Brewing a Better Path to Help Transition To A Hybrid Amazon Selling Strategy

For over 60 years, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has been delighting customers with premium coffee and handpicked teas from around the world. With a rich heritage rooted in quality and innovation, the brand is a beloved favorite among coffee and tea enthusiasts alike.

Outdated and Unmanaged

When The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) partnered with Upstream, its Amazon Vendor Central account had been sitting idle and unmanaged for over a year. With no active vendor manager and years-old pricing structures, selling directly to Amazon had become increasingly unprofitable. After running a catalog audit, we discovered that the costs provided to Amazon were significantly outdated, making price increases both necessary and unattainable.

CBTL needed a new approach to re-ignite its Amazon presence, improve profitability, and regain control of its channel strategy. Upstream jumped in to take action and take back control of CBTL’s Brand Store.

Starting Over

We began by facilitating a collaborative strategy session with key stakeholders across CBTL’s internal departments—from product to pricing and operations. Together, we built a comprehensive picture of its current catalog, profitability metrics, inventory capabilities, costs of doing business on Seller and Vendor Central, and upcoming product launches.

From there, Upstream audited CBTL’s full catalog and determined which products could remain selling on Vendor Central profitably, and which should transition to Seller Central. We then optimized their product listings with SEO, updated content, and product line variations.  We then linked the account to the Amazon Brand Registry for enhanced brand protection and access to premium features while updating and refreshing CBTL’s Amazon Brand Store to align with their updated catalog and branding.

Lastly, Upstream developed an initial demand plan and created FBA shipments to streamline fulfillment, and we set an advertising budget and launched Amazon Ad campaigns to reestablish visibility and drive sales after a long period of dormancy.

Key Outcomes

With Upstream’s support, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf successfully transitioned to a hybrid selling model on Amazon. Results included improving profitability through Seller Central pricing control, revitalizing brand presence with updated content and an optimized Brand Store, increasing sales velocity driven by targeted ad campaigns, and finally, streamlining operations with forecasting and FBA support.

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