Developing a New Business Strategy That Wins
Last Updated: By TRUiC Team
The internet age has brought entrepreneurs an endless sea of opportunities, often making it difficult to stand out and develop a unique business model that catches their industry by storm.
Thrasio is one of those visionary companies that was able to branch off of traditional ecommerce and develop a brand-new business model that has yielded incredible results over the years.
What began as a simple vision by its founders ended up turning into a company that has done over $1 billion in sales and helped hundreds of ecommerce businesses grow exponentially.
In this strategy story, we’re going to be looking at how Thrasio was founded, its new business model, and the results its founders were able to achieve.
How It All Began
Thrasio was founded by Carlos Cashman and Joshua Silberstein in 2018 with the vision of rethinking how goods are brought out into the marketplace.
Carlos graduated from MIT and founded a company that went public on the NASDAQ at the turn of the millennium. He brought his extensive knowledge, business know-how, and executive experience to Thrasio to help engineer rapid growth.
Joshua worked as a management consultant and was an executive in multiple companies throughout the last decade. He brought his expertise to the table in order to complement Carlos’ startup experience.
Together, the duo came up with the idea for Thrasio and officially went into business in 2018.
Since then, the entire Thrasio team has worked on analyzing and scaling over 200 brands and more than 22,000 products. They are currently the largest acquirer of Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) brands.
The Thrasio Model
While the Thrasio model may be a simple one, it has managed to branch off from traditional ecommerce and develop an innovative way of bringing quality products to the consumer marketplace.
Instead of building an ecommerce brand from scratch, which is the traditional way of doing things, Thrasio acquires ecommerce brands and then uses its team of experts to scale that brand exponentially.
Thrasio’s model for growing businesses works in five simple steps:
1. Evaluate the Business and Dive Deep Into the Brand’s Potential
Thrasio looks at all of the opportunities an ecommerce/FBA business has, what can be improved, how their products can reach more customers and any quick wins that can increase revenue and drive profits in record time. The Thrasio team dives into all of the smallest details within the business they’re analyzing and does their best to make sure no stone is left unturned.
2. Develop a Plan Using a 500+ Checkpoint Process
After analyzing thousands of businesses, Thrasio has developed a checkpoint process with over 500 data points that are used to analyze an existing business. This checkpoint is followed step-by-step, guaranteeing that the brand Thrasio has acquired or is working with has been positioned for growth from the beginning.
3. Put the Plan Into Action
After a detailed plan has been put in place, the Thrasio team begins executing that plan and putting it into action. Sometimes quick revenue wins can come from renegotiating a supplier contract, while at other times, it’s as simple as improving the product photography on a business’s website to make the products more attractive to prospective customers.
4. Optimize the Brand for Online Sales
Amazon is an enormous marketplace for ecommerce sellers, particularly with the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program. In Amazon FBA, sellers ship their inventory directly to Amazon warehouses, allowing them to sell their products as “Prime” with fast shipping and fulfillment.
Thrasio is a top-five Amazon seller and knows exactly what’s required to optimize Amazon listings for increased sales.
5. Build an Industry-Leading, Direct-to-Consumer Brand
Most of the businesses Thrasio invents have their beginning on Amazon, but after a certain growth threshold has been reached, it often signals the need for moving towards being a direct-to-consumer brand exclusively.
There are so many more sales channels to use in addition to Amazon, such as retail store sales, global market sales, and direct-to-consumer. Once a business is big enough from Amazon alone, Thrasio repositions that business to account for rapidly changing markets.
Feeling inspired? Learn how to launch your company with our guide on How to Start a Startup.
The Result
Thrasio has achieved tremendous results with the brands it has acquired under its umbrella, recently achieving over $1 billion in total revenue and more than 200 brands under its management.
Based on Thrasio estimates, approximately one in every six United States households have purchased a Thrasio-owned product through Amazon, showing the incredible reach the company has within the online marketplace.
As Thrasio continues to grow, they’re beginning to move beyond the “acquirer” model and start shifting its vision into a global consumer goods company that is able to scale worldwide. They’ve also acquired IdeaStream, which is a company based in Cleveland that primarily sells products in brick and mortar retail stores. This gives Thrasio the ability to rapidly scale its products at a variety of retail locations and expand its reach faster than ever.
According to Thrasio’s CEO Carlos Cashman, “Our mission is to reimagine how the world’s most loved products become accessible to everyone. That doesn’t just mean finding and acquiring great brands. It also means meeting our customers where and how they shop.”
This quote from Carlos sheds light on their new vision and decision to move into brick-and-mortar stores with their best products.
Thrasio is a pioneer when it comes to engineering a business model that’s built on growing and scaling businesses instead of building them from the ground up.
Since this business model has now been proven, there are new startups such as Mensa Brands (who recently raised $50 million from Accel and Falcon) moving into the space.
Mensa Brands also wishes to partner with digital brands and use their knowledge and skills to scale them exponentially.
What started as a simple idea has grown into a billion-dollar vision. Startups like Thrasio have shown the world that even if an industry seems saturated and wrought with competition, there are still ways to make your company stand out and disrupt your industry from within.
Next steps: Learn more business strategies or get inspired with our list of the top startups to watch!
