Envision Horizons

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an account executive at Thinx Inc. Our company started selling on Amazon two years ago, and we make period and incontinence underwears.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Envision Horizons?

The original intention when we hired Envision Horizons was to help us with advertising campaign management because our internal team was well-versed in the sales and operations area. Amazon advertising was a whole different world for us and we needed help on that part. We also weren’t getting the sales we wanted to achieve with our previous service provider. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team serves as a full-service Amazon firm. They provide support in tracking issues with our shipments. It’s in the nature of Amazon that there’s always going to be a discrepancy when you ship over 1,000 units and sometimes, it takes two months for Amazon’s warehouse to identify the correct number of products that we’ve shipped. As a result, Envision ensures that all issues are communicated to all parties involved. 

When we started our partnership, we found out they can also provide operational support. As a result, Envision Horizons assists in improving our advertising efficiency as well as uploading our products and catalog listing maintenance. As part of that, they edit the copies on our product detail pages and branded content to make it easier for customers to find our products organically without seeing them on a product ad. 

They are working on improving our overall sales and our general organic sales versus advertising sales. They also help us with SEO and PPC efforts. 

What is the team composition?

We work with Katherine (Senior Account Manager).

How did you come to work with Envision Horizons?

My manager who’s the VP of partnerships made contact with Laura (Founder & CEO) before I started. They met through a networking opportunity and kept in touch a few months before we started working with the team. Then, when I began working for Thinx Inc, we set up an in-person meeting with Envision. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $130,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in March 2020, and we continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

When we started working with Envision in March 2020, we had under 22% organic sales, and by April, we’ve improved and achieved 36% organic sales. That has been possible because of the team’s expertise in enhancing our advertising efficiency and bidding on better keywords. They’ve also improved how our catalog is presented on Amazon. 

Moreover, they’ve successfully helped us improve our business year-over-year (YoY), and from 2019–2020, we’ve gained 428% business growth. We’ve hit a huge growth, and we’re anticipating even more growth in 2021.

Our product is pretty well known on social media, so people are already looking for it, but Envision has helped us get to where we want to be.  Overall, we love working with Envision Horizons, and they’ve been great partners to us. 

How did Envision Horizons perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly calls with the team where we review the business and other specific projects we’re working on to improve sales. Envision usually gives us a rundown of any changes they’re making to our ad campaigns.

We also have a Slack channel set up with them, which I’ve never used before. That has been a big learning curve for me, but it’s now my favorite way to work, and I can’t imagine working without Slack. The team is also great at communicating and sticking to project deadlines as well as identifying issues that come up. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re organized with their methods of communication and sharing documents. It has been a tough transition for us when the pandemic happened, but we’ve been able to improve our communications despite the circumstances.

Above all, our internal team has probably increased our remote communication skills by over 400% last year — and that has been possible because of Envision.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Establish an SOP for maintaining the catalog or any processes that are going to be assigned to Envision. They’re very amendable to fitting their work process into how your team works. However, you need to do it as quickly as possible. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing at Klerely 360. We’re a B2C peptides supplements distributor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Envision Horizons?

We wanted to build marketing programs and keyword campaigns to drive sales through Amazon.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They got us up and running on Amazon Marketplace. Envision Horizons has done numerous iterations and tweaks along the way to produce the most effective results within our low budget.

How did you come to work with Envision Horizons?

We were introduced to them through the agency we engaged to develop our brand and products. Our team considered a few other agencies, but Envision Horizons was the most reasonably priced as a startup. We felt we’d get far better service and one-on-one attention. Since we were new to the Amazon world, we wanted to make sure that someone would be accessible for any questions or concerns we’d have.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $30,000–$50,000; some of that included the fees of advertising on Amazon.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Envision Horizons did everything they could. Unfortunately, the space we entered is extremely crowded and demanding. Most of our competitors have very deep pockets. Our space requires a significant investment that we’ve had to reevaluate and ultimately can’t support. Sales haven’t been there for us as quickly as we’ve needed them. This is no fault of Envision Horizons.

They’re extremely knowledgeable of all things Amazon. If they don’t know an answer, they seek it out. Their team is communicative and responsive. They handle our change and update requests within 24 hours. Envision Horizons has made themselves very accessible throughout the entire process. They’re a wonderful organization, and I’d recommend them to anyone looking for these services.

How did Envision Horizons perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done everything they said they would in the time they outlined. The original plan was one month and their team got ready to launch within two weeks. That was extremely helpful and they beat a very big deadline right out of the chute. Their team has always been great about timing and detail.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of Amazon and the inner workings of how to manipulate and maneuver with marketing programs in efforts to drive awareness and sales. They’re certainly experts in that area.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask as many questions as you could possibly think of. You don’t know what you don’t know. Do everything in your power to gain the knowledge they have; tap into it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a business analyst for a direct-to-consumer umbrella brand. Our CEO is a national TV meteorologist, and he's always wanted to perfect the umbrella and make something that's actually a useful product. We're a small six-person company, and I function across everything in marketing and operations. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Envision Horizons?

Our company has been selling our products directly to consumers on our website in the past couple of years, and we’ve slowly started to expand to other sales channels. We had our Amazon account originally set up by consultants, and we were doing OK.

However, I wouldn't say we were doing very well. We wanted to make sure we got every possible dollar revenue on that channel, so we enlisted Envision to help us grow our Amazon sales channel. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Envision has full control over our Amazon account. They’re in charge of our digital marketing efforts, storefronts, inventory optimization, and pretty much everything else on our Amazon sales channel.

We handed off our control to them for their expertise and knowledge of the platform to scale our business on that channel. They give us recommendations in terms of how we should set up product pages and allocate inventory based on their projections on ad spend.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is the account manager, and she's the one talking with us on a daily or weekly basis. We're also in contact with others in the Envision team if there's something specific functionality-wise that we need to look at, while the business development person checks in on us every now and then. They also have graphic designers and developers.

How did you come to work with Envision Horizons?

We had Envision alongside two other agencies walk us through their value proposition, what they could do for our brand, and what they saw for our Amazon channel. Through several calls and meetings, and after speaking to some other brands that have used them, we decided to go with Envision.

We felt comfortable with what they brought to us and their projections. From there, they immediately assigned us an account manager and jumped into our account.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $25,000 so far. Our agreement has been to pay them a flat fee and a performance-based fee on different tiers. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2020, and the partnership’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

From a holistic standpoint, Envision’s impact on our business has been huge. We’ve seen significant growth in our Amazon channel, and we've had a strong time scaling it. Making up more than 10% of our total sales this past holiday season, Amazon is now our second largest sales channel next to our website. 

Envision has optimized our storefront, keywords, and product pages, and we've seen tremendous growth. We're extremely hopeful about the future. Going into this year, there's a ton of potential for the channel to continue to grow. We've seen an extremely high ROI for what they've done with us, so we're happy.

How did Envision Horizons perform from a project management standpoint?

Envision has been on top of everything. We have a Slack workspace that we use primarily for our communication. We’re messaging and emailing them on a daily basis, and we have weekly or bi-weekly calls depending on the time of year and how much is going on. It’s been a good experience. 

Our teams stay aligned on different promotions and things we’re running. We've always been able to reach them easily, resolve anything in a timely manner, and get pretty immediate results. If any issues come up, they're on top of them 24/7.

They've also hit the targets they've set. For instance, we bumped up our ad spend for the month of December, and everything went according to plan. They allocated the spending perfectly throughout the month, weighted towards the pre-holiday period, where the majority of the spending was going to be. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ad spends optimization has been the most impressive thing about them. They've been a huge boost in our life. Beyond that, their expertise about the platform and knowledge of how the algorithm works are also impressive.

If we're doing something on our website, we have to mirror that on Amazon, and vice versa. They help us keep our whole operation across our channels in sync, so everything's working efficiently, and we're getting the best return possible. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there are no glaring holes so far. They’re fairly expensive versus their competitors, but their service is top-notch. Our business is very seasonal, so it's hard to mention any areas of improvement at this point. We haven't spent all that much time with them.

The next couple of months —  where things start to slow down and we’ll have to readjust and optimize —  will show us areas of improvement, if any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If a business is looking into Amazon, they can't go wrong with Envision. Take advantage of all their services and ask questions. Dig into their forecasts and see how they align with your internal analysis. Try to meet halfway, so that everything is in sync and works the best it can.