Introduction
If you run a DTC brand, then you already know how the selling process goes on your own website. You are the one setting the price, you design the product page and you own the checkout. Also, you decide what email goes out after each buy. But that's not how Amazon works; in fact, most of what you have built on your site will not transfer on its own. This particular gap is why sellers hire an Amazon launch agency to close it.
In practice, the agency is hired to set up your seller account and Brand Registry, writes and designs the listings that show up for the words that your buyers actually type into the search bar, and runs the ads that get a brand-new product seen even when there are no reviews or sales history yet.
A good agency also handles the parts DTC founders tend to underestimate, such as planning the inventory so you do not run out in the middle of a launch, keeping your Amazon price in line with your website price, and watching for resellers who list your products without your permission from you.
The real job is not to get the product live but to make sure that Amazon adds profit to your business, rather than quietly pulling the sales away from your own site. Not every agency can do this well, and some cover only one piece of it.For this reason, below we will rank the 8 agencies that are worth a look, we will explain what each one is best at, and show you how to check a partner before you sign anything.
Olifant Digital works with DTC brands on this exact problem every week, so you will find us on the list too. Just a note before we start, this list is written for brands that already sell well on their own site and want Amazon to become their second profitable channel, and it is not for products that are still looking for their first customers.
If you still are having any doubts whether Amazon makes sense for you at all, it’s best to read our take on selling on both channels first.
Why DTC Brands Are Launching on Amazon (And Why the Right Partner Matters)
The reason for moving on to Amazon is very simple. The customers are already shopping there, and many of them skip Google entirely and type what they need right into Amazon’s search bar. If your product is not listed there, a competitor wins that search for you.
Trust is another reason for this step. A shopper who has never heard of your brand may hesitate to type card details into an unfamiliar website, but this same person would happily buy the product on Amazon, where the delivery and returns work the way they expect to.
In most of the DTC accounts that we take on, Amazon ends up bringing buyers who were never going to find the website on their own. You also arrive there with an advantage.Any established DTC brand already has product photos, customer feedback, and a clear idea of who their buyers are, as well as a sense of which product carries the best margin. Sellers who start on Amazon from zero are guessing all of that, while you already have this data.
This opportunity comes with a risk, though. A careless launch can lead to channel conflict, falling prices, unauthorized sellers and a brand that starts to look cheap. The partner agency you choose is what keeps those risks contained.
What Makes Launching on Amazon Different From DTC
Amazon buyers behave in a different way than your site visitors. They are price-driven and search-led, so they compare fast and buy on the results page. Your DTC funnel logic does not carry over cleanly.
You also end up giving up some control of the customer relationship. Amazon owns the checkout, data and messaging, and your job is to win the search terms and the buy box.
Pricing discipline is one of the biggest risks, because once your product is on Amazon, resellers can buy it from a discount sale or a wholesale account and list it below your price, and Amazon will often hand them the Buy Box because they are cheaper.
Here is how this plays out. Let’s say your product sells for $50 on your website and a reseller lists it on Amazon for $39. Shoppers who compare the prices now see $39 as a real price, so your website sales slow down, and you end up running discount codes on your own site just to keep up.
In most accounts that we audit, this is one of the most common reasons a DTC launch starts losing money within the first few months, which is why you might want to also read how the right partner prevents channel conflict.
How We Chose the Best Agency for DTC Brands Launching on Amazon
We chose the best agencies based on evidence and not reputation. Each criterion below is something you should verify before you sign.
- Proven results: We weighted named brands with real dollar figures over vague case study language.
- Senior staff: We favored agencies that had seniors as part of their staff, rather than just juniors.
- DTC plus Amazon capability: We looked for teams that run both channels as one system.
- Launch specialization: We checked for Brand Registry setup, listings, creative, launch advertising, review building, and inventory planning.
- Pricing transparency: We rewarded clearer fees over hidden percentage-of-spend charges.
- Guarantees and retention: We valued performance guarantees and month-to-month terms.
We didn't weight agency size or their industry awards because neither of the two factors predicts the exact results for your brand.
Qualities of the Best Agency for DTC Brands Launching on Amazon
You need to use the following qualities as your own checklist, as these are what separate a real launch partner from a generalist agency.
- Senior specialists only: You should demand years of hands-on Amazon experience, because senior experts make fewer costly launch errors than juniors.
- Worked economics: Ask for the math on ACoS, CVR, and organic rank because the revenue alone hides weak margins.
- A real launch system: You should always demand a defined process across setup, listing, creative and launch advertising, because it prevents missed steps.
- Margin protection: Require MAP enforcement and Buy Box control from the agency, because these can protect your pricing across channels.
- Transparent pricing: Choose a flat fee with no percentage-of-spend charges, because flat fees stay predictable once your spend starts to grow.
- Guarantee and retention: You should expect a performance guarantee, because it shifts risk onto the agency.
Many DTC brands stumble by handing Amazon to their existing DTC agency. You should see our guide on the common DTC launch mistakes, which will help you make the agency selection easier.
The 8 Best Agencies for DTC Brands Launching on Amazon
Olifant Digital is our top pick for established DTC brands that are launching on Amazon based on the named results, like the $688,406 in annual Amazon profit that we added for Ekster.
The other seven agencies below are strong in specific areas, which are shown in the comparison table. If the agency hasn’t published a figure, we have marked it as “Not publicly disclosed."
This table should serve you as a first filter, rather than your final verdict. Most of the agencies keep their pricing and client results private until you’re on the sales call with them, so all the blank cells are a good list of questions to ask each one before you shortlist anyone.
1. Olifant Digital: Best for Established DTC Brands That Want Amazon to Be Profitable
Our top pick for DTC established brands that already sell well on their own site and want Amazon to become a profitable second channel is Olifant Digital. We manage $100M+ in annual client revenue across 50+ e-commerce brands, on month-to-month contracts. We have results with all the specifics tied to them. For Ekster, we added $688,406 in annual Amazon profit. For Balanced Tiger, we grew their revenue by 171% while cutting ACoS by 50% and for Beauty by Earth, we grew revenue 27% in 30 days.Every account is run by senior specialists who have at least 7 years of experience, without juniors touching the accounts. All of the execution runs on our in-house platform Olifant AI, and our data scientists review the account metrics every day, so the problems with pricing, stock, or ad spend get caught early instead of at the end of the month.
Our services start from $2,000 per month and are custom for each project, based on the complexity and workload required, with no percentage-of-ad-spend fees, and every engagement carries our 60-day guarantee: if we don't improve your performance, you don't pay. You can see how the launch is structured on our Amazon product launch services page and in the step-by-step 90-day Amazon launch playbook.Olifant Digital is suitable for established brands that want profitable growth on Amazon. It is not the right fit for early-stage products that are still looking for their first customers.
2. Tinuiti: Best for Enterprise Brands That Want One Agency for Every Media Channel
Tinuiti is a large full-funnel media agency, and Amazon is part of that wide mix. On Amazon itself, the team works across the Sponsored Ads, DSP, Amazon Marketing Cloud, Streaming TV, and Stores.One of the greatest advantages is scale. If your brand is already spending heavily on search, social and streaming, having Amazon inside the same media plan makes it easier to see how each of the channels affects the others.
The trade-off for a DTC brand at the launch stage is that a new Amazon account can become a small line in a very big media plan. Their prices are not publicly disclosed, so you need to ask them who will run your account day to day and how much of their time it will actually get.
Tinuiti is best for enterprise brands who have large, multichannel budgets.
3. Darkroom: Best for DTC Brands That Want Amazon Inside a Wider Growth Program
Darkroom comes from the DTC side, and their work covers paid media, performance creative, retention, Amazon and TikTok shop, and this background means the team already understands how a brand website makes money, which helps when Amazon is added next to it.
Amazon is one piece of a broader program instead of the whole focus. It works well if you are in need of a single partner to handle the creative and paid social alongside the marketplace, instead of managing two or three different providers.Their pricing is not publicly available, and it suits DTC brands that want Amazon to be folded into a wider growth plan rather than be run as a separate project.
4. Nuanced Media: Best for Brands That Need Hands-On Help Getting Products Live
Nuanced Media is an Amazon marketplace agency that has a real focus on launches and advertising. The team helps brands to set up listings, get products live and start the first ad campaigns so the new products can start to collect sales and reviews.
This makes it a perfect option if your main gap is the launch itself. It may be lighter on deeper Vendor Central operations, so if your plans are to sell to Amazon wholesale later, you should ask how they would handle that side of the business.
Their prices are not publicly disclosed, and it is suitable for brands that want focused help with launch and advertising.
5. BellaVix: Best for Lifestyle Brands That Want a Dedicated Amazon Team
BellaVix is a specialized Amazon agency that covers paid ads, SEO, A+ Content, Brand Store and product launch. Their whole team works only on Amazon, which means content and advertising are planned together instead of being done by two different providers.
For DTC and lifestyle brands, this is a more important combination than it might seem. Your listing images and A+ Content have to do the job your website product page used to do, and the ads perform a lot better when they send shoppers to a listing that already converts.
Their prices are not publicly disclosed, so you need to ask for a written scope that shows which of these services are included in the fee. It is suitable for DTC and lifestyle brands who want one focused Amazon team.
6. Trivium: Best for Brands That Rely on Advertising Performance
Trivium is an Amazon-focused agency that is known for their PPC and full-account management. The agency’s work is centered on growth-stage brands who rely on advertising to drive most of their sales.
If your plan is leaning heavily on paid campaigns, that is a useful focus. This is why you need to ask the team how they balance ad spend with organic ranking because a launch that only works while the ads are running gets expensive to keep up.
Their prices are not publicly disclosed and the agency is most suitable for brands who put advertising performance at the top of their list.
7. Sequence Commerce: Best for Brands That Want Amazon Tied to Profit Goals
Sequence Commerce is a growth agency that supports DTC brands across Amazon and other channels. They are most useful when the brand already runs paid ads on places like Google or Meta and knows how much profit they need from each sale.
Sequence Commerce then plans Amazon around these numbers instead of treating it as a separate project.
This helps you see whether a sale on Amazon is actually profitable once the ad costs are counted, not just whether the revenue went up. Like most other agencies, this agency does not publish its prices either, and they are most suitable for brands who want Amazon to be connected to their overall paid and profit plan.
8. Sitruna: Best for Brands Expanding Across Borders
Sitruna is a London-based Amazon agency that helps brands launch and grow on Amazon UK, EU, and US marketplaces. By selling in several countries, you bring additional work to the agency.
Translated listings and adaptation to different tax and compliance rules for each market are something that makes Sitruna a sensible choice if your DTC brand already ships internationally or has plans to do so soon.
If you plan to stay in the US for now, a US-focused team may give you more depth where you need it. Their prices are also not available before the first call, and the agency is most suitable for brands who need cross-border marketplace expansion.
What to Ask Before You Sign
A sales call is where every agency looks good, but these five questions will make every agency get more specific, and the way they answer will tell you more than the answer itself.
1. Who will actually work on my account every day, and how much experience do they have?
The person that appears on the first call is rarely the same one who ends up running your account. This is why you have to ask for the name and background of your day-to-day manager. If they cannot tell you who will be the person managing your account, you will probably get a junior specialist who is learning Amazon on your budget.
2. Can you show me results from a named brand, with real numbers?
Hearing phrases like “We grew a beauty brand’s sales” tells you nothing. A strong agency is supposed to name the brand and tell you what happened, how much it changed and over what period. If every case study is anonymous and every result is a vague percentage, you should treat it as marketing copy rather than proof.
3. How will you protect my pricing once I am on Amazon?
This is more important for a DTC brand because a cheaper Amazon listing can quietly pull down the price that customers expect on your site. You should listen for a clear plan: how they enforce MAP, how they win and hold the Buy Box while also removing unauthorized sellers.
4. How do you charge, and does the fee grow when my ad spend grows?
There are many agencies that charge a percentage of ad spend. It sounds fair in the beginning, until you do the math. At 12% of a $40,000 monthly ad budget, you end up paying $4,800 for a month, and this number keeps climbing as you scale, even if the work remains the same.
A flat retainer is what keeps your costs predictable and removes any reason for the agency to push spend higher than it has to be.
5. What happens if it does not work?
Most of the agencies will tell you they are confident, and only a few will put anything behind it. A performance guarantee means the agency carries part of the risk with you. If the answer is a long contract without any way out, you already know who carries the risk.
What Makes Olifant Digital Different
Most things that make us different are simple to describe.
Every account that we work on is run by senior specialists who manage it daily, and we do not staff juniors at any stage. The same person you meet at the start is the one that will be managing your numbers three months later. For a DTC brand that goes onto Amazon for the first time, this is really what matters. A new launch has no space for a junior that is still learning the job.
Behind that team sits Olifant AI, which is the platform our engineering team built. It watches every account continuously so when a keyword starts to waste spend, stock begins to run low or when a reseller undercuts your price, the team sees it the same day, rather than in the next month’s report. The specialists are those who make the final decisions, and the platform makes sure that nothing slips past them.
Pricing works the same way for every brand. Our services start from $2,000 per month and are custom for each project, based on the complexity and workload required, with no percentage of ad spend, so our fee doesn’t rise because your ad budget does. Every engagement also carries our 60-day guarantee: if we don't improve your performance, you don't pay.
You also get a dedicated Slack channel for quick questions and a weekly call where together we review the results and agree what our next move should be. What you never do is guess what happened to your budget.
Frequently asked questions
Should You Launch Your Whole Catalog on Amazon or Start With a Few Products?
It’s always best to start with a few. We usually recommend starting with the three to five strongest sellers, the ones that have healthy margins and steady demand on your website, and adding the rest once those listings have reviews and rankings.
Spreading your first ad budget across 40 products means none of them gets enough push to rank, and you will learn very little about what Amazon buyers actually want from you.
What Do You Need Ready Before an Amazon Agency Can Start?
Most of the setup comes directly from the agency, but there are some things that have to come from you. You need a registered or pending trademark for Brand Registry, barcodes (GTINs) for each product, high-resolution product photos and a clear picture of your cost per unit that includes shipping and packaging.
Stock is equally important, because if you cannot commit enough inventory to cover the first few months; the launch will stall the moment you sell out, and Amazon does not forget this very quickly.
Can the Reviews From Your Website Carry Over to Amazon?
No, Amazon does not allow for reviews to be imported from your own site or any other platform, so all the listings start at zero, even if the same product has hundreds of happy customers elsewhere.
This surprises a lot of founders. You should use Amazon Vine once you are enrolled in Brand Registry, which sends free samples of the product to trusted users, and add a product insert, which reminds buyers how to reach in case something goes wrong. Your existing customers can also be pointed to your Amazon listing, as long as you never offer anything in exchange for that review.
Is FBA or FBM the Better Fit for a DTC Brand at Launch?
For most DTC brands, FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) is the easiest way to launch because Amazon stores, packs and ships your orders and your listings get the Prime badge, which the shoppers look for.
FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) means that you ship the orders yourself from your own warehouse or 3PL. This can make more sense for bulky, fragile or slow-moving products where the Amazon storage fees would eat into your margin, but this asks a lot more of your operations team during a launch.
Final Thoughts
Launching on Amazon can sometimes be hard not because of the platform, but because a DTC brand walks in with habits that worked on its own site, while Amazon rewards different things such as search rank, consistent pricing, stock that never runs out and ads that someone manages every day.
This is why selecting the right agency is far more important than the list of services on its website. You want senior people who have launched products similar to yours before, a plan that protects your website pricing from the first week, and fees that stay predictable as you grow.
Olifant Digital is built around exactly those things. We rebuilt Ekster's Amazon channel and then launched it profitably on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de; our services start from $2,000 per month and are custom for each project, based on the complexity and workload required, with no percentage-of-spend fees, and every engagement carries our 60-day guarantee: if we don't improve your performance, you don't pay.
If you want to see what a launch like that would look like for your own brand, including which products to start with and how we would protect your pricing, request your free marketing plan from Olifant Digital and we will map it out with you.
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Alex is the founder and CEO of Olifant Digital, where his team manages over $100M in annual Amazon client revenue across 50+ brands, and he runs a 7-figure Amazon brand of his own. That operator background shapes how the agency works: every tactic is tested with his own money before it reaches a client account. He oversees PPC methodology, creative, and conversion rate across all client accounts to make sure Olifant Digital scales brands profitably.
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Mike reviews every Amazon article on this blog for strategic and technical accuracy before it publishes. As Director of Amazon Growth at Olifant Digital, he sets marketing strategy across client accounts and personally audits PPC at every stage of growth. He brings 8 years of daily Amazon operations across 7 and 8-figure brands including Beauty by Earth, Ekster, and Bullstrap, the kind of hands-on depth most agency directors delegate away.
