Barefoot Scientist
Spiking Sales Through Non-Amazon Marketing Channels for a Premium Footcare Brand
Industries
Beauty and Health, Consumer Packaged Goods
Overview
Barefoot Scientist, established in 2019, is the brainchild of California entrepreneur Dana Ward. The company specializes in developing and delivering award-winning products for exceptional footcare. Using advanced science along with the finest ingredients, Barefoot Scientist develops cleansing, softening, protecting, and repairing self-care products for feel-good feet and nails.
To help customers put their best foot forward, Barefoot Scientist launched an array of products to help nourish feet, freshen steps, ease pain, revive nails and save soles. Some best-selling products include PreHeels+, a blister prevention spray; Twinkle Toes for deodorizing and purification; and Smooth Operator, a hyper hydrating set.
As a one-stop shopping destination for all foot needs, Barefoot Scientist’s products are cruelty-free, gluten-free, made exclusively in the USA, and formulated only from high-quality ingredients sourced from the most trusted partners.
Recently, the company was acquired by make-up brush innovator Japonesque, together with private equity firm Topspin Consumer Partners.
Situation
In early 2022, Barefoot Scientist was putting a strategy in place to increase product sales in their Amazon storefront. To make this process successful, Barefoot Scientist connected with SellerSlice, a Seattle-based agency with deep expertise in transforming seller growth across the Amazon platform. Duke Kroll, SellerSlice CEO, said, “We were extremely enthusiastic to work with Barefoot Scientist and grow their business and distinguished product line on Amazon. We provide a series of solutions proven to help accelerate growth and amplify value within the Amazon marketplace.”
The SellerSlice Impact
To quickly accelerate growth and spike sales for Barefoot Scientist in the Amazon marketplace, SellerSlice formulated an immediate solution using a double-pronged strategy: Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus Program timed to Amazon’s upcoming Prime Day.
SellerSlice immediately enrolled Barefoot Scientist in Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus Program. This beta program is designed for sellers that wish to promote their products using non-Amazon marketing channels―such as search ads, email marketing, or a seller’s own website―to drive targeted traffic to an Amazon storefront or specific product page.
To make this happen, SellerSlice acquired special links for Barefoot Scientist’s product line using another tool―Amazon Attribution (AA). AA is an advertising and analytics measurement solution that gives marketers insight into how their non-Amazon marketing channels perform on Amazon. Product links generated through AA allow sellers such as Barefoot Scientist to track, measure, optimize, and plan campaigns using non-Amazon marketing channels. For Barefoot Scientist, this meant using these special product links within their own social media accounts and email lists to drive traffic to a special “Featured Deals” page setup and optimized by SellerSlice on their Amazon storefront.
AA also provided two distinct benefits to Barefoot Scientist’s marketing efforts. First, in addition to generating additional sales, Barefoot Scientist could specifically track where its outside traffic was coming from, helping them strengthen their off-Amazon marketing campaigns through data-driven decision making. Second, by using these links, Barefoot Scientist was paid an extra commission (Brand Referral Bonus) by Amazon, ultimately increasing the value of each sale.
All of this was work was done in advance to eventually sync-up with Amazon Prime Day to fully maximize sales potential. Amazon Prime Day is an exclusive annual event occurring in July for Prime members. It features two days of epic deals from top brands and small businesses such as Barefoot Scientist.
Results
With the non-Amazon marketing engine securely in place, sending targeted traffic to Barefoot Scientist’s “Featured Deals” page on Amazon during Prime Day, there was a tremendous spike in click-throughs and sales.
Over the two days in July, click-throughs climbed sharply to nearly 800X of the typical traffic. More importantly, actual sales of Barefoot Scientist products skyrocketed to 600X the normal levels during the promotion. To make the success even sweeter, all of these sales included the brand referral bonus making them even more profitable for Barefoot Scientist.
