+$4.2M Shipped Revenue on 32.32% More Units YoY

The challenge

In 2024 the account shipped 980,215 units for $14.79M, an average of $15.09 a unit at a 40.40% gross margin. Page views were climbing faster than the revenue they produced, which is a listing problem before it is a demand problem: shoppers were arriving and leaving. Returns stood at 11,378, or 1.16% of units shipped, and in beauty a return is the most expensive outcome there is. The unit ships, comes back, is inspected, is frequently unsellable afterwards, and the advertising that won the order is spent either way. The task was to convert more of the traffic already arriving, without buying the growth with price.

What we changed

• Rewrote titles and bullets so the listing describes what actually arrives, in the order a shopper needs it: size, count, formulation and who it is for. Accuracy is a returns lever before it is a conversion one.
• Replaced product imagery so scale, texture and packaging are legible before purchase rather than after delivery. A large share of returns in beauty come from a size or a finish the photographs did not make obvious.
• Pointed advertising at high-intent search terms rather than broad category traffic. A browsing shopper who buys on impulse is disproportionately likely to send it back, so cheap traffic is expensive twice.
• Moved to dynamic pricing to defend position on the ASINs that carry the range, rather than discounting the whole catalogue to protect a handful of them.
• Forecast stock against real sell-through, so the growth was supplied without paying to store it months early.

The outcome

• Shipped revenue reached $18.99M from $14.79M, an additional $4.2M year on year, up 28.39%.
• Shipped units rose 32.32% to 1,297,044, which is 316,829 more units moving through the account.
• Units grew faster than revenue. Revenue per unit fell 2.97%, from $15.09 to $14.64, so part of the volume was won on price rather than on the listing work.
• Gross margin fell 3.13 points, from 40.40% to 37.27%, as shipped cost of goods rose 35.12% against revenue growth of 28.39%. Gross profit still rose 18.45% to $7.08M, but it grew more slowly than the revenue above it. Margin is the first thing to fix next.
• The return rate rose from 1.16% to 1.32% of units shipped. Returns grew 49.99% against 32.32% more units, so the listing and imagery work has not yet shown up in the returns line.
• Page views grew far faster than revenue across the same period. The traffic is there; closing the gap between it and what it earns is the largest opportunity left in the account.