$14 998 sales on Amazon for 7 month. Case study of selling Men's Shoes

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Disclaimer: we don't specify exact ASINs in study cases, but we are referring to as similar ASINs as possible. Also, figures could slightly differ because of corrections.

Product:

Here we have a Men Oxford Shoes like this one. In this case are many SKUs for different models, colors, and sizes.

The product price was in the range $34,99 up to $89,99 depends on the model

Total Sales for Men's Shoes

Total sales:

We have $14 988,50 sales, 298 orders, and 307 units sold here.

The least sales were in the 1st month. The most of sales were in the 3d month, when sales were pushed by Amazon PPC. After 3d month, Amazon's PPC budget had been gradually decreasing, affecting sales.

So, the least sales are $697.41 per month and the most are $4,425.77 per month.

P&L for Men's Shoes

Refunds:

Here we have 27 refunds. Total refund costs is $1 378,92 and refund rate is 8,79%.

If we look at P&L details, we'll find that the higher refund rate was 21.05%. It's relating to 8 refunds of 38 units sold. It's not a usual situation, but rather an anomaly. At the same time, the lowest refund rate was 5.36%. It's relating to 6 refunds for 112 units sold, that looks pretty good for a such count of sold units.

Cost of Goods:

On 1688 you may find the same product for $6-40.

Wireless Charging Stand 3 in 1 pricing on 1688

Here, we have a cost of goods in range of $6-$10 per item in this case. It was depend from the shoes model, and month of delivery.

So, here we have total COGs of $2 517,41.

Advertising:

Here we have 63 units sold via advertising and 244 units sold organically. Total ad spend is $3 877,95, and real ACOS is 25,87%. You may read about what ACOS is here.

So, if we look at P&L details, we'll find that the first month was without advertising.

In the second month here was launched Amazon PPC to push sales. The start budget was $560.44 and the final real ACOS for the first month was 19.56%. That's actually a good one ACOS. The final margin was 29.59%.
Next month, the budget was increased more than 3 times, up to $1, 673.05. At the same time real ACOS was raised to 37.8%, and with other expenses margin had fallen to -16.61%.
For 3d month, the advertising budget decreased, and real ACOS kept falling up to 39.53%.
For the 4th month, the last month of advertising, the budget was $723.07 and real ACOS 29.40%.

So, it was clear that there's no way to scale sales to big figures. As soon as the Amazon PPC budget was increased, the ACOS was raised and the margin was falling.

Profit:

Unfortunately, this case is about the tiny profitable experience. It has generated a $1 133,82 net profit total for 7 months. Its margin is 7,56% only, and its ROI is 45.04% only.

So, if we look at P&L details, we'll find a few months generated losses and unprofitable margin and ROI. These are months with launched Amazon PPC campaigns.

At the same time, in months, when Amazon PPC was turned off, there was a high-profitable margin and ROI, but with a tiny of sales.

Conclusion:

In this case, sales were stopped when it became clear there was no way for scalability.

Here is a niche with opportunities to generate a good margin and ROI.
At the same time, it's a too competitive niche, and here's difficult to scale sales.

If you want to find the niche with the opportunity to generate a lot of sales, here we have another case with $14 901 sales on Amazon for 1 month.