When Allen Ma’s daughter-in-law Doreen proposed selling their Canadian-made bedding directly to consumers in the Amazon store in late summer 2022, the founder of Maholi was skeptical. For nearly three decades, Allen, who moved to Canada from China with his family in 1989, ran his Toronto-based company as a thriving business-to-business (B2B) manufacturer, producing premium duvets and pillows for other brands. Why change what was working?
But Doreen had seen something Allen hadn’t. After posting a blog on the company’s website about the difference between natural-filled duvets and polyester alternatives, she woke up to over 100 messages from consumers asking where they could buy Maholi’s products.
“That was when I went to my in-laws and suggested this was the time to start moving into the digital space,” Doreen recalled. “Maybe now is the best time for us to build up the brand on Amazon instead of focusing on B2B.”
Maholi, which uses high-quality, locally sourced materials for its bedding, already had products in the Amazon store since 2018, but the listings sat outdated and unmanaged while the company focused on its wholesale partnerships. With Allen’s cautious approval, Doreen restarted the account at the end of 2022. She began using Amazon’s A+ Content tool to edit product listings one by one, uploading new images, and building their brand store with enhanced content that told the story behind their products.
Allen remained unconvinced. Before Amazon, a major wholesale partner would sell over 500 pieces per day during winter. He didn’t believe selling directly to consumers could match those numbers. So Doreen started small, sending just 20 feather duvets to Amazon’s fulfillment centers. They sold out in two days.
She kept sending more inventory. In their first winter selling actively in the Amazon store, Maholi moved over 2,000 duvets in just two months. That’s when Allen gave her the green light to “go for it.”
“I was totally blown away by the power of Amazon, to be honest,” Doreen said.
The transformation was swift and dramatic. By 2023, Maholi’s Amazon sales in Canada grew over 100%. In their second full year selling with Amazon Canada, the company easily surpassed $1 million in Amazon sales, with 15% year-over-year growth continuing into 2024. The business went from 100% B2B sales to now deriving 20-25% of its total daily sales volume from Amazon.
The company, which has four brands of bedding, then expanded its sales to Amazon in the U.S. in 2024 and is already seeing over 200% growth. For a manufacturer that started in a 2,000-square-foot basement in downtown Toronto in 1994 and now operates from a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, selling directly to consumers has opened new opportunities.
“E-commerce is the next level and will exceed our B2B business,” said Allen. “The future will be interesting, and we hope we can expand our business globally to Australia and Europe.”
The shift to direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales brought unexpected benefits beyond revenue. For the first time, Maholi could hear directly from customers, or as they call them, “sleepers.” Through Amazon’s Vine Program, which facilitates product reviews for new or not well-known brands, the company could hear feedback from sleepers, plus build trust as a new B2C brand. The reviews have also been instrumental in testing new product ideas.
“Product development is the most important thing in the whole production process,” Doreen explained. “With Amazon’s help, we are able to test the feedback of the sleepers firsthand.”
For example, customer reviews revealed that sleepers prioritize bedding products that are fluffy, warm, and don’t leak feathers. With this knowledge, they developed a specially treated pure cotton shell that solved a longstanding industry problem. Traditional bedding uses lower thread count cotton to prevent feather leaking, but that makes fabric rough. Maholi’s innovation delivered both softness and leak-proof bedding. They used Amazon’s A+ Content tool to communicate this breakthrough in side-by-side comparison images in their Brand Store, resulting in a jump in conversion rates from 2.4% to 4.8%.
Maholi is also tapping into other data through their Amazon Seller Central dashboard. Max Ma, Allen’s son and Maholi’s “data guy,” manages the company’s advertising and pricing strategy using the Brand Analytics tool, which provides sellers detailed performance data on each of their products, as well as customer insights and product trends. He can identify underperforming Maholi products, prompting a ramp-up of better coupons and deals to boost visibility and sales.
“Amazon just gives us a foot in the door directly to consumers,” Max explained. “I take the Brand Analytics really seriously, along with A+ Content and the Brand Store. You can really truly tell a good story about your brand to sleepers around the world.”
As Maholi looks ahead, the Toronto-based manufacturer remains committed to its Canadian roots while pursuing ambitious global expansion. With plans to enter the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia, the family envisions their Canadian-made bedding reaching sleepers worldwide.