You're Doing $3M on Amazon. You're Leaving Real Margin on the Table.
Amazon-native brands hand over the customer relationship and significant margin to Amazon. EL360 builds your direct ecom channel from zero: Shopify storefront, media buying engine, first-party data, LTV ladder. You keep the customer and the margin.
You Don't Own the Customer. You Don't Own the Margin. You Don't Own the Data.
Amazon owns the buyer. Amazon owns the next sale. Amazon owns the email address. Amazon's fee structure takes a meaningful share of gross revenue plus fulfillment costs. You own the inventory and the risk. The brands building DTC channels before Amazon forces them to are the ones that compound, because the customer relationship they build on Shopify is worth multi-x the one-time margin Amazon takes per sale. The math is not optional. It is the difference between a brand that exits at a meaningful EBITDA multiple and one that exits at a discount because Amazon can replace it tomorrow.
How we operateThe operating model, in 33 words
EcomLabs360 runs full-funnel growth for founder-led DTC brands at $100k+/mo through a proprietary AI-augmented stack, a cross-account knowledge OS, and a team that operates its own brands in parallel.
The system we build at this stage
- 01
Shopify DTC channel: storefront, PDP, checkout from zero
Building the Shopify channel correctly from day one sets the foundation for everything downstream. Product pages that convert cold traffic (not just warm Amazon buyers), checkout configured for conversion (Shop Pay, express options, trust signals), and offer engineering calibrated to the new customer acquisition cost. Amazon-native brands often underestimate how different the DTC cold-traffic conversion requirements are from the Amazon warm-traffic environment. We build for the harder audience first.
- 02
Meta media buying: first time the brand pays for its own traffic
Amazon brands entering Meta for the first time are starting from zero creative data. We build the first creative batch from the product catalog and Amazon review VOC, establish the baseline conversion metrics in the first 30 days, and build the creative testing system from that baseline. ASC+ broad prospecting, creative-first testing at operator-grade variant cadence, NC-CPA as the primary metric from day one.
- 03
Klaviyo email foundation: building the first-party data asset
The Amazon brand that builds a substantial email list in year one of DTC has an asset Amazon cannot take. We build the Klaviyo architecture from zero: welcome series calibrated to the DTC buyer experience (different from the Amazon buyer's expectations), abandoned cart and browse abandonment for a new storefront, and the post-purchase sequence that converts a one-time DTC trial into a repeat buyer. The email list is the moat that makes the DTC channel compounding rather than just profitable.
- 04
First-party data infrastructure and LTV measurement from day one
The single biggest advantage of DTC over Amazon is customer data ownership. We build the LTV measurement infrastructure in week 1: cohort tracking by acquisition source, 90-day LTV by acquisition channel, and email engagement by purchase behavior. Most Amazon brands have never seen their LTV by acquisition source because Amazon does not provide that data. We build the visibility that makes DTC channel scaling decisions data-grounded rather than assumption-based.
This is the exact motion we ran at Honest Baby Clothing, The Honest Company's baby apparel subbrand. The brand sold primarily on Amazon; we rebuilt the Shopify side into an engine that doubled full-year results into an 8-figure store year at up to 11 blended ROAS in promotional windows. The part that matters on this page: store campaigns ran alongside the brand's Amazon sale events with offer constructions differentiated per channel, so both channels won the same windows. The store's paid push amplified branded demand that fed the marketplace, and the Amazon business kept growing while the second engine scaled. On the strategy call we map your Amazon catalog, margin structure, and expansion timeline onto that sequence.
Read the Honest Baby Clothing case studyGood fit / Not a fit
- $3M+/yr on Amazon with a product catalog that converts on cold traffic (not just Amazon warm-intent buyers)
- Ready to own customer data and build an email list from zero
- Willing to invest in a 90-day channel build before expecting DTC revenue to match Amazon volume
- Has margin structure that supports DTC customer acquisition cost during the channel build phase
- Sub-scale Amazon revenue: the DTC channel build investment is not justified until Amazon revenue demonstrates product-market fit
- Expects DTC to outpace Amazon in Year 1: the first year is channel build and test; Amazon remains the primary revenue source
- Product with zero cold-traffic conversion potential (utility product with no narrative, no story, no differentiation from Amazon alternatives)
- Not open to 90-day channel build investment before the first DTC revenue: expects immediate positive ROI on day one
Case studies at this growth stage
The Amazon margin tax
Amazon's take rate plus fulfillment is a meaningful share of every Amazon dollar earned. On a multi-million-dollar Amazon business, that is material platform fees per year. The brand builds the demand, invests in the listing, runs the PPC, and Amazon harvests the customer relationship on every subsequent purchase.
The structural problem is not the fee rate. It is the compounding disadvantage of not owning the customer. An Amazon buyer who loved your product will search for your brand name on Amazon for their next purchase, and Amazon will serve them a competitor listing before they find yours again. The Amazon customer is not your customer. They are Amazon's customer who happened to buy your product.
The DTC channel is the moat. A substantial email list built over 24 months of DTC operations is an asset that cannot be replicated on Amazon. The brand that owns the customer relationship can reach that customer on their terms, at the right moment, with the right offer, and compound LTV without paying Amazon's take rate on every subsequent purchase.
The 90-day channel build
The Shopify DTC channel is not a website project. It is a revenue infrastructure build that requires Shopify storefront engineering, Meta media buying from zero, Klaviyo email architecture, and LTV measurement infrastructure to all go live simultaneously. We run the 90-day build as a sprint: all four components in parallel, not sequentially. By day 90 the channel is operational and the first 30 days of real performance data are available to inform the first scaling decision.
If you're a growth-focused ecommerce brand doing $100k+/mo on Shopify, $3M+/yr on Amazon, or $2M+/yr on TikTok Shop, we'd love to help you scale to your next milestone.
FAQ
How long does the DTC channel build take?
How do we handle Amazon-DTC channel conflict?
What creative assets from Amazon can transfer to Meta?
What LTV should we expect from DTC vs Amazon customers?
How do you measure success in year one of DTC?
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If you're a growth-focused ecommerce brand doing $100k+/mo on Shopify, $3M+/yr on Amazon, or $2M+/yr on TikTok Shop, we'd love to help you scale to your next milestone.
