Large paper manufacturer straightens up their shipping, pricing, and 3P listings

Marcal needed some housekeeping. Operations were becoming increasingly difficult as misconceptions and inefficiencies went unaddressed. They knew that changes needed to be made but were unsure where to begin. For starters, a short shipping window and confusion over palleting resulted in Marcal frequently shorting product. If that wasn’t enough, 3P sellers of their products were creating multiple ASINs for single items, resulting in jumbled listings. All the while, Amazon was retailing their products at 20% over MSRP, so promotional pricing was ineffective. Marcal was facing a mess of issues and lacked the direction and know-how to clean it up.

Orca Pacific got into the weeds of operational strategy with Marcal. Within a few months, the paper manufacturer achieved a longer shipping window, control over their brand and listings, and a more reasonable margin.

Shipping in Full

The logistics of shipping can be stressful. To ease the load for Marcal, we worked to both 1) extend their shipping window and 2) clarify palleting guidelines, eventually allowing them to pursue easy-to-manage partnerships with Fed-Ex and UPS.

3P Listings

Purchasing a product shouldn’t be confusing. And yet, Marcal’s customers were forced to sort through a mess of listings attributed to single products. We acted quickly to 1) merge identical listings and 2) establish a brand registry, allowing us to keep a close eye on their product listings.

Retail Pricing

Competitive pricing drives sales. So it was a huge red flag that Amazon’s retail was listed at 20% more than the suggested MSRP despite receiving the lowest cost from Marcal out of any of their customers. We leaned on our relationship with Amazon to 1) correct retail pricing and 2) ensure that promotions were competitive.