Read more about how Amazon is upending business, from A to Z
Catherine Seifert just wanted to solve the problem of where to put her purse in her car. Before she knew it, she had a patented device and a multimillion-dollar business selling her mesh slings (designed to bridge the vertical space between seat backs) on Amazon. Seifert’s brand, Car Caché, isn’t a household name, but its signature product features professional photos, Amazon’s “#1 Best Seller” sticker, a reasonable price tag ($19.99), and 7,000 ratings—exactly the formula that persuades shoppers on the site to click “Buy now.”
Other shoppers began spotting the Car Caché product listing late last year and wanted to “buy now,” too—the whole business, that is, and its $18,000 per day in sales.
Thrasio, a 3-year-old company that has raised $1.7 billion in debt and equity to buy brands sold exclusively on Amazon, was the first to reach out. (Update: The company raised another $1 billion in October.) In its cold email to Seifert, a former business development executive who had been selling on Amazon since 2014, Thrasio congratulated her on her success (“bravo!”) and wrote that her business “has the key ingredients of what we look for: great product and happy customers.”
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