January 10, 2022

 Cartograph: '22 recap and '23 outlook  Hi everyone, 

Hope you had a great holiday, and are seeing a lot of growth in the new year.Below you'll see my "predictions" for 2023, as well as a few items recapping 2022. We're still seeing great growth for emerging brands on Amazon. Most interesting is how the DTC world around Amazon is changing. For brands willing to experiment, there's big upside to figuring out how the DTC and Amazon world will interact.We have now worked with over 150 CPG brands on Amazon and done diligence on over 1,200 more. From this we've picked up some trends and best practices - we plan to continue sharing these in 2023.

Major events of 2022:

• Exuberant Q1: New Year's resolution trends stretched through March.

• Major ad spend pull back in May. War in Ukraine; oil, freight and other commodities shot up in price (yet many dropped to pre-pandemic levels by EOY).

• Investor dollars pulled back dramatically. Dozens of abandoned or 11th hour restructured investments. Many brands pivoted P&Ls to focus on profit.

• We rarely hear of aggressive performance marketing ads, namely due to iOS changes. A year in the making, CACs reduction efforts fizzled and focuses shifted.

• Amazon sales have been strong vs. economic uncertainty. Solid months in the second half, with growth into holidays.

2023 Thoughts and Outlook:

2022 Cartograph Highlights:

2022 was a big year of growing at Cartograph:

• Our team grew to over 60 people, and we co-worked more often in Austin

• Had our first big case studies in beauty and personal care, expanded capabilities in Baby and Pet.

• Developed a 'Best Seller Badge Defense' and 'Holiday Gifting' playbooks

• Led innovation on Instacart’s new Display formats, and further honed our Amazon Fresh approach.

• Nominated for a "Best of" Amazon Advertising Award, named one of Inc’s Best Workplaces, and again appeared on the Inc fastest growing companies list.

We also launched our first non-service products: Repeat Purchase Dashboards, P&L, Sales Mix dashboards, and review generation tools. We’re making these available to our non-clients, as a way to work with us and share our approach without a full engagement.We’re looking to grow even more in 2023, and are looking for great brands to help grow on Amazon and Instacart. Yet we know we’re heading into a time of economic uncertainty. Our themes this year reflect these two different sentiments and emphasize being a strong strategic copilot: Know What’s Next, No Surprises, and Attention to Detail. When it’s storming outside, we’re pairing thoughtful forward vision with precise execution.Thanks for all your support over the last 5 years. Here's to an exciting '23!

Cheers,Chris MoeCo-Founder, CEO, Cartograph

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