Amazon for beauty and skincare brands

Amazon is where most beauty brands make the most revenue and lose the most margin, usually at the same time. Fees, storage, returns and advertising each take their share quietly, and the account looks healthy right up to the point where the founder asks what the profit was. We run Amazon to a contribution-margin sheet per product, monthly, and every decision on the account is made against it.

Advertising is managed to a target advertising cost of sales for each product, not to a budget for the account. Listings and A+ content are checked weekly because ranked listings decay. Inventory age, FBA fees, storage surcharges and reimbursements are reviewed monthly, and beauty-specific compliance, from ingredient claims to restricted categories, is handled as it comes. On the skincare brand we operate, this approach took advertising from about 24% of revenue to 8.5% with revenue still growing.