[Cartograph] November 2019 Newsletter

[Cartograph] November 2019 Newsletter

November 14, 2019

Welcome to the first Cartograph newsletter! We plan to send these out monthly to share updates about what we’ve been seeing on Amazon, what’s going on at Cartograph, and other industry news.

As always, don’t hesitate to use us as a friendly resource for all things Amazon.

-Chris, Jon and Ria

Happy November!

We’re in the middle of Q4, which is Amazon’s biggest sales period. While we see big boosts to traffic and sales in this timeframe, there are also operational impacts:

  • Receiving times at Amazon warehouses slow dramatically, going from days to 2-3 weeks

  • Storage fees for FBA inventory triple in price. 1P Vendors are not impacted.

  • Vendor Central purchase orders will be erratic, with potentially huge swings in weekly volume as Amazon’s ordering system adjusts for the ebb and flow of capacity in Amazon’s crowded warehouses.

New Year’s Resolutions – January bump for the Natural channel

For Organic and Natural products, January is often the biggest sales month of the year. New Year’s Resolutions bring significant interest in health and wellness products. Keto products should see significant upticks in traffic on Amazon.

Total Sales by Month – Example Natural Products Brand on Amazon

An example of an Amazon sales trends for a product in the Natural & Organic space.

Search trends for “Keto” on Amazon, Mar ’18- Present

Search trends for the term “keto” – which had a huge spike in Jan 2019.1P brands may see large POs in December to supply January demand. For brands selling via FBA, it’s important to send in inventory to Amazon ahead of December holiday closures to ensure sufficient stock. For those that see this trend, March and April tend to be some of the slowest months of the year. 

Cartograph News

Amazon DSP

We are now running advertising on Amazon DSP (Demand Side Platform). DSP is Amazon’s display ad network – it allows us to construct audiences using Amazon’s proprietary retargeting data, and then serve ads to those consumers across the web.

We’ve seen high ROI with DSP, often outperforming traditional Pay Per Click. It’s not uncommon to see an overall ROAS of 2-3x – typically higher on Mobile versus Desktop. For retargeted audiences, we’ve seen ROAS of 5-10x.

Amazon uses 5 levers to construct audiences, and then targets those audiences across 5 different types of inventory.

Audiences (each on Mobile or Desktop):

  • Brand detail page retargeting (your products)

  • Competitor detail page retargeting

  • Category and lifestyle segments browsed on Amazon

  • Hashed email list

  • Pixel on DTC website (retargeting)

Inventory:

  • Amazon.com; Amazon Owned & Operated – e.g. IMDB; Amazon Publisher Services (Amazon's marketplace) – e.g. gamespot.com; 3rd Party – e.g. yahoo.com, live.com, fox.com

Amazon News

Amazon Fresh is now free for all Prime Members

Amazon Fresh is a grocery delivery service offered in select metro markets. On October 29

, Amazon removed the $14.99 monthly fee to use the service. This enables more Prime consumers to try the delivery service – which could be a big boon to refrigerated, frozen, and meltable products. Amazon Fresh has a greater selection than Prime Now (another Amazon delivery service) and is poised to compete against other grocery delivery services in the market.

We are seeing early signs that Amazon Fresh is expanding their product selection. For products sold on Amazon Fresh via distributor, now could be the time to change to a direct relationship with Amazon Fresh.

Amazon Shipping

Amazon has been testing Amazon Shipping, their logistics service. Following Amazon insourcing much last mile delivery, Amazon Shipping covers the journey from a seller’s warehouse to the end customer.

Major metropolitan cities can soon expect to see Amazon vans out on their routes – delivering not only Amazon.com packages, but DTC orders purchased

off

Amazon as well. For brands who already use Amazon’s fulfillment services, switching DTC logistics providers to Amazon Shipping could help simplify operations.

Video Ads

Amazon Video Ads allows advertisers to reach Amazon customers with targeted video on Amazon properties. They appear at the bottom of product pages, on the mobile home page, on mobile search, and in other locations on Amazon.com. These videos autoplay muted.

At present, CPCs are much lower than the same terms on traditional Sponsored Product Ads. While we do not expect this price gap to persist for long, it presents a good value opportunity for brands willing to move fast and embrace video ads.

The program is now in limited beta, and all Cartograph brands have access.

Products We Love

Beekeepers’ Naturals propolis throat spray has quickly grown to one of the top best sellers in the Cold & Flu Category! Made with propolis, a natural antibacterial byproduct of the honey creation process, this spray is great for fighting and preventing colds.

Beekeeper’s Naturals is a health and personal care brand that focuses on Bee-derived products. You can see their full line here:

.

New Cartograph Team Members!

We have new additions to the Cartograph team; Colin Bashor, Eric Johnson, Monica Orange, and Lauren Vanatsky!

Colin Bashor

UC Berkeley graduate with experience working in tech, entertainment, and startups. Usually found playing video games, softball, or hockey.

Eric Johnson

Formerly at Skarberg Sales & Marketing, representing brands such as Sony, PNY & Marshall Speakers on Amazon. When not on the clock, Eric is either spending time with his family or out running on one of the many trails of the PNW.

Monica Orange

A native Oklahoman with 10 years combined hospitality and grocery operations experience. She loves cooking, reading, and spending time with friends and family.

Lauren Vanatsky

A lover of the natural food & beverage industry with CPG experience from Honest Tea and Birch Benders. Social media expert with a passion for marketing & advertising. Find her climbing mountains, teaching yoga, and baking plant-based goodies.

Our full team can be found

.

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 both Brand Management and Business Development. Please reach out to Ria Hu at

for more information on opportunities to join us!

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