An Anonymised Ecommerce Counsel Case Study
Snapshot
Client type: Large FMCG brand with national retail distribution
Marketplace: Amazon.co.za
Engagement type: Operational stabilisation & performance optimisation
Timeframe: 6 months
A large FMCG brand entered Amazon with strong brand recognition but inconsistent marketplace performance. Stock volatility, inefficient advertising, and unclear ownership of day-to-day execution were eroding confidence internally and limiting growth.
A large FMCG brand launched on Amazon.co.za with good intentions, a recognisable name, and… let’s call it “optimistic expectations”. Six months later, Amazon was live, ads were running, stock was sometimes available, and no one could quite explain why performance spiked one week and face-planted the next. Ecommerce Counsel was brought in to do what we do best: remove the chaos, keep the growth, and make the channel behave itself.
The context
A familiar story… This brand already knew how to win in traditional retail. Shelves? Nailed it. Distribution? Sorted. Brand equity? Strong.
Amazon, however, was being treated like “retail… but online,” (which, if you’ve ever worked on Amazon, you’ll know is a bit like saying a robot and a human both walk, so they must work the same way.)
Internally:
- Teams were stretched
- Decisions were siloed
- Reporting was… enthusiastic, but not especially helpful
Amazon wasn’t broken.
It just wasn’t being operated.
Execution was suffering from a classic marketplace problem: the “Who owns this?” vacuum. Vital tasks were falling through the cracks, while one person was drowning in the work of an entire department.
Companies often go hunting for an all-in-one eCommerce unicorn: someone who can handle everything from API integrations and logistics to creative videography and PPC bidding. We call this person the “eCommerce Messiah,” and we’ve yet to find one in the wild. If you find one, let us know… we’re hiring. Until then, most brands realise that you don’t need a messiah… you need a disciplined team.
The problem
Not the one they thought they had… At first glance, everyone blamed advertising. (Cue the universal marketing reflex: “Let’s optimise the ads.”)
But when we looked under the bonnet, the real issues were sneakier:
- Ads were driving traffic to products that were about to go out of stock
- Listings were compliant, but not built for how Amazon shoppers actually search
- Performance reports told you what happened, not why
The result?
Short bursts of success, followed by sudden drops and a growing sense that Amazon was unpredictable, risky, and slightly cursed.
The EC diagnosis
The “ah-ha” moment
Here’s the thing most brands don’t want to hear:
Amazon performance problems are rarely caused by one thing going wrong. They’re caused by three things working hard… in completely different directions.
In this case:
- Inventory Planning
- Advertising Strategy
- Content
Inventory planning didn’t speak to advertising and Advertising couldn’t align with stock reality. Additionally, content didn’t fully support discoverability.
So every time something did work, the client didn’t know exactly which lever was pulling. Our job wasn’t to add more activity. It was to get everything pulling in the same direction.
The strategy
Slow down to speed up.
Slower, calmer, smarter… Instead of “scaling”, we did something far less exciting… and far more effective. We focused on:
- Stabilising stock availability first (because selling what you don’t have is… awkward)
- Aligning ad spend with reality, not ambition
- Creating reporting that a human could actually make decisions from
Yes, this meant saying “not yet” to some growth levers. No, everyone didn’t love that on day one. But, yes – it paid off.
The execution
Where the grown-up work happens.
Execution wasn’t flashy, and that’s kind of the point.
We:
- Reworked inventory planning to reduce out-of-stock whiplash
- Redirected ad spend to listings that could convert consistently
- Tightened listings so Amazon’s algorithm (and shoppers) could actually understand them
- Introduced reporting that showed useful information, not just data.
The approach of “don’t worry, just trust us” doesn’t work for us. Throughout, we worked closely with internal teams, because sustainable growth doesn’t come from surprise changes or mysterious dashboards.
The results
The part everyone skips to.
Within six months:
- Stock availability stabilised
- Advertising efficiency improved noticeably
- Internal confidence in Amazon went from “this is stressful” to “this makes sense”
Most importantly, Amazon stopped behaving like an experiment and started behaving like a channel.
Predictable. Measurable. Manageable.
Which is, frankly, what grown-up brands want.
The real takeaways (steal these)
- Advertising can’t fix operational misalignment
- Stock stability is a growth lever, not a boring back-office detail
- Marketplace success comes from sequencing, not speed
- Clarity reduces risk faster than more spend
The bottom line
Amazon doesn’t reward effort. It rewards alignment. When inventory, advertising, and content work together, marketplaces stop being chaotic and start becoming predictable, profitable machines.
Thinking this sounds uncomfortably familiar?
You’re not alone.
And no, the answer probably isn’t “just optimise the ads”.
