When Craig Leslie talks to people about selling in Amazon’s store, he often explains the true impact of buying from independent sellers.
“Amazon is looked at as this huge behemoth company,” said Leslie, who runs The Bean Coffee Company in San Diego, California. “But what a lot of people don’t understand is you’re buying a product from me.”
“And it’s not just me. I have employees that work here and we’re supporting the community and supporting them,” he added.
The Bean Coffee Company, an organic coffee brand within San Diego Coffee, Tea & Spice Inc., a wholesale roaster founded in 1979, employs seven people in Oceanside, California, has more than 400 listings in the Amazon store, and expects just under $3 million in revenue this year. When Leslie began leading the online business, it was doing around $650,000. Last year it grew nearly 50 percent; this year it’s tracking 40 percent above that.
When he was hired to run the online coffee business in 2012, Leslie had never sold anything on the internet. He’d come up through the restaurant industry, opening locations, managing operations, and building relationships over handshakes. Without any online selling experience, Leslie had to learn quickly how to sell in the Amazon store.
“I knew nothing about it other than I had bought some products from Amazon,” Leslie said. “But I was willing to learn.”
Craig Leslie and his business partner acquired The Bean Coffee Company and grew revenue to $3 million and has over 330 products in Amazon’s store.
Big growth without big infrastructure
Steady growth in the Amazon store has let Leslie keep his team on year-round rather than staffing up seasonally or scrambling to cover spikes in demand. That stability shows up in how long people stay: the company’s head roaster has been there 33 years, and the office manager started at age 21 and has stayed for 32. It’s the kind of business where employees want to build a career.
Leslie has also tapped into Amazon’s seller tools to not only retain his workforce but to also solve challenges many small businesses face, such as keeping up with order fulfillment and warehousing.
“I don’t have a big facility. I can’t warehouse a ton of product. I can’t hire a massive staff,” Leslie said.
What he has is Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which warehouses his coffee across the country and handles picking, packing, shipping, customer service, and returns for every order.
“FBA allows you to grow your business without having to build out a huge infrastructure,” explained Leslie.
Otherwise, the business would need regional warehouses, shipping contracts, and a fulfillment crew. Instead, the team roasts and packages the product, sends pallets to Amazon warehouses, and the logistics are handled from there.
The Bean Coffee Company has a lean staff and taps into Amazon services to engage coffee lovers across the US.
Eliminating creative and data roadblocks
The advertising equation is similar. The seven-person team also works with freelancers and external agencies, while using Amazon’s ad tools and AI-powered Creative Studio to expand its capabilities.
“I don’t have the resources to go hire an advertising team,” he said. “Amazon took that roadblock out of the way.”
More recently, Amazon’s Seller Assistant, an AI tool that provides dashboards, inventory alerts, and recommendations, has become part of Leslie’s daily routine. During Prime Day events, he pulls real-time performance data. The tool flagged an opportunity to sell to business customers through Amazon’s B2B channel, which he’s now pursuing.
“I’m not scared of AI,” he said. “It’s helping me develop my business faster.”
Building recurring revenue
The Bean Coffee Company roasts certified organic coffee, as well as Swiss water-processed decaf coffee.
Then there’s customer retention. For many people, coffee is a daily habit, which makes it ideal for subscriptions. The Bean Coffee Company has about 3,000 active Subscribe & Save customers in the Amazon store. The program allows consumers to subscribe to automatic, recurring deliveries of products and receive up 15 percent in savings.
“It allows us to understand what demand is coming in,” he explained. “We can plan and purchase the right green beans, get the right beans roasted, packed, and sent to Amazon.”
A seven-person team in Oceanside, California, roasts organic coffee, ships it nationwide, and is on track for nearly $3 million in sales this year, all while supporting long-tenured employees and the local community. It’s exactly the kind of story Leslie wants people to hear.