Australian firm Penny Skateboards is skating by means of their growth into the US because of their choice to get on board with Amazon.
Penny Skateboards has been efficiently working since 2010, when founder Ben Mackay began manufacturing out of Brisbane. He named his distinctive boards Penny after his sister, a reputation that folks quickly began to affiliate with this type of plastic, smaller board. When your model title turns into the generic title of a product, you realize you’re onto a superb factor.
You’re additionally onto a tough factor, as a result of when Penny Skateboards needed to maneuver into the US, how might they differentiate their product in opposition to cheaper, much less high quality rivals?
Being the one one developing on a search engine certainly helps.
The O.G. penny
Penny Skateboards are constructed with high-quality uncooked supplies. Picture: Provided.
“We’re the O.G. penny. Now we have the Penny trademark,” says Nathan Reid, head of operations at Penny Skateboards. “And since we have now that, we have now possession on Amazon. Some other rivals that use ‘penny’ of their product titles or descriptions, they’re not allowed to.”
Which means that solely Penny Skateboards comes up on Amazon when somebody searches for the time period. “Individuals seek for penny boards and our product is the one one which’s going to have the penny description. It provides us higher rating in Amazon that we don’t essentially get in different search engines like google,” Nathan provides.
It’s one of many many explanation why issues are figuring out so effectively for Penny Skateboards since they joined Amazon in late 2019.
Each day, Nathan fastidiously displays the corporate’s progress within the Amazon Vendor Central dashboard and issues are wanting good. In reality, that very dashboard has been one other key to serving to the group pilot the rise of Penny Skateboards on Amazon.
“Amazon manages all of the heavy lifting for you,” says Nathan. “The suggestions that it gives for issues like demand planning, stock efficiency, even marketing campaign strategies actually drive our subsequent steps.”
Small modifications making a huge impact
Nathan Reid and Ben Mackay from Penny Skateboards. Picture: Provided.
Once they began with Amazon, the group had no thought what they have been doing, however made the choice to observe the suggestions given by Amazon and see what occurred.
“For instance, in your product itemizing it’d say ‘Hey, out of those 5 merchandise, we’ve seen that in the event you make a greater product description it could enhance the product rating’ or ‘We’ve seen these merchandise solely have two photographs, we suggest three or 4 on this one’,” says Nathan.
Following the Amazon system suggestions meant they have been regularly enhancing at a tempo they may set for themselves.
“It’s very guided, that will help you assist your self,” he explains. “You primarily develop on the tempo you possibly can deal with.”
Dependable fulfilment issues
This technique is one Nathan recommends to anybody simply beginning out: get on there after which refine as you go.
“That sort of studying in Amazon is the most important factor we took away from it once we have been leaping on initially and we used Amazon’s suggestions to drive our subsequent steps. Taking their recommendation paid off, huge time,” he shares.
The opposite side of promoting on Amazon that has impressed Nathan and the group is the benefit of fulfilment. They use Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) to ship their product to the shopper and since they’ve been capable of combine their very own e-commerce system with Amazon’s, it neatly switches over to Service provider Fulfilment ought to inventory runs out on the Amazon warehouse.
Penny Skateboards are recognized for his or her vibrant designs and design particulars. Picture: Provided.
Even throughout the peak of COVID, when demand for his or her product instantly elevated, it meant they by no means missed a sale and the shopper expertise was seamless.
“Individuals know that if Amazon says you’ll get it the following day, you’ll get it the following day,” says Nathan. “There’s a reliability and belief that Amazon has inbuilt fulfilment that’s much more necessary proper now when there are fulfilment and provider points taking place throughout the States.”
Arrange store the place your market is
It’s the identical reliability that first made Penny Skateboards conscious that Amazon was the place they wanted to be to develop into different markets.
“Not being on that platform would actually permit our rivals and different boards that have been on the market to actually seize plenty of the market. We needed to be on [the Amazon] market to have a presence to begin with. As soon as we might see what demand was, we thought we’d ramp up from there.”
Ramp it up Penny Skateboards did, utilizing a spread of Amazon advertising and marketing instruments to refine and take a look at optimum advertising and marketing campaigns. “There’s a lot assist and recommendation of their system about fundamental campaigns you possibly can run, with wizards to stroll you thru,” notes Nathan.
Because of this, they’ve seen main progress with $1.73 million in income from Amazon gross sales up to now 12 months.
Penny Skateboards is now a globally recognised model. Picture: Provided.
In 2022, Penny Skateboards plans to maneuver their Amazon relationship into new worldwide markets.
Nathan has been impressed with how simple promoting within the US with Amazon has been and he expects the identical after they transfer into new nations.
“It’s given us the boldness to say we have now 5 totally different locations we need to put Amazon into Asia and Europe and the UK, as a result of we all know it labored [in the US] and the way hands-off it’s,” says Nathan. “I do know I can most likely arrange a pair extra and it wouldn’t put rather more work on my plate than I have already got.”
The plan is to do it the identical approach they began with the US market – get onto the platform and use the insights coming from Amazon Vendor Central to enhance and develop.
Greater than 11,000 Australian companies of all sizes promote in Amazon’s shops. To affix them, discover out how you can begin promoting on Amazon and the instruments, options and assets accessible to assist your startup soar.
Take a look at different Aussie sellers making it huge on Amazon right here: www.amazon.com.au/shoplocal.
This text is dropped at you by Startup Each day in partnership with Amazon Australia.
Characteristic picture: Provided.
