Case Study

Ricola Expands to Amazon and Grows Sales 57%

Ricola has been a household name since 1930. Its cough drops and breath mints have been on store shelves for nearly 100 years, and when you hear their name, you probably immediately remember the “Riiiicolaaaaa” jingle that played on living room TVs throughout the ’90s.

photo of Ricola brand herbs

The Goal

Despite being known around the globe, Ricola operated as a family business with a heavy focus on a brick-and-mortar retail model. The company was looking to expand to ecommerce and came to WBX Commerce for our team’s expertise in growing Amazon businesses and gaining control of brands in the modern marketplace.

The WBX Commerce team of Amazon advertising experts used WBX Insights for data to identify key opportunities for growth in Ricola’s newest sales channel.

The Solution

Ricola is an established CPG brand that previously had limited ecommerce experience and needed a plan to reach consumers who don’t exclusively purchase goods in physical stores. Ricola brought the household name. WBX Commerce brought the direct-to-consumer Amazon advertising expertise.

 

To get started, WBX Commerce executed a channel cleanup to gain control of resellers, protect the integrity of the Ricola brand and increase revenue. The team optimized Ricola’s Amazon listings, established brand ownership to create new A+ and Storefront content, merged duplicate ASINs and narrowed the catalog to include the most profitable SKUs.

 

Using WBX Commerce’s proprietary WBX Insights technology, the team accessed trending reports to identify which products were losing the Buy Box to resellers. From there, WBX Commerce compared Ricola’s trending keywords with competitors’ keywords to identify “the top strategic terms that would increase new user acquisition” that increased Ricola’s search ranking. WBX Commerce strategically and aggressively bid on these high-performing keywords to improve Ricola’s visibility. Once listings were optimized, the focus shifted to paid ads.

Using halo data, WBX Commerce was able to view what users purchased after clicking an ad, even if it was not the particular flavor advertised.

With this data, WBX Commerce redirected Ricola’s advertising budget to the products that have the greatest halo effect. Finally, using market basket data to see what customers purchased together, WBX Commerce was able to combat single-pack options sold at lower price points by offering multi-packs that created higher value for customers.

WBX Commerce’s ability to view top-performing keywords, products and pack sizes provided the data needed to offer insights and analysis on building multi-packs and implementing pricing automation to outpace competitors and win the Buy Box. WBX Commerce efficiently tested virtual product bundles before going live with multi-packs, which reduced costs and provided valuable data.

Additionally, WBX Commerce used WBX Insights to monitor various aspects of Ricola’s business (like pricing and assortments) and implement an effective advertising strategy to increase sales.

“Ricola has found WBX Insights to be a really intuitive, engaging and user-friendly product. What sets WBX Commerce apart is its ability to build meaningful insights from the platform and create value for our business. This unique partnership model gives us the competitive advantage to activate and win on Amazon and shape our strategic thinking on our overall e-commerce business.”

– Barshan Quadry, eCommerce Sales Strategy Manager, North America, Ricola

The Results

  • WBX Commerce’s team of Amazon ads management professionals was able to launch Ricola’s Amazon business, opening up an entirely new revenue stream for the brand
  • WBX Insights technology provided data on high-performing keywords, which informed the bidding process to ensure Ricola wins the Buy Box
  • Tested virtual product bundles before going live with multi-packs to reduce costs and identify valuable buying trends
  • Used market basket data to create multi-packs that provide more value for the consumer and combat single-pack resellers using lower price points
  • Used halo data to create a more effective advertising strategy by redirecting ad budget to products with the greatest halo effect
  • Used trending reports to identify which products were losing the Buy Box and implemented automated pricing to beat competitors
  • Transitioned them to their own Seller Central account which provided more control over their Amazon presence, plus access to benefits including Amazon Vine and A/B testing

In 2021, Ricola saw year-over-year sales increase of 57%

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