Published by Amazon Shipping
Amazon Shipping published a customer story on this work, filed under KK Music, the company behind Mendini.
Read it on Amazon →shipping.amazon.com · opens in a new tab
All work
Mendini by Cecilio · musical instruments
Margin from 5% to 14%, on a catalog of roughly $27M.
Over 12 months · before Viva Macaw · while revenue grew 11% · returns down from 12% to 5%
Results at a glance
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Net margin, Amazon channel | 5% | 14% |
| Return rate | 12% | 5% |
| Revenue | ~$27M | ~$30M |
A $27M catalog keeping almost none of it
Mendini sells beginner and student instruments: violins, flutes, clarinets, trumpets. They’re bulky, fragile and expensive to ship, which makes them close to the worst possible fit for FBA’s fee structure.
They also came back. Returns ran at 12–13%, about double the ecommerce norm, and a returned instrument often can’t be resold as new.
Revenue was healthy. Margin was 5%.
What was done
01
Most fulfillment moved off FBA.
The bulk of orders moved to merchant fulfillment. FBA stayed on through peak season, because leaving it costs ranking, and peak is when ranking pays the most.
Result: fulfillment costs fell. In the first month on Amazon Shipping alone, the savings came to $8,000.
02
Spare parts shipped in place of returns.
A violin with a broken string doesn’t need to come back. Parts tracking and a replacement-order flow went in, and customer support could use them in minutes.
Result: returns fell from 12% to 5%.
03
Tracking was fixed.
Carrier tracking wasn’t updating after pickup, so customers kept writing in to ask where their order was. Moving to a carrier with reliable tracking and delivery emails stopped most of those contacts before they started.
Result: fewer “where is my order” contacts, and less load on customer support.
What it cost
Leaving FBA isn’t free. Merchant-fulfilled listings give up some of the ranking advantage FBA brings, which is why FBA stayed on for peak. That trade was accepted for most of the year, deliberately.
And margin improvements usually cost volume. This one didn’t: revenue grew 11% over the same period.
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