Amazon, Ecommerce & Inventory Strategy — 2026-03-27

Weekly marketing sync between ^[1] and Asymmetric. Lucy Doudlah was absent (attending a funeral). Attendees: Mark Doudlah, Jason Doudlah (partial), Karly Oykhman, Gilbert Barrongo, Avokerie Onorimuo.

Overview

A focused session covering four areas: Amazon sales performance and active blockers, donation page progress, B2B wholesale site launch status, and a new educational content direction. The meeting surfaced two significant operational blockers — an FBA inventory display bug for Old World Popcorn and a stalled co-packing relationship with TS Foods — alongside strong organic sales momentum.

Amazon Performance

March sales to date: $116,880 (as of ~March 27), trending to approximately $132k for the full month at a ~$4–5k/day run rate. This represents a recovery from prior inventory disruptions and a return toward late-2025 trajectory.

Key driver: Organic units are the primary growth engine. Ad spend is supporting rankings, but a growing share of conversions are arriving organically — reducing cost-per-sale.

Top sellers by brand:

Note: Old World Popcorn's yellow-first ranking is the inverse of Doudlah's — the reason is unclear but worth monitoring.

Ad strategy note: Gilbert has been advised to use VAPG grant-eligible popcorn ad spend judiciously but actively, given that Amazon sales are the primary mechanism for grant cost recapture (website sales are not reimbursable under the VAPG).

Active Blockers

1. FBA Inventory Bug — Old World Popcorn

• Issue: Old World Popcorn yellow and white popcorn listings show zero FBA inventory on Amazon, preventing customers from placing orders. Physical inventory exists at the warehouse.
• Owner: Gilbert Barrongo is investigating.
• Next step: Karly to follow up with Gilbert for resolution timeline.

2. TS Foods Popcorn Co-Pack — Stalled

• Issue: The flavored popcorn co-packing project with Justin at TS Foods has stalled on ingredient decisions. Doudlah Farms requires consistent, high-quality oil and salt; TS Foods prefers to use its own variable-quality house ingredients.
• Risk: A labeling or ingredient error on a 20,000-bag run would be unrecoverable. The bag must carry organic, ROC, and Demeter certifications — all of which require pre-approved, certified inputs.
• Strategic importance: This product's Amazon sales are the only channel eligible for VAPG grant cost recapture. Delay directly impacts grant reimbursement.
• Action: Karly to contact Mark Hope (Asymmetric) and ask him to intervene with Justin at TS Foods to unblock the project and provide a status update to Mark Doudlah.

Donation Page

Status: Live. One-time and subscription donation options are both active.

Pending fixes and additions:

B2B Wholesale Site Launch

Status: Soft-blocked. Customer accounts are created and ready to activate, but a recurring address entry bug is preventing order completion for multiple users. Developer was on vacation; returned March 27 and is actively investigating.

Launch plan (targeting next week):
1. Developer fixes address bug
2. Developer activates all wholesale customer accounts (triggers password-setup emails)
3. Karly drafts a personal launch email for Lucy/Mark to send simultaneously, explaining the new platform and directing customers to set up their accounts

Action: Karly to draft the B2B launch email.

Marketing & Content Strategy

Social Media

• Content is scheduled through end of April following last week's review session.
• A new Asymmetric social media employee is now handling content creation. Workflow: Karly sets themes and dates → employee drafts images and copy using the Doudlah content guide → Doudlah team reviews.
• Four new recipe blog posts have been published.

Influencer Outreach — Blocker

• Direct Instagram DMs cannot be sent through Meta Business Suite.
• Need: Direct Instagram login credentials to send DMs natively.
• Action: Mark Doudlah to email Instagram username/password to Karly.

New Content Direction: Nitrogen-Fixing Clover (Educational / Thought Leadership)

Mark Doudlah proposed an agronomy-focused post series positioning Doudlah Farms as a thought leader in regenerative organic farming. The first topic:

Frost-seeded medium red clover into winter wheat

• Clover is frost-seeded into standing hard red winter wheat in early spring
• Clover germinates and grows as an understory beneath the wheat
• After wheat harvest (heads clipped), the clover continues growing through the full year and following spring
• The clover is then plowed down ahead of corn planting
• During this period, rhizobium bacteria on the clover roots fix atmospheric nitrogen — eliminating the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizer

Messaging angles:
- U.S. conventional farms use 1% of the world's total energy on synthetic nitrogen production alone
- Synthetic nitrogen runoff through the Mississippi River Valley creates the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone — an area the size of a state where shrimpers must travel 90–100 miles offshore to find viable beds
- Organic practices like this reduce fossil fuel dependence and prevent water contamination — framed against current energy price concerns

Assets needed: Mark to email photos (combine cab view with green clover understory, plus additional farm shots). Karly will draft the post.

Video Content

GoPro farm footage:
- Jason Doudlah has been recording farm operations with an old GoPro
- Mark confirmed Jason needs to share the footage — Karly will follow up directly with Jason to collect and begin editing clips

Construction time-lapse:
- Idea: Mount a motion-activated or interval camera (e.g., hunter's trail camera) west of the new building construction site, capturing a daily frame from a fixed vantage point
- Goal: Compile into a time-lapse showing bare earth → finished building and grain bins
- Action: Mark to email Lucy about sourcing the camera; Karly to consult Asymmetric's video editor for hardware recommendations (durable, inexpensive, weatherproof)

Action Items

Related

• ^[2]