How SalesDuo Helped Naturally Fresh Recover Vendor Central Sales and Purchase Orders

Naturally Fresh had already built strong demand for its natural walnut-shell cat litter. But a major brand transition disrupted its Amazon business.

The new ASINs have none of the reviews or ratings, sales history, or momentum the older products had built. Over the same period, visibility and sales deteriorated, and Amazon Vendor Central purchase orders plummeted.

At one point, purchase orders dropped from full-truckload volumes to only a few bags per week.

SalesDuo began working with Naturally Fresh on June 25, 2018. The recovery required more than listing optimization or advertising. It involved catalog coordination, work across Vendor Central accounts, resolving open purchase orders, improving product availability, strengthening retail content, and rebuilding demand.

Historical case-study note: This engagement began in 2018. Amazon systems and workflows have changed since then. The process below reflects the work completed at that time and should not be treated as a current universal Amazon Vendor Central process.

Results at a Glance

The Challenge: Purchase Orders Dropped After a Brand Transition

Before 2018, Naturally Fresh products had been white-labeled and sold through a much larger brand.

When that relationship ended, Naturally Fresh moved to its own packaging and UPCs. This created a serious Amazon catalog issue.

The rebranded products were assigned new ASINs. Even though the core products were still familiar to customers, the new ASINs did not carry the same reviews, ratings, sales history, or performance signals as the older listings.

Naturally Fresh lost several important signals at once:

• established reviews and ratings;
• historical sales momentum;
• strong glance views;
• sales velocity;
• the product history connected with the older ASINs.

The older ASINs still existed in the Vendor Central catalog, but the company could not simply keep using them because the packaging and UPCs had changed.

This was not just an advertising problem. The issue involved catalog continuity, Vendor Central account relationships, product availability, and lost sales velocity.

For broader context on how these areas connect, see SalesDuo’s guide to Amazon Vendor Central operations.

What SalesDuo Diagnosed

SalesDuo first needed to understand why Amazon had stopped ordering Naturally Fresh products at previous levels.

The team found that several connected issues were affecting performance.

The New ASINs Had Lost Their History

The brand transition created a gap between the old product history and the new ASINs.

The older ASINs had built up reviews, ratings, visibility, and sales momentum over time. The new ASINs started without those same signals.

In practice, Naturally Fresh had to rebuild sales momentum for products that had already built reviews, ratings, and sales history under the previous ASINs.

Other Vendor Accounts Added More Complexity

The older ASINs could also still be connected to offers from other Vendor Central accounts.

SalesDuo identified multiple distributors that may still have had the older ASINs active in their systems.

That meant the issue couldn't be solved by a simple change inside Naturally Fresh’s own Vendor Central account.

Open Purchase Orders Also Had to Be Addressed

At the time, the recovery process required resolving the relevant older ASINs and open purchase orders before Amazon could move forward with the requested catalog changes.

This meant SalesDuo had to coordinate with several outside companies as well as Amazon.

The Historical Recovery Strategy

SalesDuo approached the problem in stages.

The goal was to address the catalog and operational issues first, then rebuild availability, retail quality, and demand.

Coordinating the Legacy ASIN Transition

lesDuo contacted distributors that still appeared to have offers linked to the older ASINs.

The goal was to mark the affected ASINs obsolete and ensure any open purchase orders connected to them were resolved.

This required repeated outreach and follow-up across several companies.

The distributor and ASIN coordination took about three months, followed by additional Amazon processing and iterations.

Working With Amazon on the ASIN Transition

After SalesDuo addressed the outside vendor issues, it returned to Amazon to continue the historical deprecation and merge process.

Amazon then identified additional open purchase orders linked to other vendor offers.

SalesDuo coordinated another round of follow-ups before the account could move forward.

Once those issues were resolved, Amazon processed the requested ASIN changes after further review and iteration.

After Amazon processed the requested ASIN changes, the newer product presence once again reflected the historical reviews, ratings, and catalog continuity documented in the case records. This helped restore the retail foundation behind the products.

This reflects a 2018 workflow and should not be treated as the current standard process for every Vendor Central catalog issue.

Improving Availability With Dropship

Fixing the catalog issue was only one part of the recovery.

SalesDuo also set up Vendor Central Dropship support to improve product availability and help keep products buyable.

This reduced the risk of losing sales while regular purchase-order activity recovered.

For broader channel context, see SalesDuo’s guide to Vendor Central vs. Seller Central.

Rebuilding the Retail Foundation

Once operations stabilized, SalesDuo focused on improving how the products appeared and performed on Amazon.

The team worked on:

• product detail pages;
• A+ Content;
• the Brand Page;
• product visibility;
• Amazon Advertising.

The order of these steps mattered.

We added advertising after improving the catalog, availability, and product-page foundation. It was not used as the first solution to falling purchase orders.

Results: Purchase Orders and Sales Recovered

After the catalog work was completed, the new product presence regained the reviews, ratings, traction, and sales history connected with the older ASINs.

Purchase-order activity and sales volume then began recovering.

Within about 6 months of starting with SalesDuo, Naturally Fresh had recovered around 50% of the sales volume it had before the brand transition. 

Growth continued after that initial recovery.

According to the historical performance figures:

• 2019 performance reached 300% of 2018 levels.
• 2020 increased another 218% compared with 2019.

These results show the recovery did not come from a single tactic.

SalesDuo first addressed the core catalog and operational problems. The team then improved availability, retail content, visibility, and advertising.

Why the Recovery Worked

The Naturally Fresh case study shows an important lesson for Amazon Vendor Central brands:

More advertising does not solve every purchase-order problem.

Naturally Fresh first needed to repair the retail foundation behind its Amazon business.

In this case, the recovery followed a clear sequence:

Catalog continuity → Product availability → Retail readiness → Customer demand → Advertising growth

Catalog Continuity Came First

The brand transition had separated the new ASINs from the commercial history of the older products.

Addressing that issue helped restore an important part of the product foundation.

Availability Had to Be Protected

Dropship support helped keep products available while regular purchase-order activity recovered.

Product Pages Needed Improvement

Detail pages, A+ Content, and the Brand Page were improved so customers had a stronger experience once they reached the listings.

Demand Had to Be Rebuilt

After the core operational issues were more stable, SalesDuo could focus on improving visibility and sales.

Advertising Came Later

Advertising supported the recovery after the underlying catalog and availability issues had been addressed.

That is what makes this case different from a standard PPC or listing-optimization case study.

How This Case Study Applies to Vendor Central Brands Today

Amazon’s systems have changed since 2018, but the underlying diagnostic lesson still applies: falling purchase orders can reflect catalog continuity, availability, demand, or operational problems rather than one isolated advertising issue.

The right response depends on the root cause.

Brands dealing with current PO processing, acknowledgments, EDI, or other Vendor Central workflows should use current guidance rather than copying the historical process described in this case study.

Amazon's current Vendor Orders API documentation provides an up-to-date reference for programmatic Vendor Retail Procurement order data. It does not validate the historical ASIN deprecation/merge process described in this 2018 case study.

For current PO and acknowledgment mechanics, see SalesDuo’s Amazon EDI workflow for Vendor Central.

From Operational Recovery to Advertising Growth

Naturally Fresh’s work with SalesDuo continued after purchase orders began to recover.

Once the catalog and retail foundation became more stable, SalesDuo also supported the brand’s advertising and growth strategy.

That later phase is covered separately in the Eco-Shell Amazon advertising case study.

Keeping the two stories separate makes the results easier to understand.

This case study focuses on Vendor Central, catalog continuity, availability, and purchase-order recovery.

The Eco-Shell case study focuses on advertising and growth.

Need Help With a Complex Amazon Vendor Central Issue?

A drop in purchase orders does not always have one simple cause.

Catalog problems, product availability, operational workflows, demand, account setup, and retail performance can all affect a Vendor Central business.

SalesDuo provides Amazon account management and Amazon Vendor Central operations support for brands that need help diagnosing and managing complex 1P issues.

Book Your 1:1 Growth Call with SalesDuo.

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About the Author

Meet Mamta Mathe, an Associate Content Writer at SalesDuo who specializes in creating practical, research-backed content for Amazon sellers. She enjoys simplifying complex eCommerce topics and helping brands make smarter growth decisions through clear, actionable insights. Outside of work, she loves reading, exploring new ideas, and staying updated on digital marketing trends.

These results describe a specific historical engagement and are not a promise of future performance.