E-commerce Builds
+78%
revenue growth after only nine months
Pet Toy Brand DTC Diversification Case Study
Amazon held 92% of this pet toy brand’s revenue and all of its customer data. We built their own ecommerce website and DTC channel that grew revenue by +78% in nine months.
about the brand
A pet toy brand sold enrichment toys for dogs and cats to a large Amazon audience it could not contact. Fee pressure and copycat listings squeezed margins while repeat sales stayed flat. MAG Growth used pet brand DTC diversification to build subscription revenue, email flows, and a customer community that returns.
The Challenge
1
Amazon generated 92% of revenue, leaving no room to build the brand story. The team knew it had to reduce Amazon dependency before a policy change cut the business.
2
High marketplace fulfillment costs destroyed their product margins over time. This financial drain made it difficult to scale the business and secure steady revenue.
3
Amazon’s interface blocked bundles, upsells, and any view of buyer behavior. Pet brand DTC diversification was impossible without owning first-party customer data.
Our Solution
We ran a full-funnel growth marketing program built to move the brand off a single revenue source without giving up the volume that marketplace already delivered. Our Amazon to DTC strategy for pet brands started with the owned storefront, then fixed acquisition economics, then turned buyers into a customer base the brand controls.
Foundational Channel Build
The brand had strong demand but nowhere to send it outside the marketplace. We built the owned channel first so every later investment had somewhere profitable to land.
- Repositioned the brand around a single benefit that gave the owned site a reason to exist beyond price
- Built a conversion-focused storefront with product pages structured around buyer questions rather than catalog specs
- Developed a guided product finder that matched shoppers to the right item and captured preference data at the same time
- Restructured the assortment into curated sets that made the owned site the better place to buy
Acquisition Efficiency and Margin Recovery
Rising ad costs on the marketplace were the clearest threat to profit. We moved spend toward channels where creative quality lowered cost per order instead of bidding against the same competitors.
- Launched paid social campaigns built on product-in-use video that carried its own proof
- Tested creative in structured cycles and retired underperformers before they drained budget
- Partnered with category creators and enthusiasts to generate authentic content at lower cost than studio production
- Ran entry offers designed to capture contact details rather than chase one-time discount buyers
Customer Ownership and Retention
Owning the relationship was the whole point of the engagement. We built the systems that convert a first purchase into a predictable second one.
- Implemented lifecycle email and SMS flows triggered by real buyer behavior instead of a fixed calendar
- Introduced a recurring purchase option positioned around convenience rather than discount
- Redirected existing marketplace buyers to the owned channel through post-purchase touchpoints
- Built a community program that gave customers a reason to return between purchases
Results
- +78% revenue in 9 months
As a top DTC agency for pet brands, we were able to generate 78% more sales for the brand, with the online store we built accounting for 52% of all online sales in its ninth month of operation.
- 4x higher customer long term value
MAG Growth’s retention and subscription work drove customer lifetime value to 4× higher than Amazon customers.
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Let’s build a strategy that actually moves the needle.