In the early aughts of the internet, before DTC and Amazon are what they are today, the team behind Alrossa was just launching their luxury line of men’s shavers. Since then the brand has reinvented itself over and over again. Always adapting and positioning themselves for success in the ever-changing online selling environment.
Founder Mark Sanders had his eye on the men’s grooming category before it gained more and more attention. During that period, he also started experimenting and selling the brand on Amazon. Over the course of a few years through trial and error, he found Amazon to be an extremely lucrative channel. He used the additional revenue from Amazon to found what is now Alrossa.
After working with many brands over the years, and hearing of their Amazon woes, he started offering his help. “I spent so much of my own time experimenting and learning the ins and outs of Amazon and knew this knowledge could be a huge value add to other brands”. From there he built out an in-house team of Amazon experts, who specialize in launching luxury brands on Amazon, and the ongoing maintenance of the pages.
We had the opportunity to speak with the Founder and acting CEO of Alrossa, Mark Sanders. Here’s what he had to say about his company and how they are redefining beauty on Amazon and beyond.
Would you call yourself an early adopter?
Sanders: I wouldn’t say that… I will say my curiosity is really what really drives me.
How have you seen the Amazon landscape change over the last few years?
Sanders: Amazon is a strange marketplace. It has historically been associated with drop shippers and low-quality, high-volume goods. The high volume part is still true, but more and more luxury brands and digitally native DTC brands are now in this space. Caraway is on Amazon, Supergoop is on Amazon, and even Vera Wang has a storefront on Amazon!
What is the value of launching on Amazon?
Sanders: I don’t think people fully understand the power of Amazon as a sales channel. It’s hard to compete with the sheer number of eyeballs on Amazon. 95 million people in North America have Amazon Prime. That’s nearly ⅓ of Americans. I always joke that the only thing coming close to getting more views is the Super Bowl.
Why do brands partner with Alrossa?
Sanders: Running a business is already a round-the-clock job. Properly running, and optimizing an Amazon account is another full-time job. Our in-house team has the expertise, time, and resources to constantly monitor and optimize a brand’s Amazon presence.
At the end of the day, if a brand has the time, monetary resources & in-house expertise to truly dedicate to monitoring their Amazon account, they 100% should do that. However many brands simply don’t have the funds or capacity to do so.
What makes your team different?
Sanders: A lot of companies promise these huge sales figures. Sometimes they are right, but more often than not they tend to be… overly optimistic. I would never want our team to overpromise and underdeliver.
We also pride ourselves on establishing close personal relationships with our brands. Not only do we make ourselves very available for questions, but we also truly want input and constructive feedback from our brands. We value partnership.
As the beauty sector on Amazon continues to grow at a rapid pace, we will continue to monitor and report on beauty aggregators on Amazon.