Halifax based e-commerce specialist Venture Forge is celebrating 18 months in business with five new project wins totalling £90,000, a larger office, four award nominations and a new, bespoke Amazon service offering.

The agency, which was launched in Spring 2018 by Andrew Banks, former head of e-commerce for Matalan, has experienced rapid growth through specialising in e-commerce strategies for growing businesses and has now launched its own Amazon Strategy and Management Service to help brands to maximise their online sales potential.

It has spent the past six months developing the offering in response to Amazon representing the biggest e-commerce channel – with more than 197 million visitors each month – for companies looking to rapidly grow their online sales.

The agency’s latest client win and first to sign up to its Amazon service is ERA Home Security, one of the UK’s largest home security product companies. The firm has appointed Venture Forge to create and manage a bespoke Amazon sales strategy for its Homeguard range of smart home burglar alarm systems.

Speaking about the launch of the Amazon Strategy and Management Service, Andrew Banks says: “For every brand we’ve delivered ecommerce strategies for in the last 18 months, Amazon has represented the biggest growth opportunity for them.

“For some clients, their lack of Amazon experience has resulted in them not being able to deliver on the biggest growth opportunity for their business, and in many cases their products being sold badly by third parties on Amazon.  The benefits of partnering with us are first and foremost sales growth, and secondly, better online brand management.”

Chris Burrows, Head of Sales for Distribution and Smartware at ERA Home Security, adds: “The team at Venture Forge has helped us understand how Amazon works and have built a bespoke sales strategy without the need for additional in-house resource or distractions from our day-to-day business. In the space of four weeks, we can already see that Amazon sales have had a significant impact on revenue.”

During the development of the service, Venture Forge used its own cycling skincare brand VeloSkin as the testbed for its approach. As a result, Amazon is now VeloSkin’s biggest sales channel, with an 350% per cent increase sales in six months, and with the brand’s leading product now being the third best-selling item in its category on Amazon.

In addition to ERA Home Security, Venture Forge has recently been appointed by cycling distributor Zyro Fisher to review its Amazon strategy, SW James Sofas to lead its ecommerce strategy, Equiflair Saddlery to re-platform the business’s online offering to Shopify and it has secured further strategy projects from William Lamb Footwear, Rainbow Designs, which specialises in licensed products, and Vernacare, a global medical supplies business.

The company has recently acquired new office space in the Croft Myl development, Halifax, to accommodate its growth and accompanying team expansion. The 50% bigger unit is close to the Mill’s roof garden, as well as several break-out areas and coffee shop, and supports Venture Forge’s aim of creating a better internal culture where staff have a choice of areas to work from.

Venture Forge was also one of the three finalists shortlisted in the Best New Agency category of the UK Agency Awards which took place on 19 September.