Three years ago we wouldn't have believed you, but three weeks ago, we launched on Amazon.
What changed? Just about everything, capabilities-wise. And a whole lot more, heart wise.
See when we started this company we weren’t 100% sure the best way to sell our syrups, but we had a hunch that it would be the direct to consumer market, where a personal connection was possible. We could really spend time telling our story online while customers got to know our brand, our family and our ethos. After all, a farm to bottle beverage syrup company is pretty darn specific 😜👍🏻
Honestly, selling this way is (mostly) fun. It builds on our best skills as entrepreneurs, because we are story tellers at heart. It has certainly not been easy, but it’s the devil we know.
So, we’ve spent years building up sales from our own website, including our drink box subscription, the Cocktail farm club. We’ve promoted it online, here on the gram and even on TV spots nationwide— one time on the Rachel Ray show!
We’ve grown slowly.
This has been tough at times, financially. But our product gets fantastic reviews, we’ve figured out how to produce and ship efficiently, and our quality control is excellent. This DTC model is unusual, but it’s worked and prepared us for what’s next.
Before we could make this big move to launch on Amazon, we had to get our ducks in a row. We needed to make sure we could scale our company without sacrificing any of the quality that has set us apart in our market. We built out a warehousing barn, a production kitchen, a scalable supply chain, and have generally done everything to set it up so that we can put Simple Goodness Syrups in more households across America. It’s been grueling. And expensive. Demoralizing at times.
Now to really be sustainable as a company, we need more customers. AND Guess where our customers are shopping? Amazon. With Prime shipping.
Maybe that name brings up some feelings for you? Us too. You’ve probably bought something from there, too. It’s a mixed reaction when we talk about it. We live in Washington & there’s a truck on every block. Venise even used to work there, back when AWS still felt like a startup and HQ was in an old hospital. I think there’s an idea that Amazon has replaced small business sales. Let’s talk about that.
It’s partially true that the convenience of shopping on Amazon hurts small businesses. And personally, we will always try to shop direct and small first. But, from the perspective of a small business that is trying to grow and survive in today's climate, selling on Amazon is going to help us to do BIG things. We've missed out on reaching customers who search Amazon every day for "simple syrups" and could be finding ours. Now they can. Real talk, we've also missed out on opportunities over the years from big press to partnerships because we didn't have our products there. It's the leading affiliate platform, after all.
It’s definitely true that selling on Amazon is an expensive game and not the right or viable choice for all makers. We love it when people come to our website and buy directly from us because the margins are SO much better AND we know we also need to need to meet our customers where they are. But convenience is a huge factor for most purchase decisions. Amazon has a platform that can reach customers like nowhere else right now.
The bottom line is that now you can shop wherever you want, and still get Simple Goodness Syrups — that’s pretty cool! No matter where you find and buy our syrups we appreciate it, every sale, every time.
Thank you for every purchase, every reshare of our content, every review and social media comment and encouraging word that led us to this milestone!
We're grateful and we're excited for growth. If you have any questions about this change, we're here to answer at customerservice@simplegoodnesssisters.com
You can see our first launched products here: Orange Vanilla, Lavender, and Sparkle.
Cheers,
Venise and Belinda
