Website Closers® presents a flourishing eCommerce business that sells popular DVDs and Blu Ray discs. Successfully tapping into the public’s love for movies and popular television series, this phenomenally successful eTailer has developed a strong standing on Amazon. Drawing high praise from customers for the quality of their products, speedy delivery and first-rate customer service, the company has turned this media entertainment shop into an immensely profitable storefront with an average order value at $16.25.
The brand operates entirely through its Amazon site, with marketing efforts focused entirely on that eCommerce marketplace. This offers a buyer a unique opportunity to scale this company, and rapidly, using off-Amazon tactics.
Diversifying sales platforms would be the most effective place to start, by opening the brand’s first Shopify website, which would not only provide a second option for where SKUs are available, but it would also enable a buyer to allow customers to sign up for email alerts and promotions, and provide descriptions of what makes them unique among shops in the visual media space.
A Shopify site could enable the brand to leverage its SEO program more efficiently by launching a blog on the website. Likewise, having their own website would allow the company to post links to their new social media pages on popular sites such as Facebook and Instagram.
While this brand has very effectively demonstrated that a thriving eCommerce business can be created and expanded entirely on Amazon, the benefits of having a Shopify website would become a terrific game changer for this business in multiple ways, and it could easily double and even triple profits. Here are some facts to consider about this business.
The company was founded five years ago by the current owner, who recognized the public’s ongoing passion for movies, hit TV shows and other forms of popular entertainment available on DVD and Blu Ray. The seller opened this shop on Amazon and set out to market popular media products combined with quick deliveries and above average customer service. Based on gross revenues alone, it is clear this brand definitely succeeded. The owner also created a remarkably smooth and efficient operation that is a model for how to effectively use Amazon as your sales platform.
With the average order value of $16.25, the owner has been adding continuously to the product line, and there are now 700-1,200 SKUs for customers to purchase, which has helped boost sales considerably. The brand carries everything from Hollywood classic movies to box sets of popular network programs and of film series such as Lord of the Rings.
The company benefited from the lockdowns in 2020 that kept more people in their homes, away from movie theaters, and looking for more home entertainment options. At the same time, the shift among consumers toward online shopping provided a huge boost for this company, since they were ready to meet their entertainment needs. Their SKUs brought in $1.1 million in gross revenue in 2020 and the company is projected to earn up to $1.8 million in 2021.
It helps that production studios have become their own online delivery systems, making it more likely that customers are eager to buy their favorite movies or television shows on either DVD or Blu Ray. This brand has gone out of its way to ensure those favorites are available on the company’s Amazon platform.
The company’s focus has also been on customer service. The owner uses Fulfillment by Amazon for deliveries, with products sourced through three main suppliers who have been involved with the company for years and are reliable and efficient. The company typically stocks between $150,000 and 250,000 in inventory, and sales are so brisk that that the owner places new orders every week, depending on what is available and in stock.
That enables the company to make quick shipments and allows their customers to enjoy the benefit of a speedy delivery. The customer response has been highly enthusiastic, with customers often praising not just the movie itself but the quick delivery, great condition the product arrived in, and superior customer service. The shop now enjoys a 100% positive Seller rating on Amazon based on 1,430+ reviews in the past 12 months.
While sales remain strong throughout the year, this brand soars during the gift-giving holiday season from late October through mid-December, when there can be a 50-100% jump in sales within those months.
In addition to the strong focus on deliveries, the brand has also taken advantage of key marketing tools to grow the business. One has been to run PPC ads on Amazon, and the other has been to use SEO keyword optimization in the product descriptions. Both of these tools have been highly effectively in driving traffic to the site.
As beneficial as Amazon is, there’s a tremendous amount of growth potential for this business by creating the shop’s first website. A Shopify site would enable the brand to employ organic marketing tools more effectively. That includes launching a blog on the site, adding links to new social media posts and allowing customers to add their email to an email subscription database. These are all tools that the current owner doesn’t employ on the Aazon site, and they have proven time and again to be enormously effective in expanding a company’s customer base.
It’s also been amply demonstrated that having multiple sales platforms can increase profits significantly, and this brand could also sell items on sites such as eBay and Etsy, while also continuing to add to their SKUs so customers have even more options to pick from, plus new arrivals to upsell to the existing customer base on the company’s email database.
The current owner now spends 40 hours each week running this business, focusing on tasks such as buying inventory, bundling, advertising, and answering customer inquiries. The owner employs a part time virtual assistant who creates product bundles and runs product files.
The owner is available to stay on post-acquisition in an advisory role, and the sale would include the company’s in-house software, which is used to identify sales rankings, buy box prices and make revenue projections.
The global market for home entertainment is truly massive, with the sale of DVDs alone surpassing $16 billion. This brand has demonstrated how profitable it is to satisfy the public’s desire to own their favorite movies. While this company is a testament to the strengths and advantages of using Amazon as its launching platform, there are amazing scale opportunities by diversifying the sales options that customers have to choose from.
