How SalesDuo helped DesantisGunhide transition from Vendor Central to Seller Central and grow their salesby 549%
Desantis Gunhide is a family-ownedbusiness located in Long Island, New York. Gene DeSantis hand-built the firstDeSantis Gunhide holster at his kitchen table over 40 years ago. A lot haschanged since then they have grown into a global enterprise and harnessed thelatest technologies, we are the holster of choice for elite U.S. lawenforcement and the U.S. military. DeSantis Gunhide is synonymous withinnovative designs, high standards of craftsmanship, and dependability.
In October 2022, Desantis Gunhideforged a strategic partnership with SalesDuo, marking the beginning of a collaborationaimed at strengthening its presence on the Amazon marketplace. Since theinception of this partnership, both teams have been actively engaged in variousinitiatives designed to enhance Desantis Gunhide's performance and expand theirreach on Amazon. Central to this collaboration is the development of compellingcontent and creatives curated to enrich Desantis Gunhide's Amazon catalog. Byleveraging SalesDuo’s expertise in crafting engaging product listings,enhancing product imagery, and optimizing product descriptions, DesantisGunhide aims to captivate and convert a broader audience of Amazon shoppersMoreover, SalesDuo will also be managing Amazon Ads, utilizing data-drivenstrategies to maximize visibility and drive targeted traffic to DesantisGunhide's product listings. This proactive approach to advertising isinstrumental in boosting sales and elevating the brand's standing in Amazon'scompetitive marketplace.
The overarching goal of our strategicpartnership with Desantis Gunhide was to drive substantial business growth forthem on the Amazon platform. Our initial strategy was to leverage the AmazonVendor Central program as the cornerstone for selling Desantis Gunhide’sproducts on Amazon's vast marketplace. However, upon conducting thoroughresearch and engaging with the Vendor Central system, we encountered asignificant challenge. Although listings for Desantis Gunhide’s products onVendor Central were already created, we encountered a recurring issue whenattempting to secure Purchase Orders from Amazon. Specifically, our attempts tocreate Born to Run orders consistently faced rejection with the reason code'Not accepted: Unfavorable Submission.'
This rejection prompted us toinvestigate further into Amazon's expectations and requirements. It becameapparent that Amazon was requesting a reduction in the current product listingcosts. This request posed a dilemma for the Desantis Gunhide brand. Loweringthe prices as per Amazon's request would have been unfavorable for the brand,potentially impacting their profit margins negatively. Moreover, furtherreducing the costs would result in an unsustainable situation where the brandcould potentially lose money on each sale.
This situation called for a strategicreassessment of our approach to the Amazon marketplace, as we sought toreconcile Amazon's expectations with Desantis Gunhide's brand integrity andfinancial viability. Our aim was to find a solution that would enablesustainable growth on Amazon while preserving the brand's value proposition andprofitability and our initial recommendation was to initiate thistransformation by transitioning from Vendor Central to Seller Central. Tosubstantiate this recommendation, we meticulously prepared a profitabilityreport to compare costs associated with Vendor Central versus Seller Central. Thefindings were compelling, indicating that the adoption of Seller Central couldelevate our profit margins by a notable 1.3X, marking a significant stridetoward financial viability.
However, the absence of historicalsales data within Vendor Central posed a challenge. This meant we lacked the basicbasis to determine which products to prioritize for listing on Seller Centralto capture the existing revenue stream currently commanded by third-party (3P)sellers on Amazon. To overcome this obstacle, we leveraged competitivebenchmarking tools to gain insights into our competition, and with thisinformation, we arrived at our transition strategy, commencing with an initialset of 20 ASINs.
In alignment with our Seller Central approach, weopted for the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) model. This choice carried multipleadvantages, including coveted features like Prime eligibility, accelerateddelivery, and the assurance that Amazon would manage customer service on ourbehalf. To determine which products to stock in Amazon's warehouses, weconducted a sell-through analysis. This assessment guided our inventoryallocation, ensuring that we maintained a minimum stock coverage of 6-8 weeksto meet customer demand efficiently.
In parallel with this transition, we recognized theimportance of optimizing our product listings to maximize visibility andconversions. To this end, we undertook a comprehensive SEO (Search EngineOptimization) keyword analysis for each of our listings. This involvedmeticulous research and strategic placement of keywords to ensure our productsappeared prominently in relevant search results, increasing discoverability andclick-through rates.
Moreover, we invested in enhancing the overallappeal of our product listings by creating compelling lifestyle images. Thesehigh-quality images not only showcased our products in real-life settings butalso conveyed their value and utility to potential customers. This visualstorytelling approach helped forge a stronger connection between our brand and ourtarget audience, driving engagement and sales.
Furthermore, we crafted engaging and informative A+content pages for our product listings. These A+ pages provided in-depthproduct descriptions, benefits, and usage scenarios, offering customers a moreimmersive and informative shopping experience. This rich content not onlyboosted customer confidence but also contributed to increased conversion rates.
With the groundwork laid, we also startedadvertising on Amazon, employing an A/B testing strategy (a detailedexplanation of which can be found in the subsequent Ads Section). This approachallowed us to fine-tune our advertising efforts to optimal efficiency.Remarkably, within a span of just 12 weeks, the results were nothing short ofastounding, with our sales experiencing an exponential surge, growing by animpressive factor of 8x.
Since we saw remarkable success with this strategy,we expanded it and sent the customer a total of 300+ Asin’s which had somepotential on Amazon which we had finalized through competition benchmarking,and based on the availability the customer finalized a total of 108 Asin’s thatwe can start selling on Seller central and we created the FBA recommendationsfor these Asin’s and sent inventory for the optimal coverage of 6-8 Weeks andwe saw a growth of 549% or 15X in the past 9 months and this growth alsoinvolved actively advertising through AMS and also participating in promotionevents such as the Prime day, Prime fall event, etc. to increase customervisibility for the Brand.
Amazon AMS strategy
1. A/B Testing: The initial approach involved A/B testing on the top 50% of ASINs.Cautious bids were employed within a Sponsored Product Auto Campaign tomaximize sales within the constraints of a limited budget.
2. Keyword Optimization: After a meticulous analysis of the Auto Campaign's performance overthree weeks, manual campaigns for sponsored products were created, targetingspecific search terms. However, budget constraints led to a higher AdvertisingCost of Sales (ACOS) compared to the auto campaigns due to a 24% higher CPC,prompting the suspension of the manual campaign.
3. Budget Analysis: To gain deeper insights into campaign spending trends, the teamutilized the Budget(beta) AMS tool and concluded that auto campaigns were runningfor 54% more-time duration at the same budget due to low CPC.
OptimizationFocus:
Asignificant portion (40%) of the optimization efforts was dedicated to thetop-of-search results, which played a pivotal role in driving sales.
Monitoringand Control:
TheSalesDuo Business Intelligence Dashboard emerged as an instrumental tool inmonitoring the campaign's performance. It allowed for real-time tracking,enabling agile decision-making regarding budget allocation, and bid adjustmentsbased on efficiency and timing.
Results:
Thecollaborative efforts of SalesDuo's Marketing team and the utilization of theSalesDuo Business Intelligence Dashboard yielded remarkable results forDe-Santis:
· Sales Growth: Between January and June 2023, De-Santis achieved an impressive salesgrowth rate of up to 280%. This substantial increase reflected theeffectiveness of the revamped AMS advertising strategy.
· Impressions: A staggering 57.24 million impressions were garnered during thisperiod, underscoring the expanded reach and visibility achieved through theoptimized campaigns.
· Return on Ad Spend(ROAS): The average Return on Ad Spendexhibited a significant improvement, rising from 2.62 in January 2023 to animpressive 4. This improvement underscored the enhanced efficiency andprofitability of the advertising campaigns.
