Which agency helps DTC brands expand to Amazon without channel conflict?

Which agency helps DTC brands expand to Amazon without channel conflict?

The short answer to that question would be to find an agency that manages both channels under one roof, as when that happens, the same team ends up setting your Amazon prices, they plan your website promotions, and they watch your inventory, so conflicts get caught during planning instead of waiting for them to appear in your margins when it’s already too late.

This is how we do it at Olifant Digital. We are a full-service Amazon and DTC ecommerce marketing agency, and we treat all the channels as one connected growth plan rather than two separate accounts that only share a logo together.

For Ekster, we added $688,406 in annual Amazon profit. You can see in more detail how we handle the marketplace side on our full-service Amazon management page.

What is channel conflict when a DTC brand sells on Amazon?

Channel conflict happens when the sales on the two platforms stop helping each other but start competing instead. Amazon and your website end up chasing the same customer, rather than each one bringing in buyers that the other would never reach.

In almost all DTC accounts that we take a look at, this always shows in one of four ways:

• The first one is the most common one. A customer who was going to buy on your website ends up buying on Amazon so now you are paying Amazon fees on a sale that you would have made anyway.
• The second is price drift. The prices on both Amazon and your own website slowly move apart, and then shoppers start asking themselves which one is actually the real price.
• The third one is resellers that you never approved but who list your product on the platform anyway.
• The fourth one is for all the promotions that clash, where a deal on one channel quietly ends up undercutting a campaign that you are running on the other.

The first problem is what most of the brands tend to underestimate, so let’s put the numbers on it. Let’s say you sell a $50 product on your website, but after the product cost and $7 shipping, you only get to keep $28 from that sale.

Now on Amazon, this goes the following way. You pay a 15% referral fee, which comes to $7.50 plus $6 in fulfillment, on top of the $15 cost, so what you end up keeping after all the costs is $21.50.

We are talking about the same product and the same customer. The only thing that changed is that you simply moved the sale to a channel that costs you more to sell through.

The good news is that each of these problems can be prevented with the correct setup from the first day. If you want to know more about how to prevent channel conflict, take a look at our guide, which walks you through the fixes in more detail.

Why do DTC brands expand to Amazon anyway?

The reason why many sellers take this step is because a lot of buyers are already there. In most of the DTC accounts that we audit, people are searching Amazon for the brand name before that brand even has an official listing, and if you are not there to meet that search, a reseller or a copycat product will usually take that sale.

Amazon also reaches shoppers who never click on a paid social ad. Some people start every purchase on Amazon, and they trust the delivery promise, and they simply do not want to create an account on another website.

The real question is not whether to sell on Amazon or not, but how to properly set each channel so it can do the job that the other cannot. We compare these two in more detail in our Amazon vs DTC channels guide.

Where does channel conflict actually come from?

Before vetting any agency, you should know where the trouble starts. In our experience, almost all cases end up tracing back to one of the following three sources:

Price gaps and the featured offer

Amazon watches the prices across the web. If on your own website you sell a product for less than what is on your Amazon listing, Amazon can suppress the featured offer that is called Buy Box.

When this happens, your listing stops winning the sale, even though you are the brand owner. And this is why we set the price parity as default. Your base price matches on both channels, and your website competes on the things Amazon cannot easily copy, such as bundles, subscriptions and loyalty perks.

Unauthorized sellers

Third-party sellers can list your product on Amazon for whatever price they want to. Some are buying overstock from a retailer, while others are selling items that are not even genuine.

Either way, you end up losing control of the price and of the way your brand looks to buyers.

Brand Registry proves you own the brand; a MAP policy (short for minimum advertised price) is what sets the lowest price resellers are allowed to advertise. If someone doesn’t obey these rules, regular enforcement ends up removing those sellers, and to find out more about this, you can read our Amazon brand protection services guide.

Promotions that clash

This one is very easy to miss because every promotion looks reasonable when you plan it on its own.

Here is how it plays out in the accounts we audit. Your email team sends a 15% off code, so with that code your product that costs $50 now costs $42.50 on your website. In the same week, your Amazon team runs a 20% deal and the exact product on Amazon costs $40.

Your best customers can see the two offers, and most of them will pick the one on Amazon since it’s cheaper. When this happens, you end up paying Amazon a fee on a sale that your own email campaign was supposed to bring. But the real problem comes after that.

Once customers begin to notice that on one channel there is always some kind of discount, they stop buying it at $50 and simply wait for the next sale, on whichever channel is available first.

The fix is very simple. You need to put every promotion on both channels on one shared calendar so the two discounts don’t land in the same week and give each of your channels a clear job, as it’s projected in the table below.

You should treat this split as a starting point instead of a strict rule. Some brands give Amazon a few hero products but keep the full range on their own website, which works fine as long as both sides of the plan agree on it.

Your website is where you own the customer data and build loyalty over time. Our ecommerce growth services are what run this side of the business.

Which type of agency setup prevents channel conflict?

There are four common ways that DTC brands staff an Amazon expansion. They all handle conflict differently.

You can use this table as a first filter. Even two good agencies can still create conflict if nobody owns the overlap between them, and this overlap is where margins tend to leak.

What should you look for in an agency before you sign?

Once you are aware of where the conflict comes from, vetting an agency becomes a much easier process, as you are checking whether someone clearly owns each of those risks.

You need to start by asking whether the agency will actually run both channels day to day or whether they plan to hand your website back to you once Amazon is live. Coordination only works when the same team can see both sides. Then, you need to ask to see a written pricing along with a MAP plan before launch.

If they answer with “We will figure it out as we go," this is a warning sign. Brand protection should be part of the service and not another add-on you discover three months in. The agency should handle Brand Registry and remove unauthorized sellers without you having to chase anyone.

Finally, there are three more things that are worth checking. The agency should have a clear plan for the first 90 days so you know what happens every month, instead of hoping everything comes together.

Their reports should show you your actual profit, not just revenue or ACoS, because a channel can bring in plenty of sales and still lose you money. The people that are working on your account should be experienced specialists and not a junior coordinator who simply passes your questions along to someone else.

How Olifant Digital expands DTC brands to Amazon without channel conflict

There is one team that manages your Amazon account and DTC site as a single system. This is the same team that sets pricing, plans promotions, and forecasts inventory across both, so each decision is made with the other channel in view.

Our senior specialists with at least 7 years of experience are the ones that are doing work on your account every day. All the execution is done through our in-house AI platform, Olifant AI, while our data scientists review your account metrics daily, so the problems can surface early instead of at the end of the month.

The results of this way of operating are specific. We have added $179,000 in monthly revenue for Wildride and reached a 7-figure US run rate in 42 days. For COCOSOLIS, we have added $1,098,692 in monthly revenue. We also took The Magic Scent from $50K to $411K per month.

Our services start from $2,000 per month and are custom for each project, based on the complexity and workload required, and we don’t charge any percentage of ad spend. This is more important than it sounds! When you have a $40,000 monthly spend, a 12% fee would come to $4,800, and it would keep climbing every time you scale.

While with a flat fee, the costs remain the same while you continue growing. Every engagement also carries our 60-day guarantee: if we don't improve your performance, you don't pay.

When is Olifant Digital not the right fit?

Olifant Digital is not the best choice for every brand, and that’s best to know before you reach out.

If you only need someone to manage your Amazon ads, and you are happy with how your website runs today, it would be much better to go with a provider that only focuses on Amazon PPC.

Our whole approach is built around running both of the channels together, so you end up paying for coordination that you do not need. We would also suggest waiting if your brand is still new and you are not sure which products sell well on your own website.

Amazon as a platform is best for when people already want your product and you can keep it in stock without gaps. In this case, it makes more sense to get your website sales steady first and then add Amazon once this base is in place

How do you expand to Amazon without channel conflict? A 90-day approach

We follow the same sequence when launching a Shopify brand on Amazon. Every step builds on the one that comes before it.

1. Set price parity and your MAP policy before listing anything.

Match the prices on both channels and write down your MAP rules. It is easier to launch with clear pricing than to fix a price war later.

2. Lock down brand control in the first few weeks.

Enroll in Brand Registry so you can remove any unauthorized sellers, and the listings buyers find are the ones you control.

3. Give each channel a clear job.

You need to use Amazon for discovery and convenience and your website for education, bundles and subscriptions.

4. Launch with a tight PPC keyword set

First, start with your core branded and category terms at a low ACoS target, and then, scale the spend once your profit starts holding steady.

5. Put every promotion on one shared calendar

Plan Amazon deals and DTC campaigns together, so an Amazon discount never lands in the middle of an email push.

6. Track true profit every week

Every week, you should review the profit by channel, which will allow you to cut whatever is losing money. Revenue can look great while the margin quietly slips, so profit is the number that tells you whether the plan is actually working.

Once both of the channels are steady, then you can look at how to expand across Amazon marketplaces in Europe and Australia.

Frequently asked questions

Should I launch my full catalog on Amazon or start with a few products?

It’s important to start small. In most of the launches that we run, there are three to five sellers that go live first, which keeps the inventory manageable and gives clean data on how Amazon affects your website before you commit to the whole range.

Can I create Amazon-only bundles or product sizes?

Yes. A two-pack bundle or a size that only exists on Amazon is the cleanest way to avoid a direct price comparison with your own site.

How can I tell if Amazon is taking sales from my website?

The easiest way is to watch your returning customer revenue and your branded site traffic before and after launch.

If both hold steady while Amazon grows, you are reaching new customers, but if returning customers drop off right as Amazon picks up, it means some of your loyal buyers have switched channels, and this is the cue to review your pricing and promotions.

Should I use FBA or ship Amazon orders myself?

Most DTC brands do well with FBA, because Prime eligibility tends to help conversion. The real catch is the inventory, because stock that sits in Amazon warehouses cannot fill website orders. You are in need of a forecast that covers both channels, so you do not end up running out on either side.

Do I lose customer data when people buy on Amazon?

Amazon does not share customer email addresses with you the way your own site collects them. You can still build a relationship through your Brand Store and Amazon’s brand follower tools, and plenty of the shoppers who discover you on Amazon are those that will later look up your website on their own.

Is it too late to fix channel conflict if I am already selling on Amazon?

Not at all. Many of the brands that come to us already have a live listing with a few problems, but the fix always starts with a pricing audit and reseller cleanup in the first month.

Final thoughts

Channel conflict usually starts in the gap between two teams, because one team sets the price on Amazon, while the other team plans the website sale, so nobody notices the clash until the margin is already gone.

This is what makes one agency the perfect choice. They will run both channels, own your pricing and MAP plan, and will protect your brand from unauthorized sellers while reporting on true profit, rather than just the revenue.

At Olifant Digital, we do all this under one team and pricing that does not climb with your ad spend, backed by our 60-day guarantee: if we don't improve your performance, you don't pay. Amazon then becomes a second source of growth for your brand instead of a competitor to your own website.

If you want a plan that is built around your brand, with both channels included, you can get your free marketing plan from Olifant Digital and see exactly where Amazon fits.