Amazon Prime Day took place last week, a global shopping phenomenon which is becoming more and more popular with Australian consumers and retailers alike.
One such retailer was Yes You Can Drinks, a non-alcoholic brand founded by Olympian Tyler Martin and his partner Sophie.
There’s long been debate around whether global shopping phenomena such as Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Click Frenzy do more harm than good for small businesses, but Martin tells SmartCompany he doesn’t think that’s the case for his alcohol-free offering.
Rather, the global sale has allowed Yes You Can Drinks to grow its brand awareness and “ability to trial”, especially considering since it’s a new product in a rapidly growing market.
Amazon Prime Day takes place annually over two days, this year falling on July 12-13.
The ginormous sale isn’t yet a household name Down Under, but Martin says the decision to sell on Amazon isn’t solely based on getting in front of more consumers.
“We’re operating in one of the hardest geographies for direct-to-consumer,” he said, acknowledging that the Yes You Can Drinks product is also an inherently expensive item to ship due to its size.
“Amazon helps us streamline that online service and test if people are going to buy this product at scale through its existing infrastructure.”
While Yes You Can Drinks had been set up on Amazon since its inception, the team hadn’t gotten around to giving it the TLC it required to test these ideas.
Instead, it was available via a direct-to-consumer model, as well as in 400 venues predominately on the east coast of Australia and select Dan Murphy’s, First Choice Liquor, and other independent grocery and liquor stores around the country.
But Amazon Prime Day offered the perfect opportunity to test Martin’s thesis: that once Yes You Can Drinks was set up properly on Amazon with the right images and the right price point, sales would skyrocket.
So the team got to work and the thesis was proven correct, with Yes You Can Drinks selling out of five of its offerings during the sales.
Martin says “technically” Yes You Can Drinks launched late last year, but with the havoc that COVID-19 caused, he considers the brand to have officially launched in 2022.
And despite being in its infancy, Yes You Can Drinks has hit the market full steam ahead.
Alongside its Amazon Prime Day involvement, the business also launched its new botanical range and advent calendar this July — all of which is contributing to tripling the brand’s sales compared to June.
“I think that’s partly around Dry July,” Martin acknowledges, because the team wanted to coordinate these offerings with “people’s general awareness around going a little bit drier”.
As for the future, Martin says he’d like to offer different formats through Amazon as well; ones which the brand wouldn’t be able to justify doing through its direct-to-consumer sales due to cost, such as three packs.
“For us, it doesn’t make sense to have a three-pack on our site, because it would cost too much in shipping — but we can plug into the Amazons of the world.
“At this particular stage of our business, [Amazon] has been a really good way to drive trial and awareness.”
Want to know more about Martin’s story, and Yes You Can Drinks? Sign up to SmartCompany Plus to read the full profile going live later this month.
Sophie Venz is a freelance writer and editor working remotely from wherever she can get an internet connection. You can find her bylines in Forbes, SmartCompany, Mamamia, Punkee and many more.
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