZ even created some digital 3D models of Aunt Fannie’s products as a work-around for SKUs that did not have creative assets available. Lastly, it was crucial to add data points into the visual assets, such as product dimensions, to help customers understand how the products would look and feel once delivered.
With listing optimization also comes SEO. Ideally, sellers would organically rank for commonly searched terms that would maximize indexing in Amazon’s A9 algorithm and reduce ad spend. For Aunt Fannie’s, Run AMZ captured relevant keywords by:
- Utilizing keyword scraping tools
- Analyzing competitor keywords
- Reviewing current advertising data
After analyzing this data, Run AMZ created new optimized titles, bullet points, product descriptions, and backend keywords for all ASINs in the catalog.
The last piece to optimizing product detail pages is adding enhanced brand content. This part of the page, referred to as A+ Content, falls under the initial product description and allows sellers to provide additional product and brand information.
Run AMZ made sure to create A+ Content for all ASINs in the catalog. This content has not only been shown to increase conversions, but also resonates with shoppers as they’re able to better understand the brand’s mission and impact.
Although A+ Content is typically specific to the product, category, or product line – Run AMZ also focused the text and imagery on Aunt Fannie’s brand messaging. Not only was it important for the A+ Content to match the brand’s other marketing materials (e.g., their website), but it was also key for the brand’s voice to shine through.
The last part of Run AMZ’s digital merchandising solutions for Aunt Fannie’s was the seller storefront. This is a hub where shoppers can find all of a seller’s products along with brand information. It’s key for a seller’s storefront to:
- Represent the brand’s style guide
- Organize with visual elements
- Promote shopability through product education
Aunt Fannie’s also utilized their Amazon storefront as a landing page for advertising. This was a key component in attracting and retaining new customers because the storefront allowed shoppers to browse the brand’s products without any interference from competitor products or advertising (unlike on an Amazon detail page, where competitors are present).
For Aunt Fannie’s storefront, Run AMZ completed the following:
- Designed the Amazon storefront
- Implemented the approved creative
- Maintained the storefront (eg. added new products as they launched)
After creating the assets and working with Aunt Fannie’s team to get approval, Run AMZ implemented all of the creative into their Amazon backend. This allowed the brand to focus on bigger moving pieces of their business while Run AMZ took care of the tedious technical side of Amazon, like content restrictions and checking that the assets were loaded properly.
Marketing
With best-in-class digital merchandising complete and a healthy conversion rate, Run AMZ was able to shift focus to driving traffic and capturing new customers. To reach the scale of growth that the Aunt Fannie’s team desired, Run AMZ knew they would have to generate hundreds of millions of impressions and millions of page views over a prolonged amount of time (this was key to driving long-term growth for the brand, by not only building a wider customer base but also by boosting the brand’s organic ranking on Amazon).
By efficiently and effectively attracting new consumers to Aunt Fannie’s product pages, then converting those shoppers at a high rate, Run AMZ was able to grow the brand’s Amazon business with an increase in both ad sales and organic rank. These results came from not only a strong Amazon strategy, but also a close partnership and investment from the Aunt Fannie’s leadership team and collaboration with Run AMZ. Through the sharing of data, a long-term marketing plan was crafted and executed. Now, over 4 years into the partnership, we are still executing to grow the business.
The Strategy
Most companies, aside from household-name brands, will need to utilize marketing campaigns when launching new products or to gain traction for existing products. Although Aunt Fannie’s was aware of this and had launched their own campaigns before partnering with Run AMZ, they had only a small budget and weren’t seeing the ROI they hoped for.
Run AMZ addressed the brand’s advertising issues with a 3-phase takeover:
- Overhaul existing campaigns
- Create new sponsored products campaigns
- Create new sponsored brand and product targeting campaigns
When Run AMZ joined into a partnership with Aunt Fannie’s, the agency realized the main issue was over-spending which led to a high TACoS (total advertising cost of sale). This was hurting the brand’s profits and Run AMZ realized a budget overhaul was necessary to hit Aunt Fannie’s ROI targets.
Run AMZ utilized machine learning software to decrease Aunt Fannie’s ACoS and maximize the effectiveness of their ad spend. Run AMZ targeted the brand’s marketing according to campaign parameters ranging between 5-40%. The campaigns were easily scaled up based on Aunt Fannie’s ongoing input, product margins, and competitiveness of their category. After this shift, sales began to grow significantly faster than before and eventually Aunt Fannie’s TACoS declined.
To improve marketing spend efficiency and ensure a healthy and sustainable budget, Run AMZ completed an audit to calculate return on ad spend compared to revenue. Run AMZ wanted to clarify how many sales were needed in order for Aunt Fannie’s to make a profit. Taking it a step further, Run AMZ broke down the percentage of overall sales for each product, looking at the targets versus actuals of each campaign.
The PPC campaigns Run AMZ launched for Aunt Fannie’s targeted relevant keywords. These keyword targets were based on research of which campaigns would be best utilized according to the product type. Although Run AMZ was responsible for the campaigns’ structure and implementation, the agency made sure to check them daily as CPCs (cost-per-click) can vary greatly from one day to the next. Run AMZ strived for continuous improvement through active bid and keyword management to ensure traffic and conversions were a result of the brand’s investment.
Run AMZ conducted a monthly marketing spend analysis to ensure the campaigns stayed within budget. Then, using this data, Run AMZ proposed an annual budget for the following year that better aligned with Aunt Fannie’s overall Amazon goals for the year. Saving the majority of the budget for top sellers guaranteed that they were better prepared for year-over-year growth. Run AMZ shared the monthly marketing spend analysis with the brand’s key stakeholders so that they could easily understand where their money was going and what the results were.
Once the initial marketing campaigns were off the ground and properly set up, Aunt Fannie’s wanted to increase the brand’s authority on Amazon. They didn’t want to just continue using campaigns to drive sales – they wanted to utilize a bigger marketing budget to compete against popular household-name brands for high-converting (and competitive) keywords.
Once the brand had seen success from their previous marketing campaigns, they were ready to comfortably increase ad spend. At this point, Run AMZ focused on the brand’s competitors. Knowing that the Household category on Amazon is incredible competitive, Aunt Fannie’s expected they would eventually need a higher marketing spend to account for the level of competition within the category. In doing so, the brand’s stakeholders accepted that, to some regard, it was normal for campaigns to be “inefficient” – especially during the busy times of the season. Regardless, Aunt Fannie’s put more spend towards competing against brands with similar products with the goal of “stealing” high-value keywords away from them. In doing so, the company was able to prioritize growing their market share and organic position for top category keywords. To eventually become a multi-million-dollar brand, Aunt Fannie’s invested in their advertising, resulting in the highest sales numbers the company had ever seen.
Logistics Service
As momentum begins to build on Amazon, the need to stay in-stock is essential. As the Amazon flywheel spins up, nothing kills it faster than OOS (out-of-stocks).
Run AMZ’s logistics services supported Aunt Fannie’s through the growth to not only keep them in stock, but to share the burden of Amazon FBA management with their small but mighty team. Run AMZ followed an extremely in-depth logistics process to cover all facets of the department, including:
- Shipment creation
- Inventory reconciliation
- Returns processing
- Bi-weekly reporting
- Monthly forecasting
- Go-to-market strategies for new products
Run AMZ helped Aunt Fannie’s identify and manage shipping and packing of their products. Starting with shipment creation, Run AMZ suggested and created all shipments for the brand’s FBA warehouse. The agency also created shipping and product labels, ensuring everything was up to date according to Amazon label requirements. Run AMZ also scheduled pickups on behalf of the brand.
Run AMZ further assisted with shipment and inventory reconciliation, identifying any missing or damaged products. If any were discovered, Run AMZ submitted claims for reimbursement and provided relevant reporting to the Aunt Fannie’s team. Inventory dispute and resolution also included assisting in the reconciliation of financial transactions. On a monthly basis, Run AMZ presented reconciled inventory documents that showed which products, if any, were lost or damaged, and the financial burden of them on Aunt Fannie’s business, and worked with Amazon to assure they were reimbursed.
Another facet of Amazon logistics is returns processing. Run AMZ assisted Aunt Fannie’s customers who requested returns via the “seller messaging” functionality in their Seller Central account. By assisting in the facilitation of returns, Run AMZ was responsible for creating and executing removal orders for all of the unfulfillable inventory in the FBA warehouse.
Because of Scout by Run AMZ, the agency’s proprietary data tracking software, Aunt Fannie’s had access to a plethora of data beyond their Amazon backend. The brand could use Scout to see which Amazon ASINs were bought most often and their corresponding revenue. Aunt Fannie’s could even use Scout to see a daily breakdown of which products generated the most sales on a given date – which was most helpful during events like Prime Week.
Aside from the Aunt Fannie’s team having access to all of their sales data in Scout at any time, Run AMZ also provided the team with monthly reports. These reports showed the brand’s starting and ending inventory levels, inventory movement, and any open discrepancies. Run AMZ included monthly forecasting by ASIN into the reports so that Aunt Fannie’s team could not only review their previous period, but also begin to prepare for the upcoming one. Going through this exercise and providing forecasting data to Aunt Fannie’s team allowed them to better prepare for production planning and address any potential gaps in inventory in advance.
Aside from inventory and forecasting reports, Run AMZ provided a “bottom line” report that showed the brand’s net sales dollars after associated fees. This bi-weekly financial report broke down sales per product and all fees incurred during the period’s transactions, comparing expenses to the Amazon selling price of the products. Although this data was available to the brand’s team in Scout, Run AMZ made sure to schedule monthly logistics conversations with the Aunt Fannie’s team to continuously ensure the brand was on-track with their revenue targets and that everything was clear to the brand’s top stakeholders. Furthermore, having this general understanding of Aunt Fannie’s profit was helpful for planning promotions and allowed the brand to comfortably test different pricing levels for various products.
Using the financial reports, Run AMZ was able to suggest new product bundles for Aunt Fannie’s to offer on Amazon. These bundles consisted of multiple products that customers had purchased together in the past or products that were a lower cost to ship together rather than separately. Run AMZ also enabled and selected items for Subscribe & Save, knowing that many customers were repeat buyers and that allowing them this new option would improve the shopping experience, as well as generate more sales for the brand.
Finally, because of Aunt Fannie’s successful growth on Amazon, the brand also collaborated with Run AMZ to launch new products and grow their catalog. Run AMZ conducted market research using both brand and competitor information. By analyzing competitor brands and products that were similar to Aunt Fannie’s and already doing well in the marketplace, the agency was able to discover new product opportunities. Run AMZ worked with Aunt Fannie’s team to discuss products in the research and development phase, and build go-to-market strategies for them. Lastly, once new products were ready to be offered for sale, Run AMZ managed all of the content for the new product listings. Run AMZ uploaded and optimized all new Aunt Fannie’s products as they were released onto the Amazon platform.
Product Assortment
Once Aunt Fannie’s Amazon business was thriving, it was time to decide what the next step should be to propel the brand to even higher sales. Run AMZ determined that the next step forward should be focusing on improving and increasing the brand’s catalog and product assortment.
Run AMZ worked with Aunt Fannie’s to research and discover new products that could be sold through their Amazon storefront. There were 2 new assortment options that Run AMZ recommended:
- Multi-packs and Variety packs
- New products
Multi-packs and Variety packs
Adding multi-packs and variety packs to Aunt Fannie’s catalog allowed them to be more profitable. Consumers noticed they would be saving money by purchasing multiple items in one order, which led to a higher AOV (average order value). Additionally, since the brand’s products were mainly at a low price point (under $10), it had previously been challenging for them to maintain profitability due to the increases in Amazon fees. By adding multi and variety packs, it became easier for the brand to afford to stock and ship more items through Amazon’s platform, thus further increasing their profitability.
Account Management Strategy
In a path to scale, there are innumerable challenges that arise in dealing with Amazon, from suppressions to listing variations breaking, to new product set-up and account health notifications. Account management is the foundation that facilitates marketing, digital merchandising, and logistics efforts. While it is table stakes for a healthy Amazon business, the effort and skill needed to execute should not be overlooked. Having a dedicated team to do daily account health checks, make changes and updates as needed to the catalog, address and manage issues when they arise, stay updated on Amazon seller requirements, and dig into trends are all benefits to working with a full-service Amazon agency.
Run AMZ’s account management services include:
- Catalog set-up and management
- Customer service
- Case work management
- Reseller enforcement
Run AMZ started with a catalog audit to address any inefficiencies. Run AMZ determined the best product alignments and implemented an optimized listing strategy using Amazon best practices to determine the proper alignments. The agency then relisted the variations to capitalize on consumer behavior, improve shopability, and increase reviews resulting in higher conversions.
Next, Run AMZ assisted with Aunt Fannie’s customer service on Amazon. Run AMZ took ownership of the brand’s review management process, monitoring reviews and feedback to address areas of concern from customers. They also responded to general buyer questions that came in through the brand’s Seller Central account.
Overall, Run AMZ managed Aunt Fannie’s Seller Central portal on a day-to-day basis to ensure their account remained in good health. Run AMZ troubleshooted all problems that arose and made sure they were addressed promptly according to Amazon regulations.
The Results
After working with Run AMZ for over 4 years, Aunt Fannie’s grew into a multi-million-dollar Amazon seller. This year, they had their first back-to-back multi-million-dollar months. The brand has had consistent annual sales growth since the beginning of partnering with Run AMZ.
Run AMZ also helped Aunt Fannie’s enter 6 new categories on Amazon. These new categories are now generating 30% of the brand’s overall Amazon revenue.
With thoughtful SEO keyword targeting, Aunt Fannie’s also saw some big wins across their product rankings. They have products ranked:
- #2 for “fruit fly trap”
- #5 for “household cleaner”
- #6 for “insect trap”
Additionally, the marketing spend analysis and campaigns launched by Run AMZ reached hundreds of millions of Amazon shoppers. Overall, the campaigns had an impressive 26.65% conversion rate. For reference, the average conversion rate is around 4%. Conversion rate is one of the most important metrics for Amazon success as CRO is a huge driver for SEO and digital merchandising.
Amazon can be confusing, time-consuming, and ever-changing. With nearly every department needing alignment – logistics, creative, and marketing – it can be daunting to approach selling on Amazon without any external assistance. If you need help, Run AMZ’s Amazon experts are here for you.