As Sarah Autry and Stephanie Peters’ kids played during one of their weekly playdates, Sarah was hurriedly packing orders for her keepsake journals and memory books. Her Etsy business was doing well, and she was struggling to keep up with demand.
For Sarah, it was a nice creative outlet. Stephanie saw something bigger.
“I’m watching her hand sort these items, and I’m like, ‘Why are you doing this? You should make a business out of this and manufacture this,’” Peters recalled. She knew if Sarah had some help, it could be successful.
With kids running underfoot and papers scattered everywhere, that moment became the spark that got Sarah and Stephanie planning what would become Duncan & Stone Paper Co. in 2019.
The two friends, who met in 2010 while working at a nonprofit serving young mothers in crisis, brought in their husbands, Garrett Peters (CEO) and Garland Autry (finance), to hash out a business plan. Garrett’s goal: sell 10,000 units in year one.
So in February 2020, Duncan & Stone launched on Etsy and in the Amazon store. “We knew that Amazon is where people go and shop,” said Peters, who leads operations. “We wanted to engage the customers where they were, and where they were was on Amazon.”
But getting in front of customers was only half of the battle. As a new small business, Duncan & Stone needed to establish credibility fast. That’s where Amazon’s IP Accelerator program became a game-changer.
IP Accelerator, a free Amazon service, connects sellers with vetted law firms to fast-track trademark and intellectual property protection. For Duncan & Stone, it bridged a critical gap while their trademark application was being processed, granting them early access to Amazon’s Brand Registry and the protections that come with it.
“The IP Accelerator just really supported our brand during that nine-month gap, so we could continue to show customers that we were a valid brand that they could trust,” Peters said.
That trust proved essential. Within the first year of business, copycats began appearing. Knockoff listings mimicked Duncan & Stone’s bestselling journals and threatened to undercut the momentum the founders had built.
“We were so excited to get our products out to the world. But we realized after about a year, every time we would launch a new product that became a bestseller, we’d start to see copycats popping up,” Autry explained. “For me as the creative director, it was personal. That was something I had jotted in my notebook and worked so hard on, and then someone just bought it and knocked it off.”
In the last year alone, over 10,000 attempted copycat listings were blocked or prevented. “Having that stamp of approval from Amazon told customers, ‘Hey, this is someone that is legitimate, you should buy from them,’” Autry said.
Today, they’re a category leader in the keepsake space with over $10 million in lifetime Amazon sales. Duncan & Stone has 50 to 60 products in the Amazon store, all created by Autry in Fayetteville, including keepsake journals and memory books designed for every life stage, from pregnancy prayer cards and baby books to anniversary journals, grief journals, and legacy books for grandparents.
To stand out in the competitive keepsake category, Duncan & Stone recently transitioned all product listings to Amazon Premium A+ Content, which features brand videos, interactive hotspots, and image carousels. “Switching to Premium A+ has been so helpful because our brand page is just so much more interactive,” Autry said.
Amazon now accounts for 50 percent of Duncan & Stone’s total revenue, with $2.8 million in Amazon sales over the past 12 months, a 15 percent year-over-year increase. The company sells approximately 100,000 units annually and has surpassed 500,000 lifetime sales in the Amazon store. And yes, they did meet Garrett’s goal to sell 10,000 units in their first year.
The company’s success has also fueled its mission to give back. Duncan & Stone supports the Children’s Safety Center of Washington County, a local nonprofit helping children from difficult home situations.
“Our brand is based off of the idea of the beauty that childhood is and how you’re going to capture those memories,” Autry said. “We know that for so many kids, that is not their story, and so we have been passionate about partnering with them so that they could also have a beautiful childhood that is worth remembering.”
For Peters, the journey from watching Autry hand sort Etsy orders during playdates to a multimillion-dollar brand still feels surreal. “Amazon’s been one of the key players to help us thrive,” she said. “This is the American dream, to dream up something and to watch it grow and be successful. I can’t believe that we get to sit here and say that we did that.”