Homegrown success, global reach

It’s said that you can sell anything online, no matter how niche the product is – and it doesn’t get more niche than dried black soldier fly larvae. 

Mr Nikola Rudic, founder of Supreme Grubs, is seeing booming sales for its fly larvae via Amazon Global Selling.

Mr Rudic has always been interested in creating a sustainable food supply chain. He was inspired to explore insects as a food resource by his father-in-law, Mr Jason Ang, a local pioneer in black soldier fly farming and organic waste management. In the farming process, black soldier fly larvae eat discarded food that would otherwise end up in a landfill, and in turn become a protein-rich feed for chickens, ducks and other birds. 

While Mr Ang’s focuses on the business-to-business market, Mr Rudic decided to create a sales channel that would reach individual customers directly. He started selling on Amazon.com before bringing the grubs – which are mostly farmed in China – home to the Singapore market. “Supreme Grubs aims to replace sources of feed for pets or chickens that are not sustainable while reducing food wastage, as black soldier flies help to decompose food waste.” 

Based on his research, Mr Rudic knew that he had to focus on the United States as a market for Supreme Grubs, as other countries had onerous approval requirements for the importation of black soldier fly larvae. To reach out to customers in the US, he relied on Sponsored Products ads on Amazon. “That was very helpful. During the previous Amazon Prime Day event, I received seven to eight times more orders than usual,” he shared.

According to Mr Anand Palit, head of Amazon Global Selling (South East Asia), Amazon is committed to help grow the global ambitions of homegrown brand owners. “With around 300 million customers and over 400 Fulfilment Centres and 20 Global Stores from US, Europe to Australia, Singapore businesses can focus on brand building while spending less time on acquiring customers, and leave operational hassles, fulfilment, returns and customer servicing to Amazon,” he said. 

The story of Mr Rudic’s e-commerce success may be unique, but by no means is Supreme Grubs the only success story of a Singapore seller on the platform.

SEAMLESS, SCALABLE SATISFACTION

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Ms Crystal Ren saw how stress, uncertainty and loneliness spread across the world, along with a rise in domestic abuse cases as victims were unable to escape their abusers. 

She was inspired to create Abound Lifestyle, a “by women, for women” decor brand that radiates a warm, playful liveliness with its home goods such as chunky blankets and bathmats with witty sayings. As part of her brand’s ethos, part of its proceeds goes to anti-domestic violence charities in the US. 

“The US market is a great place to test your product fast, given the competitiveness and vastness of the consumer base,” she explained. “We’ve since expanded to the European Amazon Store and we’ve also managed to get a German trademark.”

Ms Ren was not daunted by the challenge of selling to an international audience, though she acknowledged that it was difficult to ascertain customers’ expectations from afar. She created social media channels that allow her to connect directly with customers and build brand awareness. “The secret really lies in continuous testing and getting consumer and market feedback. If you want to market your products and services, creating value-added content and broadcasting it through relevant channels is also important.”  

From having only S$500 in her bank account at one point, Ms Ren has successfully grown Abound Lifestyle into a popular brand on Amazon, hitting seven figures in revenue after her first year in business. She credits Fulfilment by Amazon for allowing her to focus on developing her business, instead of worrying about shipping out orders on her own. 

Once products arrive at Amazon’s Fulfilment Centres overseas, they are picked, packed and shipped to customers by Amazon’s team, which also handles returns and customer servicing on behalf of the seller. This allows brands to scale up easily to fulfil orders from international customers, while based in Singapore. Products also become Prime-eligible, and Amazon promises two-day delivery to all 50 states in the US for Prime members.

SUPPORT FOR SELLING WITHOUT BARRIERS

For Mr Thorben Linneberg and Ms Nadine Linneberg, a desire to grow their own tomatoes in their Singapore apartment sparked an interest in growing food sustainably. They devised a vertical hydroponic system that could automatically water and fertilise the plants, which then became the sleek, modular gardening system that their company, Aerospring Gardens, is known for today. The hydroponic system now supports different types of crops, including strawberries, corn, cauliflower and cotton.

“To be honest, we had no idea that this business would be profitable. It just seemed a good idea at the time,” said Mr Linneberg, who is both founder and CEO. Having seen an enthusiastic response to their gardening system on their Kickstarter fund-raising campaign, Mr Linneberg employed Amazon advertising tools like Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, to create brand awareness in the US. Garnering positive reviews and positive word-of-mouth really helped to spread the word amongst gardening enthusiasts. 

“Amazon allows us to target competitive products that the consumer may be considering, while also targeting relevant keywords,” he said. “Our activity in the EU is still somewhat small, but we are leveraging Amazon Advertising as well as Google Search to raise brand awareness and consideration in the EU market.” 

Mr Mark Newton, Aerospring Gardens’ chief operating officer, said that Amazon empowers the company to reach global consumers: “Amazon continues to be our best sales channel globally, accounting for approximately 65 per cent of our global sales as of 2022.” 

One of the effects of COVID-19 was the heightened awareness of food sustainability and access to fresh produce. “In Singapore, we had empty shelves in supermarkets, and that triggered people into thinking more about growing their own food. It really turned our business around; we more than broke even”, commented Mr Linneberg. He has been surprised at the produce that can grow in his hydroponic systems, including strawberries, cotton, corn, cauliflower, broccoli, and root vegetables.

Amazon’s support goes beyond ensuring sellers can carry out cross-border e-commerce activities. It also assists sellers in growing their brands by expanding abroad: Selling partners in Singapore who are eager to pursue international expansion can tap on both Enterprise Singapore’s Market Readiness Assistance grant and Amazon’s New Seller Incentive package of up to S$50,000 in potential benefits for new sellers on Amazon.com and Amazon’s Europe stores. Resources for new sellers such as webinars and Amazon Seller University are also provided for entrepreneurs.

According to Mr Palit, an e-commerce background is not necessary to be successful on Amazon. “Our selling partners are from all backgrounds,” he said. “They include solopreneurs, traditional homegrown brand owners, ex-lawyers, tech executives, bankers and stay-at-home mothers.” 

“Some key ingredients of success that we see are passion, a keen understanding of customer needs and an entrepreneurial spirit. Successful sellers all have an ingenious spark, and they researched opportunities and took action to build their dreams. We are proud that Amazon is a part of their brand growth story, too.” 

Here’s how you can build a global brand with Amazon Global Selling. Amazon Seller University provides free resources for new sellers to understand cross-border e-commerce.