[Cartograph] January 2020 Newsletter

[Cartograph] January 2020 Newsletter

January 15, 2020

Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a good holiday season and has started 2020 on a good note.

Please let us know if you’ll be at Fancy Food Expo or Expo West; we’d love to say hello! Send us a message at

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Cartograph News

Holiday Strategies on Sales Rank

There is a large opportunity cost to not managing to sales rank during peak sales times, resulting in missed sales during peak demand and holiday periods.

This holiday season, we found success in maintaining sales rank improvements by following lightning deals with sustained price discounts via coupons. By extending the time the product was highly ranked, these products saw a huge jump in sales. A positive “halo effect” has remained active on the product even after the discounts ended.

A graph of this product’s sales rank history over time – note that the lightning deal and further discounts have led to a higher steady-state rank than previously seen.

When brands do not boost sales rank with a promo, they are often displaced by brands who do during these peak times, which will decrease the overall share of traffic over the high period, and create a longer ramp to getting back to deserved rank.

Branded Keywords

We’ve begun testing reducing advertising bid levels for Branded Keywords. In most of our tests, meaningful reductions have had minimal impacts on overall traffic and sales. This suggests two things, the latter of which is surprising to us: 1) the “Google Tax” of Branded Keyword ad spend exists for Amazon as well, and many shoppers would have purchased regardless of the ad, and 2) it’s possible to be overpaying for Branded traffic to be the top rank for your Branded terms.

Taking a look at Branded spend and testing lowering bids and/or ACoS targets could be a path to ad spend reduction for some brands. 

Amazon News

Changes to FBA fees

Amazon FBA fees – for shipping and labeling – will be increasing on February 18, 2020. Shipping fees are increasing $0.10-$0.20 at every tier and the labeling fee is increasing to $0.30. This is in line with increases typically seen from logistics companies, and additionally driven by higher costs from programs like one-day delivery.

A full list of fee increases can be found

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Summer Ship Dates

Amazon has confirmed that meltable products will not be stored in their fulfillment centers from April 15 through October 15, which is 30 days longer than in prior years. For products that fall into this category (e.g., chocolates), brands must switch to a dropship solution: either Dropship (under Vendor Central) or Fulfilled by Merchant (Seller Central).

Products We Love

A’mond is a DELICIOUS almond and ancient grain snack puff with a healthy probiotic boost. Think Snap Pea crisps but with cleaner ingredients and bigger, bolder flavors.

We love this product.  When sharing with friends and family, it's gotten a rare 100% “love it” rating from all who’ve tried it. For a guilt-free alternative to Cheetos (that some even prefer to Cheetos), at a very competitive price, we recommend giving these products a shot!

See all the flavors here:

New Cartograph Team Members!

We have a new addition to the Cartograph team: Ashley Coffey!

Ex-Apple, 10 years of experience in emerging technologies & education. Avid coffee drinker & professional photographer. Enjoys being outdoors & spending quality time in the mountains. Will never pass up an opportunity to talk about David Lynch.

Our full team can be found

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We’re hiring!

The Cartograph team is looking for people passionate about e-commerce, Amazon, and the Natural channel to join our team. We currently have openings in Accounting and Business Development. Please reach out to

for more information on opportunities to join us!

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