When Pet Remedy started selling on Amazon in 2011, the company found administrative headaches, unforeseen charges, and a mass of resellers competing in a race to the bottom on price. Shortly afterwards, the company partnered with Onogo to tackle these problems – and saw a 1,650% increase in sales in under five years.
Launched in 2010 by parent company UNEX Designs, Pet Remedy is a valerian-based calming solution designed to soothe anxious or stressed pets. The brand began when Managing Director Martyn Barklett-Judge noticed some behavioural changes in his cat, which he correctly assumed were caused by anxiety.
“We had a bit of experience working with aromatherapy and essential oils, so I started to think about how that could work in the animal healthcare market,” he says. “Ten years later, here we are.” The brand now has a multimillion-pound turnover, selling into many countries around the world.
“Onogo knows Amazon like the back of their hand. They’re experts in listings, and have the insights needed to get pricing strategies right.”
Maximising Potential
The Strategy
Pet Remedy already had a relationship with Onogo, but over the course of a year that relationship turned into a true partnership, with Onogo handling all of Pet Remedy’s Amazon sales.
Visible Results
Delivering Value
Onogo: experts in Amazon sales
As an expert in Amazon, Onogo was able to take on the administrative complexity on Pet Remedy’s behalf. Onogo has three big advantages when it comes to selling on marketplaces. Its people have the knowledge to optimise product sales and customer experience, its software can provide in- depth insights and automate routine tasks, and it has the size and scale to fulfil globally with rave customer reviews.
“We already worked with Onogo on a small scale and knew it had the expertise to circumnavigate the problems we were facing,” says Rob. “We also knew that they were good people to work with, so it seemed like the ideal solution.”
The first problem Onogo faced was finding a way to control the price of Pet Remedy products. It’s common on Amazon for several resellers trade the same product, which often results in a race to the bottom on pricing – making it hard for anyone to benefit.
“Onogo has insights into these problem areas that we just don’t have,” says Rob. “For instance, we can see a reseller undercutting us – but Onogo can look deeper into things like stock volumes to help us understand if that reseller is a threat to our business or just a bit-part player. That helps us make more informed decisions about whether or not we should compete with them.”
Identifying the resellers cutting into Pet Remedy’s profits is one thing, but preventing that from happening requires a deep knowledge of the Amazon ecosystem and some creative thinking.
Together, Pet Remedy and Onogo set about creating some exclusive product combinations, with Onogo providing some smart analysis to help identify ways to increase sales rankings and reach a wider audience.
“Onogo knows Amazon like the back of their hand. They’re experts in listings, and have the insights needed to get pricing strategies right,” says Rob. “They do this day in, day out, so they know how to get products in front of people, how to get them to sell, and how to keep up with what is an ever-changing environment.”
An ongoing partnership
Over four and a half years of working together, Onogo has seen its Amazon sales of Pet Remedy go from 200 orders a month to around 3,500 – an overall increase of roughly 1650%. And the relationship continues to go from strength to strength, with weekly meetings highlighting new opportunities, and any possible issues – either with new competitors or stock levels – to ensure business runs smoothly.
“We do our best work in collaboration with our partners,” says Adam Blampied, Partner Programme Manager at Onogo. “Working with Pet Remedy, we were able to identify and fix marketplace problems to optimise sales. And we both feel there’s plenty of scope for this relationship to grow in the years to come.”
The two companies are also working together on a pay-per-click marketing, both investing equally in getting the Pet Remedy range seen by as many consumers as possible. And they’re now in the process of branching out into new markets, like Amazon.com, Amazon.de and the lucrative US veterinary market.
“Simply put, we didn’t have the internal resources to keep trading on Amazon in any meaningful way,” says Rob. “With Onogo we have a true partner that can handle all of the back-end stuff, but also has the expertise to know exactly how to get the most out of the marketplace. And the best thing is, we’ve only just scratched the surface – I expect big things from our partnership in the years to come.”
