Amazon Agency for Food and Drink Brands: What It Takes to Grow
An Amazon agency for food and drink brands manages the account, advertising and content with the category's particular economics in mind: low basket values, repeat purchase, shelf-life rules, restricted categories like alcohol, and intense competition around deal events. The best ones measure success on new customers and repeat purchase, not just return on ad spend, because in food and drink a first order is only worth something if the shopper comes back.
Toucan is an Amazon Ads Advanced Partner working with food and drink brands including Hendrick's Gin, Simply Roasted and Merisant UK. This guide covers what makes the category different on Amazon, what a specialist agency does about it, and the questions to ask before you hire one.
What makes food and drink different on Amazon
Food and drink shares the economics of all fast-moving consumer goods, which we cover in our Amazon FMCG agency guide. But it adds problems of its own.
Low basket values. A single bag of crisps or jar of coffee doesn't leave much margin for advertising. Multipacks, bundles and Subscribe & Save are often what make the numbers work, so range and pack architecture matter as much as media.
Shelf life and fulfilment. Amazon has rules for dated products sent to its fulfilment centres, including how much shelf life must remain when stock arrives, and Fulfilment by Amazon is built for ambient goods. A brand that gets this wrong ends up with stock rejected, destroyed or stranded, and listings that go out of stock just as advertising is driving traffic.
Restricted and gated categories. Alcohol needs Amazon's approval to sell, and higher-strength spirits can be reviewed as dangerous goods for fulfilment. Some food products need particular labelling or documents before they can be listed. These are solvable, but they're easy to get stuck on.
Repeat purchase is the prize. A shopper who subscribes to their coffee or sweetener is worth many times a one-off buyer. That changes what advertising should be doing: winning new customers who will come back, rather than buying sales from people who were going to buy anyway.
Taste is hard to sell online. Shoppers can't taste a product through a screen. Images, flavour descriptions, A+ content and reviews have to do the work that sampling and shelf presence do in a supermarket.
Seasonality and deals. January health trends, summer, Christmas gifting, Prime Day and Black Friday all move demand sharply. Competitors spend heavily at the same moments, so planning deals and budgets in advance is essential.
Advertising rules. Brands with products classed as less healthy (HFSS) should check how the UK's restrictions on paid online advertising apply to their retail media plans.
What a specialist food and drink Amazon agency does
Account and catalogue management
A specialist agency keeps the catalogue clean and available: flavour and size variations structured so shoppers find the right product, multipacks and bundles set up properly, stock planned around shelf life, and suppressed or gated listings fixed quickly. For Vendor Central brands, that includes managing purchase orders and availability with Amazon's retail team.
Advertising built around new customers
The most common problem we see in food and drink accounts is over-reliance on branded search: spending to win sales from people already searching for the brand. When Simply Roasted moved to Toucan, we shifted its advertising from branded terms into generic and category searches, launched product-focused campaigns to reach new customers, and refreshed the ad creative to show off the flavours and packs. Ad sales grew 60%, ROAS rose 21% and new-to-brand sales rose 29%.
Deals and promotions
Deals in food and drink are a lever to plan carefully, not just a discount. For Merisant UK, the business behind Canderel, Pure Via and Whole Earth, we ran weekly deals during the competitive January health period, pairing top-sellers with priority products to drive discovery. Total sales beat target by 13% while ad spend fell 23% year on year.
Content that sells taste
Product pages have to make up for the shopper not being able to taste anything. For Hendrick's Gin, we moved William Grant & Sons from standard A+ content to Premium A+ across five European markets, adding recipe cards, a comparison chart and modules that cross-sell the wider range. New-to-brand orders rose 124% and conversion rose 70%.
Subscribe & Save and repeat purchase
An agency should know which of your products suit Subscribe & Save, set the discounts at a level your margin can carry, and track how many customers come back. Repeat purchase is where food and drink accounts become profitable.
Signs you need a food and drink Amazon agency
- Most of your ad spend goes on searches for your own brand name.
- Sales spike around deals and fall away afterwards.
- Stock is regularly rejected, stranded or out of stock.
- Your listings show flavours and pack sizes as separate products shoppers can't easily compare.
- You want to launch alcohol, a new range or a new European marketplace and don't know the rules.
- Nobody is tracking how many customers come back.
Questions to ask a food and drink Amazon agency
- Which food and drink brands have you grown on Amazon, and can you show the results? Ask for case studies with baselines.
- How do you split ad spend between branded and non-branded searches? You want a clear view on winning new customers.
- How do you plan around shelf life and Amazon's fulfilment rules?
- What's your approach to deals and Subscribe & Save? Look for a plan tied to margin, not just more discounts.
- Who makes the creative? Taste has to be sold with images, video and A+ content, so the agency should produce or direct it.
Our guide on how to choose an Amazon agency covers the general questions in more detail.
FAQ: Amazon agencies for food and drink brands
Do I need an agency to sell food and drink on Amazon?
Not always. A small range with steady sales can be run well in-house. An agency earns its place when advertising has stopped growing sales, when the range or number of marketplaces gets too big to manage, or when you're entering a restricted category such as alcohol.
Can you sell alcohol on Amazon UK?
Yes, but beer, wine and spirits is a restricted category that needs Amazon's approval, and higher-strength spirits can be classed as dangerous goods for fulfilment. An agency that has worked with drinks brands can help with approval and the fulfilment set-up.
Does Subscribe & Save work for food and drink?
It works well for products people buy regularly, such as coffee, snacks, sweeteners and soft drinks. The discount has to fit your margin, so it's worth modelling before you switch it on across the range.
Should food and drink brands use Vendor Central or Seller Central?
Both can work. Many established food and drink brands sell through Vendor Central, where Amazon buys the stock, while others prefer the control over pricing and stock that Seller Central gives. Some use both. A specialist agency should be comfortable with either.
How do you advertise food on Amazon without wasting spend?
Spend less on searches for your own brand name, which those shoppers would mostly have bought anyway. Put more into category and competitor searches, product-focused campaigns and Sponsored Brands that reach new customers, and judge results on new-to-brand sales and repeat purchase rather than ROAS alone.
Can the same agency run TikTok Shop for food and drink?
Yes. Food and drink often does well on TikTok Shop, where a product can be shown being tasted or used in a few seconds. Toucan runs both channels together; see why brands run Amazon and TikTok Shop with one team.
Talk to a food and drink Amazon specialist
Toucan is an Amazon Ads Advanced Partner and TikTok Shop Partner working with food and drink brands from challenger snacks to global spirits. See how we approach Amazon, or book a free strategy call and we'll start with an honest look at your account.