From $100K Inventory Lockdown to a $1M Amazon Exit

Introduction

In February 2021, Marwan Barakat launched Baby Sunnies with a clear plan. No brand story or long product roadmap—just a specific improvement on a high-volume item. He took a basic pair of baby sunglasses, added polarized lenses (instead of standard UV400), wrapped it in premium packaging, and listed it on Amazon. That was it. Within weeks, his product was ranking top of page one. Monthly revenue passed $100K, powered almost entirely by Amazon PPC. No external traffic. No email campaigns. Just a fast launch with a product that looked and felt better than its price.

Background

Marwan left his digital marketing role in 2019 and didn’t have a set plan. Like a lot of people, he cycled through a few ideas. Dropshipping first—low margins, limited defensibility, heavy churn. Then a small sourcing agency based in China. That work gave him hands-on exposure to factory networks and shipping logistics. But more importantly, it showed him how forgettable most eCommerce products really are. Same factories. Same templates. Everyone trying to “scale” before they even had something different. That’s what made him stop trying to be clever and start thinking simple: one good product, made better, and launched right.

Product Design & Sourcing

Living in China gave Marwan direct access to manufacturers. No agents. No delays. He visited factories in person and sourced a sunglass frame that already had demand. He wasn’t trying to reinvent it—just improve it. He upgraded the lenses to polarized (more expensive but visually superior), adjusted the fit for infants, and swapped the usual generic polybags with structured gift-style packaging. Even the box had thought put into it. It opened properly, held its shape, and looked like something you’d want to give at a baby shower. These weren’t major changes on paper, but the combined effect made the product look 3–4x more expensive than competing listings.

Marketing & Growth

The launch strategy was Amazon-only. No website. No Instagram. Just two parent ASINs with ten color variations and 12,000 units ordered upfront. All ad spend went into PPC. It wasn’t cheap, but it was calculated. He structured campaigns tightly, targeting only relevant phrases, then ramped up gradually. Within days, he secured bestseller tags in his category. Sales velocity improved, and reviews started coming in at a healthy clip. Once the product had enough organic support, he began dialing PPC down. The ratio stabilized at around 30% paid, 70% organic. That meant fewer bids, less stress, and more room to reinvest into inventory instead of constant top-of-funnel spending.

Patent Shutdown & Creative Pivot

In August 2021, everything paused. A competitor held a design patent on a similar frame and filed a complaint. Amazon, following standard procedure, removed multiple listings—including Marwan’s. He suddenly had over $100K worth of unsellable stock sitting at a 3PL. Legal options existed, but they were slow, expensive, and could easily drag on for a year with no clear outcome. Instead of wasting time or complaining, he found a workaround. Marwan sourced a new adjustable strap design from a supplier he knew. He shipped the straps to the U.S. warehouse, reworked the inventory with the help of his 3PL, and created a new listing with a fresh visual angle. Functionally, it was nearly the same product—but different enough to relist and avoid takedowns. He even filed his own patent on the updated strap to avoid running into the same issue twice.

Relaunch & Scaling

By December 2021, Baby Sunnies was back up. The new SKU looked familiar to repeat buyers, but different enough to pass Amazon’s filters. Same playbook: PPC-first push, followed by review collection and controlled budget pullback. This time, things moved faster. Maybe it was the head start from the earlier success, maybe the revised strap helped conversions, maybe both. Regardless, the relaunch outperformed the original. Sales volume increased, margins improved slightly due to better supplier terms, and customer retention started showing up in backend data. By the end of 2021, the brand had crossed $1.1 million in gross revenue without a full-time team, without a DTC website, and without relying on discounts or promotions to move stock.

Exit Strategy

After running Baby Sunnies for nearly two years, Marwan decided it was time to exit. He fielded inbound offers from brokers and acquirers but chose to list through Empire Flippers, which made the process more structured. Within three months, the brand was sold for just under $500,000. It wasn’t a VC-style exit, but it was a clean win—half a million in cash, no earn-outs, no founder handcuffs. The deal gave him financial breathing room and cleared mental space to move onto something else. That “something else” becameDeskello, a product line built for remote workers. Same approach, different market. Start simple. Launch fast. Iterate if needed.

Key Lessons

• Don’t chase originality when improvements will do. Upgrading parts of an existing item can outperform a brand-new concept.
• Amazon PPC is not about profitability in month one—it’s a tool to earn rank, fast. Pay for rank, then profit later.
• Product bans happen. Don’t waste time fighting if there’s a cleaner workaround. Speed > pride.
• Packaging matters more than most sellers think. People do judge books by covers, especially on Amazon.
• Get clean books and simple ops early. That makes exiting easier when the time comes—no messy assets, no unclear numbers.