Scaling a brand across 3 continents: what I've learned so far

In 2023, I launched Clossyo — a premium wellness e-commerce brand selling high-performance shower filters. No funding, no co-founder, no existing audience. Just a product I believed in and a hypothesis that the wellness market had room for a brand that took water quality seriously.

Two years later, Clossyo is Amazon's Choice in its category, has processed over 1,000 orders, and operates across the UK, US, and Africa (through a partnership with Beauty Hut). This article isn't a success story — it's a playbook for what I learned building a multi-market brand while holding down a senior analytics role at Amazon.

The product doesn't travel. The brand does.

The biggest misconception about international e-commerce is that you're selling the same product in different countries. You're not. You're selling different value propositions to different people who happen to want the same physical object.

In the UK, Clossyo's pitch is about hard water. London has some of the hardest water in Europe, and people feel it — dry skin, brittle hair, limescale everywhere. The product sells itself once you explain what chlorine and heavy metals do to your skin.

In the US, it's a wellness play. Americans spend more on self-care than any other market, and the conversation is about optimising your routine. The shower filter isn't solving a problem — it's upgrading an experience.

In Africa, through our Beauty Hut partnership, it's about water quality and hair health. The conversation is completely different — it's about protecting natural hair from treated water, and the brand positioning reflects that.

Same product. Three completely different brands. Same logo, same packaging, but different ad copy, different landing pages, different influencer strategies, different pricing psychology.

Amazon's Choice is a growth engine, not a trophy

Getting the Amazon's Choice badge wasn't luck. It was a deliberate strategy built on three pillars:

1. Review velocity over review count. Amazon's algorithm cares about how fast you're getting reviews, not how many you have. We focused on post-purchase email sequences and insert cards that made leaving a review effortless.
2. Conversion rate optimisation on the listing. Better images, A+ content, and a bullet point structure that answers objections before they form. We tested 4 different main images before finding the one that converted.
3. Price positioning. We didn't compete on price. We priced at a premium and justified it through content. The cheapest shower filter on Amazon is £8. Ours is £35. But our listing makes you understand why.

Once you get Amazon's Choice, organic traffic increases dramatically. It's a flywheel — more visibility leads to more sales, which leads to more reviews, which leads to more visibility. But you have to earn the initial momentum.

Logistics across borders will humble you

Running a product across the UK and US simultaneously sounds straightforward until you deal with customs declarations, VAT vs sales tax, FBA fee structures that differ by marketplace, and return policies that vary by country.

Here's what I learned the hard way:

• Stock two markets separately. Don't try to ship from UK to US customers. FBA US and FBA UK are different programmes with different economics. Treat them as separate businesses.
• Currency fluctuation eats your margin. When the pound dropped against the dollar in late 2023, our US margin went from 42% to 31% overnight. Hedge your pricing or build a buffer.
• Partnerships over expansion for new markets. We didn't open our own operation in Africa. We partnered with Beauty Hut, an established retailer who understands the market. They handle distribution, we handle product and brand. It's slower growth but dramatically lower risk.

Building a brand while employed full-time

I built Clossyo while leading analytics at Amazon. This wasn't a side hustle in the “I work on it on Sundays” sense. It was a deliberate decision to build a real business with systems, not just effort.

The key was automation. Every part of Clossyo that could be systematised was systematised. Inventory reorder alerts. Automated email sequences. Review request flows. Ad spend rules that pause campaigns when ROAS drops below threshold. Customer service templates that handle 80% of enquiries.

The business runs on maybe 5 hours a week of active management now. Not because it's small — because it's built to operate without me being in the loop on every decision.