Skinnies Instant Lifts tapped Amazon’s Prime-enabled fulfillment to scale its direct-to-consumer business

The challenge

Scaling channels without scaling headcount

For Skinnies Instant Lifts, a skincare brand selling body-lifting tape for women, expanding beyond Amazon into direct-to-consumer (DTC) selling meant finding a fulfillment solution that could keep pace without adding operational complexity.

Skinnies is part of a five-brand portfolio. While other names in the portfolio sell exclusively on Amazon, Skinnies became the company’s first to invest in its own ecommerce presence, driven by growing consumer demand.

“It is really our main focus,” explains Gabriella Luksander, GM at Skinnies. “We acquired this brand over a year ago, and they are really focusing on non-Amazon channels as well.”

But with multiple brands to manage, the team couldn’t afford to hire additional staff to handle fulfillment logistics for a growing DTC channel. They needed a path forward that was:

• Automated and hands-off: Skinnies was just one of many brands in the portfolio, leaving the team unable to dedicate headcount to take on multichannel fulfillment manually.
• Fast and reliable: Customers expect a trustworthy delivery experience. That means showing up fast and on time.
• Able to handle seasonal demand: As a body tape product, Skinnies sees significant spikes in the summer season, a time when customers are showing more skin.

The solution

Extending Prime delivery benefits to the DTC experience

Skinnies enlisted Amazon’s Multichannel Fulfillment (MCF) service to handle all orders from its ecommerce website. MCF manages the picking, packing, and shipping of orders for businesses selling on channels outside of the Amazon store.

With MCF comes the opportunity to tap into Prime-enabled fulfillment, something Skinnies took full advantage of to offer fast, free delivery for Prime members directly on its ecommerce site while keeping its own checkout, payment methods, and customer experience. And for even more convenience to shoppers: there’s no need for shoppers to sign in to their Amazon account at checkout.

For Amazon sellers, MCF uses the same pool of inventory prepped for its Amazon business to fulfill orders across other channels as well. Because Skinnies was an existing seller with inventory already in Amazon fulfillment centers, turning on Prime delivery required no changes to its existing checkout or subscription setup.

“I don’t need to hire an extra person to deal with this. Everything is automated. We just save so much money and so much headache for the business,” Luksander says. “For me this is very important as we have a lot of other brands as well.”

Offering Prime delivery on their site also allows Skinnies to display delivery estimates to shoppers, signaling fast shipping and building trust with customers who may not be familiar with the brand.

The integration proved seamless and solid from the start. “It’s just so reliable. Very rarely do we have issues that we need to follow up on,” Luksander explains. “In the past few months, maybe two or three times I reached out, and that was earlier on when we were dialing in inventory levels.”

The results

New channels, same great customer—and operational—experience

The implementation of Prime delivery has driven results across multiple fronts for Skinnies:

Fulfillment speed and efficiency: Delivery lead times reduced significantly after enabling Prime delivery, with Skinnies reporting that orders now average 1.4 days from click to delivery.

Shopper trust and conversion: Offering fast, free delivery for Prime members has been particularly impactful for Skinnies as a growing brand still gaining its widespread name recognition. For shoppers, seeing Prime delivery on their site helps bolster credibility and purchase confidence. The team observed a 9.8% sales uplift during the four-week period after enabling Prime Delivery on their site, when compared to the prior four-week period.

“The trust is just very important, especially with a product that you put on your skin,” Luksander explains. “We’re not a huge name yet, so as we grow our brand awareness, enabling Prime delivery on our website changes the level of trust shoppers have, particularly first-time buyers.”

Reduced customer inquiries: With faster, more reliable deliveries managed through Amazon’s fulfillment network, Skinnies has reported a near 100% decline in “Where is my order?” Inquiries, giving the team 2-3 hours back in their week. Luksander attributes this to the combination of speed and visibility that Prime delivery provides for shoppers.

Operational efficiency: Perhaps the most significant benefit for the team that manages Skinnies’ parent portfolio has been the ability to scale fulfillment without scaling headcount. The fully automated nature of MCF means the team can focus on growth across their entire brand portfolio rather than managing logistics.

Looking ahead

Skinnies’ success with Prime-enabled fulfillment is now serving as the blueprint for the rest of the portfolio. The team is exploring expanding other brands, currently Amazon-only, into DTC channels fulfilled through MCF.
“We are just trying to learn as much as possible through the Skinnies brand,” Luksander says. “Our other brands have the potential to grow on other channels as well.”