Context
Nature’s One originally used 2 oz foil sample packets sent by phone/email request. They were costly, hard to produce, caused out-of-stock issues, and didn’t give parents enough product to trust that the formula would work for their baby. There was also zero tracking, no way to measure purchase behavior, and significant sample abuse.

What I Did

• Shifted from 2 oz packets to a fullsize 12.7 oz retail can to give parents ~1 week of true feeding experience.
• Created a $5.95 shipping-only offer to deter abuse while keeping the program accessible.
• Implemented Kount to detect and block repeat-sample attempts using address variants, email reuse, IP risk, and multiple behavioral signals.
• Digitally promoted the program across all channels.
• Built a tracked funnel using RJ Metrics to measure return visits and downstream purchases.
• Designed a Klaviyo email sequence for follow-up, education, and a new-customer incentive (discount on a 12-pack case).
• Added ShipStation automation rules so the warehouse team could process sample orders without disrupting normal fulfillment.

Impact

• Significantly reduced sample abuse using automated Kount rules.
• Enabled for the first time a clear view of trial → purchase behavior.
• Identified that one free sample drove ~2 full 12-pack case purchases within 2 months (~$300 in revenue).
• Increased trust and trial confidence for parents by offering a meaningful amount of product.
• Reduced operational friction and inventory disruption.

Why it Mattered
This transformed sampling from a cost center into a measurable acquisition engine — one that built trust with families, reduced waste, and created a clear path from trial to subscription-level purchasing.

Context
Nature’s One’s packaging had become outdated compared to competitors and visually disjointed across products. Labels for formulas, kids’ beverages, and prenatal items looked like separate brands, creating friction for parents trying to navigate the product journey (prenatal → infant → toddler → child). The brand needed a modern, unified visual system that reinforced trust and recognition.

What I Led

• Directed a cross-functional team across marketing, design, product, legal, and production to redesign labels for the entire product line.
• Created a family architecture around the successful “Only” brand:
• Baby’s Only (core formulas)
• Kid’s Only (beverages for ages 3–15)
• Mom’s Only (prenatal nutrition)
• Modernized label design for readability, regulatory clarity, and shelf appeal.
• Elevated our trademark leaf icon to reinforce consistency and emotional connection across stages of parenthood.
• Extended the new identity across the website, marketing materials, and digital assets for full cohesion.
• Coordinated the entire initiative remotely during the pandemic, keeping teams aligned, engaged, and productive under unusual constraints.

Impact

• Delivered a clean, unified visual identity that increased brand recognition across retail and digital channels.
• Strengthened trust and continuity for parents moving through multiple life stages with our products.
• Reduced brand fragmentation and created long-term flexibility for new product launches.
• Boosted consistency across packaging, ecommerce, and marketing — giving the entire brand a modern, coherent presence.

Why it Mattered
This redesign transformed the brand from a disconnected set of products into a purposeful product ecosystem, making it easier for families to recognize, choose, and stay loyal to Nature’s One throughout their journey.

Lessons from Building — and Governing — a High-Power Marketplace

Context

In 2013–2014, our business was healthy, diversified, and growing. Revenue was evenly split across wholesale distribution (including a strong Whole Foods presence), hundreds of independent natural and organic retailers, a growing direct-to-consumer eCommerce business, and international distribution, including China, where we were one of a small group of approved infant-nutrition brands.

Amazon was not essential to our survival. In fact, our CEO initially had little interest in pursuing it.

That changed when we began to see unauthorized third-party sellers listing our products, undercutting pricing and introducing risk across our direct and wholesale channels. Amazon wasn’t presenting itself as a growth opportunity so much as a control and governance problem we needed to address.

At the same time, Amazon actively pursued us as a first-party (1P) vendor, offering favorable entry terms: reduced fees (8% versus the typical ~15%), early placement support, and category attention. With pricing integrity and brand control at stake, we made the decision to enter.

It was a defensive move — but one that quickly became strategic.

Phase 1: Launching 1P and Establishing Control

Entering Amazon as a regulated CPG brand is not a turnkey exercise. We inherited a fragmented landscape of ASINs created by third parties, inconsistent listings, and unclear ownership. Gaining control required persistence, technical fluency, and coordination across Amazon, internal systems, and compliance constraints.

At the same time, we stood up:

• Vendor Central account structure and permissions
  
• ASIN creation, reclamation, and catalog governance
  
• Pricing and shipping logic aligned with existing channels
  
• Integration between Amazon, our eCommerce platform, warehouse operations, and order workflows
  

This work was led internally by a very small team — largely myself, with support from one additional internal resource.

The channel grew quickly and ultimately represented roughly 25% of company revenue, while our other channels continued to grow in parallel. Importantly, Amazon growth did not come at the expense of wholesale, DTC, or international business.

At our peak, we became category leaders on Amazon, outperforming long-established brands such as Earth’s Best.

From that perspective, the strategy worked.

Phase 2: The Hidden Organizational Tax

What did not reveal itself immediately was the organizational tax Amazon imposes.

Amazon accounting — including deductions, short-pays, chargebacks, and post-audits — requires constant, specialized oversight. Over time, discrepancies accumulated faster than our internal finance resources could reasonably keep pace with. Resolving those issues became a prolonged, resource-intensive effort that ultimately required settlement.

This was not the result of bad intent or negligence. It was a mismatch between Amazon’s asymmetric systems and internal resourcing. Amazon does not forgive partial attention — particularly in finance.

That lesson fundamentally reshaped how I think about marketplace governance.

Phase 3: Hybrid Strategy — Selective 3P Expansion

As the relationship matured, Amazon accepted roughly 40% of our SKUs as 1P. The remainder — products Amazon declined due to margin, velocity, or category constraints — were moved into a controlled third-party (3P) model.

We integrated 3P fulfillment directly through our eCommerce infrastructure:

• Orders flowed from Amazon into our internal systems
  
• Fulfillment, pricing, and business rules remained centralized
  
• Inventory integrity and brand standards were preserved
  

This hybrid approach worked well, but it added meaningful complexity. Running 1P and 3P in parallel is not “Amazon Lite” — it is effectively two businesses sharing a front door.

Marketing, Reviews, and the Ecosystem Effect

As Amazon evolved, so did its expectations. A+ content moved from basic enhancement to full brand storytelling, requiring original creative work, technical implementation, and ongoing optimization.

Amazon also pushed aggressively into advertising (then AMS). We invested accordingly, managing spend, ROAS/ACOS, and performance in parallel with Google Ads. Amazon advertising became as resource-intensive as any major paid media channel.

In parallel, we implemented Bazaarvoice to support ratings and reviews across Amazon, major big-box retailers (Target, Walmart, Sam’s), and our DTC channel. Reviews became a flywheel: credibility on Amazon supported retail expansion, and retail presence reinforced Amazon velocity.

Amazon was no longer just a channel — it had become a signal amplifier across the entire ecosystem.

CRaP, Leverage, and Reality

Some products periodically approached or crossed Amazon’s CRaP threshold (“Can’t Realize a Profit”). In practice, CRaP was not always a clean mathematical boundary. At times, it functioned as leverage — pressure to increase advertising investment, participate in deals, or concede margin.

We pushed back where possible and adjusted where necessary. External disruptions — including COVID-era supply-chain volatility and the 2022 infant-formula crisis following the Abbott facility shutdown — further complicated inventory availability and profitability.

What became clear is that Amazon does not behave like a passive retailer. It is an active counterparty with its own incentives, timelines, and negotiating tools.

The Core Insight: Amazon Is a Parallel Business Unit

Looking back, the core insight is straightforward:

Amazon requires its own internal business unit — whether an organization explicitly names it or not.

It demands:

• Finance resources that understand Amazon’s mechanics
  
• Marketing capacity scaled to platform requirements
  
• Technical fluency across systems and data
  
• Leadership able to translate between Amazon’s worldview and the company’s
  

In our case, much of that integration responsibility fell to me. Beyond managing listings or ads, I was effectively governing complexity across teams, vendors, platforms, and incentives. That role is rarely formalized, but it is essential.

Growth vs. Governance: Two Legitimate Modes

Amazon can serve one of two primary roles inside a brand:

Growth Mode

• Objective: Incremental revenue and share
  
• Requires:
  
  • Media investment
    
  • Deal participation
    
  • Assortment expansion
    
  • Higher tolerance for margin pressure
    
• Success metric: Top-line growth
  

Governance Mode

• Objective: Brand protection and channel integrity
  
• Requires:
  
  • Assortment discipline
    
  • Seller suppression
    
  • Pricing control
    
  • Selective investment
    
• Success metric: Stability and predictability
  

Both modes are valid.
Both can be successful.

What fails is ambiguity — when leadership wants growth results but funds governance, or demands margin discipline while chasing share.

The operator’s role is not to choose the mode —
it is to force clarity and resource accordingly.

What I’d Do Again — and Differently

Given the same market conditions, I would enter Amazon again. It protected pricing, enabled future product launches, supported retail expansion, and reinforced the broader brand ecosystem.

What I would change:

• Resource finance oversight from day one
  
• Staff Amazon as a true business unit, not an add-on
  
• Force early clarity on whether Amazon is expected to drive growth or governance — because the resourcing, metrics, and tradeoffs differ meaningfully
  

The Leadership Decision That Matters

If I were advising a CEO today, I would force one decision before launching Amazon:

Are you willing to commit to Amazon as a fully resourced business unit — or are you prepared to pay the cost of partial attention later?

Amazon does not reward half-measures. It doesn’t fail loudly. It fails quietly — through margin erosion, accounting friction, and organizational fatigue.

When supported intentionally, it can be a powerful asset.
When under-resourced, it becomes an invisible tax.

That distinction must be made upfront.

Context
Nature’s One built a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Heath, Ohio, allowing the company to produce a fully FDA-regulated infant formula in-house for the first time. Securing FDA approval during the pandemic required tight cross-functional coordination, remote collaboration, and high regulatory precision.

The launch happened in the middle of the national infant formula shortage, creating enormous consumer demand and intense retailer interest. Historically distributed mainly in Natural & Organic outlets, Nature’s One suddenly had the opportunity — and pressure — to scale into major national retailers almost overnight.

What I Led

• Coordinated marketing readiness for the FDA-approved launch, ensuring all claims, assets, and messaging met regulatory standards.
• Managed content, images, and enriched data for 1WorldSync, enabling rapid onboarding across major retail systems.
• Implemented Ibotta to support retailer marketing, couponing, and digital trial incentives.
• Built internal workflows for fast-turn content updates, promotions, and retailer requests.
• Adapted our messaging and visual identity for a broader mainstream audience while preserving mission and trust.
• Helped the marketing, product, QA, CS, and operations teams stay aligned during the surge — all while most collaboration was still remote.

Impact

• Added five major retailers within weeks: Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, HEB, and CVS.
• Achieved immediate high-velocity performance, including becoming:
  • The #2 infant formula at Target within 3–4 weeks of launch.
• Enabled a smooth, data-ready onboarding process that allowed a small team to operate at national scale.
• Delivered the digital and operational foundation needed to meet unprecedented consumer demand during a critical period of national need.
• Received exceptional retailer validation — including the Walmart buyer stating:
  “This product is good for America, and that makes it good for Walmart.”

Why It Mattered
This launch transformed Nature’s One from a mission-driven niche brand into a frontline national supplier during a historic shortage.
It required calm leadership, flawless regulatory alignment, and rapid martech execution to support expansion into big-box retail — all while navigating pandemic constraints and extraordinary demand.

This was one of the most impactful and meaningful product launches in the company’s history.

Context
Bottoms Up Diaper Bank approached our CEO for help raising awareness and support for single mothers struggling to afford diapers and wipes — one of the most pressing and least-discussed needs among low-income families. The initiative aligned perfectly with our mission of helping children get a Great Start™, so the project was handed to me and the marketing team.

What I Led

• Designed a full-funnel digital support campaign, including social ads, Google Ads, and onsite promotions.
• Built custom landing pages to educate parents and customers about Bottoms Up’s mission and impact.
• Created homepage banners and onsite placements that made the nonprofit visible to our entire digital audience.
• Coordinated the donation and logistics of our Baby’s Only® diapers and wipes, providing essential supplies directly to families in need.
• Partnered with the nonprofit’s leadership to ensure messaging was accurate, compassionate, and aligned with their mission and our brand.
• Engaged our customer community, encouraging thousands of families to learn about and support Bottoms Up.

Impact

• Increased awareness of Bottoms Up’s mission among our audience of parents and caregivers.
• Generated meaningful donations and boosted community engagement through targeted digital campaigns.
• Strengthened goodwill and trust with our customer base — many sent messages of gratitude for supporting a cause that mattered deeply to them.
• Reinforced Nature’s One’s identity as a mission-driven brand supporting families across multiple stages of life.

Why It Mattered
This wasn’t a financial play — it was a values play.
Supporting Bottoms Up demonstrated the heart of the organization: helping moms, babies, and families in ways that go beyond our own products. It connected marketing, mission, and community impact in a way that felt authentic to who we were and what we stood for.