The Northampton couple behind a natural skincare brand are celebrating a bumper sales period after taking part in Amazon’s two biggest days ever for SMEs.
Holly-Anna Coulton, with the help of her partner Andy, run The Ilex Wood, a company that creates natural beauty and skin care products for all genders in a collection of herbal salves, balms and creams.
The Northampton company took part in Amazon Prime Day 2020, which this year focused on supporting small businesses in the UK. Prime members who spent £10 with select small businesses selling in Amazon’s store earned £10 to spend on Prime Day on 13th and 14th October.
Third party sellers like The Ilex Wood surpassed $3.5 billion in sales on Prime Day globally, with UK SMEs selling 75% more products than they did in Prime Day 2019.
Prime Day 2020 delivered the two biggest days ever for third-party sellers like The Ilex Wood, globally and in the UK, nearly all of which are small and medium-sized businesses. Sellers saw record-breaking sales, surpassing $3.5 billion in total across 19 countries. In addition, Prime members around the world saved over $1.4 billion during the epic deals event, securing deep discounts and getting a jump start on their Christmas shopping.
The Ilex Wood, which has been running since June 2018, was born from Holly’s lifelong love of nature. Like many people, Holly found herself purchasing beauty products with a long list of ingredients and additives and she grew tired of using obscure chemicals on her skin.
Not satisfied with the natural products already on offer, she created The Ilex Wood to help people take care of their skin in a natural way.
Demand for the company’s products soon soared and Holly decided to make her natural cosmetics available to customers locally and internationally by listing them on Amazon. Andy started using Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), where Amazon helps the business by stocking, picking, packing and shipping The Ilex Wood products to customers around the world.
FBA is a solution that enables SMEs reach more customers with benefits like fast Prime delivery and easier selling across Europe. SMEs send their products to Amazon, and the company takes care of storage, delivery to customers, customer service and returns handling.
Selling on Amazon has helped The Ilex Wood to reach customers in new markets, spurring the natural cosmetics company to increase its revenue and profits.
To see how products like theirs are fulfilled, Holly and Andy made a special visit to Amazon’s Rugeley fulfilment centre for a private tour during Amazon Prime Day. During the visit, the couple met some of the team responsible for helping small businesses like theirs to grow in the UK and across the globe.
“It’s been great to meet the team who help companies like ours grow,” said Holly. “We love making the natural creams, salves and balms and by selling our products on Amazon and using programmes like Fulfilment by Amazon, we’re afforded more time to do what we love – developing high quality natural skin care products for our customers here in the UK and around the world.”
Andy added: “Selling The Ilex Wood products online is a no-brainer. It helps us reach more customers in multiple markets and it’s something we’d encourage SMEs of all shapes and sizes to embrace as it really does help fuel growth.”
“Small and medium-sized businesses like The Ilex Wood selling on Amazon had the biggest two days ever this Prime Day,” said Doug Gurr, Amazon UK Country Manager. “Compared to last year, these businesses saw an increase of more than 75% in product sales in the UK alone. It’s great to see so many small and medium businesses in the UK embracing online sales for the first time. We are committed to helping our customers save and supporting selling partners with further promotional programmes throughout the season ahead.”
“We are thrilled that Prime Day was a record-breaking event for small and medium businesses worldwide, with sales surpassing $3.5 billion—an increase of nearly 60% from last year,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer. “We’re also proud that Prime members saved more than $1.4 billion worldwide, and we look forward to providing more opportunities for our selling partners to grow and customers to save throughout the festive season. I’m incredibly thankful to our employees and partners around the world who helped make Prime Day possible, especially the dedicated front-line teams in our fulfilment centres and delivery operations.”
Holly and Andy’s visit to Amazon came during the annual Prime Day sales event, which this year supported small businesses. This has been a challenging year for many small businesses but selling in Amazon’s stores has enabled hundreds of thousands of smaller companies around the world to sustain and even grow their businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amazon is increasing its commitment to small business by designing Prime Day to support them with its biggest small business promotion yet. This Prime Day, and throughout the festive season, Amazon will spend more than £75 million on promotional activities to help small businesses around the world increase their sales and reach new customers.