For small businesses looking to expand their reach, selling on Amazon can open the door to millions of potential customers. But building a successful business on the platform takes more than simply listing products. It requires understanding your customers, finding ways to stand out from competitors, and using the right tools to manage growth.
During Amazon Accelerate 2026, I had the opportunity to sit down with Craig Leslie of San Diego Coffee & Tea and The Bean Coffee Company to discuss how his company has used Amazon to grow its business and how emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, could change the way small businesses operate.
San Diego Coffee has been around since 1979, initially focusing primarily on wholesale operations. That changed in 2012 when the company acquired The Bean Coffee Company, an established Amazon seller. Craig was brought in to manage the e-commerce side of the business, despite having little experience selling online at the time.
More than a decade later, Amazon has become a major part of the company’s business. By leveraging Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Subscribe & Save, advertising, and customer analytics, Craig and his small team have been able to reach new customers and manage thousands of orders each week without building an extensive fulfillment operation of their own.
What makes Craig’s story particularly interesting is how his approach to e-commerce has evolved alongside Amazon itself. From learning the platform through trial and error to using AI tools for advertising, operations, and marketing, he has witnessed firsthand how technology continues to change the opportunities available to small businesses.
During our conversation, we discussed the company’s journey into e-commerce, the importance of building customer loyalty, strategies for competing in the crowded coffee market, and the announcements at Amazon Accelerate 2026 that caught his attention. Craig also shared his thoughts on AI-powered selling tools, opportunities through Amazon Business, and the lessons he has learned from more than a decade of selling online.
Here’s our conversation.
Leland McFarland: So, let’s start off: for people who may not be familiar with San Diego Coffee and Tea or The Bean Coffee Company, can you tell us a little bit about your business and what you do today?
Craig Leslie: Yeah, of course. So San Diego Coffee has been around since 1979. It was primarily a wholesale company until around 2012 when my current business partner brought me in. We had the ability to acquire The Bean Coffee Company, which had an Amazon presence at the time. I believe they listed on Amazon in 2009, but then we took over The Bean in 2012, and that’s when I got pulled in to run e-commerce, really dive into Amazon. And at the time I didn’t have any experience with Amazon, but those were the, I guess, earlier days of the platform. So, have grown it since then. We were on Vendor Central in the beginning and migrated to Seller Central, I think in the late, like 2018–2019, and then have just been growing it ever since then.
Leland McFarland: Nice. All right. So, as you said, your company’s been around, well, San Diego Coffee Company and Tea has been around since 1979. How did you become involved in the company? I guess, well, actually, you just covered that a little bit. So let’s move on to the next one. So you took over the online side in 2012. What did the company’s e-commerce operations look like at that time?
Craig Leslie: In 2012, they were nonexistent.
Leland McFarland: Wow.
Craig Leslie: For the most part. Yeah. Yeah, so we were, I don’t want to say we were starting from the beginning, but the gentleman we acquired The Bean Coffee Company from came, once we acquired it, he came down for two weeks. And, you know, he was an older gentleman, sat with me for I think it was a week or two, and kind of showed me the Amazon platform, and that was my first exposure to it. And then after his training, it was kind of off to the races, and that’s where, you know, you learn by doing, you know, and researching and talking to other people. So that was really how I cut my teeth to learn e-commerce. And then, you know, now there’s many more avenues to learn e-commerce or get involved than there were back in 2012.
Leland McFarland: Okay. Did you originally go after that company because of their Amazon presence? Was that like the deciding factor, or was it more of like a, well, that’s extra?
Craig Leslie: No. We roasted for them and packed for them, and they were at a point where to exit. My business partner saw the opportunity and then brought me in to figure it out.
Leland McFarland: Awesome. Was there a particular point when you realized Amazon could become a major growth channel for the business?
Craig Leslie: Yeah, you know, so early on we saw the opportunity. At the time when we acquired it, I don’t even know if they had a website or they were just Amazon. I don’t remember, but, you know, then we branched out, had a D2C website, but really saw Amazon’s ability to get the brand in front of, you know, potentially millions of eyeballs, depending on what levers and tools you’re utilizing. So I’ve always had that mentality that Amazon is going to put me in front of way more customers than I’m going to be able to get in front of. So I’ve always looked at Amazon as a major, I guess, piece of my business. It is a huge piece of my business. So, just getting new-to-brand, getting customers into Subscribe & Save, and, you know, just creating a good customer journey.
But I think from a 3P side, because we were on 1P, which is a very different model than 3P in the beginning. We started a bone broth company called LonoLife in 2015, and we actually launched it via Amazon Exclusives in January 2016. And then we grew that on 3P. So that’s where I really started learning the third-party system.
Leland McFarland: Mhm.
Craig Leslie: And then once we sold that company, that’s when I migrated The Bean Coffee Company and San Diego Coffee Company over to 3P, because I saw the platform is just more user-friendly to brands, especially when it comes to pricing, and creative, and copy. So I migrated the brand over there, and that’s when I really started diving in and growing the coffee company again, because I had more time to focus on coffee.
Leland McFarland: Yeah. So it’s been a really good help at reaching new customers that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to do before without Amazon, right?
Craig Leslie: Yeah, and it’s still that way. I mean, you know, one of the big focuses, especially during high-velocity events like Prime Day or Black Friday, Cyber Monday, is really customer acquisition. So getting new-to-brand in there and then having them try the product, and then ultimately trying to get them into the Subscribe & Save program. And continuing that customer relationship, and the longer that can last, the better for us, better for Amazon. But yeah, it is. Amazon has so many tools that we can use to reach customers or re-engage with customers that it’s where I get most of my new-to-brand.
Leland McFarland: Okay. So coffee is an extremely competitive category. I mean, my cousin’s wife owns like a coffee franchise. It’s everywhere. How do you differentiate The Bean Coffee Company from other brands selling on Amazon?
Craig Leslie: Yeah, it’s a great point. It’s the second largest traded commodity in the world. There’s coffee shops on every corner. But The Bean is special in the fact that it’s all organic. It’s been certified organic since 2009. You know, we’ve held that certification. All of the flavored coffee, the flavors are also USDA certified organic. And then we are also pretty big in the decaf space, and all of our decaf is Swiss Water Process decaf. And the same holds true: that’s all organic, cleanest decaffeination process possible. And then if somebody chooses that they want a flavored coffee, those flavors, again, are certified USDA organic.
When it comes to San Diego Coffee, that gets a bit trickier because there’s conventionals and there’s organics. And conventionals, to your point, is commoditized, right? There’s a lot of brands, and that one’s more about the storytelling, trying to get the look and feel of, you know, being in San Diego, enjoying a cup of coffee by the ocean, something like that. So that one’s a lot about the story, where The Bean is also about the story, but with the certifications, that is definitely helpful for the talking points and reaching that specific customer.
Leland McFarland: Right. So how important has Fulfillment by Amazon been to the way that you operate and scale the business?
Craig Leslie: Huge. If there was a percentage that I could put on it, 100% useful or impactful. We are a very small team. There’s a few of us in the office, and then there’s a small production staff. So to be able to ship thousands of orders a week is just not possible for us. So being able to utilize FBA and take advantage of Amazon’s supply chain and logistics expertise lets us continue to grow, continue to utilize those systems, and ultimately it lets us get product to a consumer within the two-day promise, or as Amazon pointed out this past week, within a couple hours, or a day, or within 24 hours. Or if it’s drone delivery, 30 minutes. But I don’t know if they’re delivering our product via drone yet.
Leland McFarland: Love to see that.
Craig Leslie: Yeah.
Leland McFarland: So coffee is naturally a repeat purchase product, and you kind of touched on this a little bit, but how valuable has Subscribe & Save been for building a loyal customer base?
Craig Leslie: It’s huge. Subscribe & Save, being a consumable, Subscribe & Save is huge. It’s not going to work in every category, but I had to look at a report the other day for Subscribe & Save specifically for one customer, and they’ve ordered 51 times. So you think about that. You have a bunch of those people, and it’s more important to keep those people around and keep them on the subscription because we can plan a bit better. The consumer obviously has the benefit of it just showing up on their door before they run out. So yeah, I lean into Subscribe & Save pretty hard.
Leland McFarland: All right. So how do you use Amazon advertising and brand analytics to understand customers and decide where to focus your marketing efforts?
Craig Leslie: Good question. For Amazon advertising, we utilize Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display. We have not gone into DSP yet, just because we’re still working on kind of the mid and lower funnel. As we continue to grow, DSP will become a tool that we’ll utilize, but we’re not there yet. What was the second piece of that question?
Leland McFarland: Amazon advertising and brand analytics to understand customers and decide where to focus on marketing efforts?
Craig Leslie: Yeah. So we obviously touched on the ads. We run a decent amount of ads. On the brand analytics piece, it’s very valuable to see where a customer is dropping off or if they are making it to the cart. That allows us to really look at the other non-paid advertising pieces such as A+ Content, Brand Story, carousel images, copy, etc., to try to answer those questions. And I think that piece of advertising, those tools that we have access to, is going to become even more important as consumers start shifting their buying behaviors over to Alexa shopping, because we need to answer those questions so that Alexa can surface and/or answer a customer’s questions properly.
Leland McFarland: Mhm. So how important are tools like A+ Content and the overall product details page when it comes to converting shoppers into customers?
Craig Leslie: Yeah, I kind of touched on that briefly, but I think it’s very important. Backing up to the beginning, the biggest thing is that you have a quality product and that the consumer has a good experience. So the A+, carousel images, detail page information, etc., the more information we can put there—not only to showcase the brand, but to educate the consumer or answer the consumer’s question—that’s obviously hugely beneficial and important. Because I want to convey what I’m selling you so that you don’t have a bad experience and want to return the product.
Leland McFarland: Okay. All right. AI was talked a lot about in this edition of Amazon Accelerate. So now you’ve been using, I’m guessing, some AI tools, Amazon AI tools. How are you using AI today, and where do you see it having the biggest impact on your business going forward?
Craig Leslie: Loaded AI question. I think those are some of the most exciting conversations because I still don’t think anyone knows where this is going to go. It changes daily, right? But I’ll answer the question in different phases.
How I use AI in my business: I use it daily. I use it for advertising, I use it for operations, email marketing, etc. I’ll use Claude and ChatGPT, sometimes Gemini, so I’m kind of agnostic to the model depending on what I’m trying to accomplish. I think Amazon’s announcements of Amazon Q and the MCP for Claude is a huge step forward. We’ve built tools that are connected via multiple Amazon APIs that are bringing that information together. What if I can just connect to an MCP and get that same information, and it’s coming direct from Seller Central? That setup process is way easier, especially if somebody doesn’t have the knowledge on setting up APIs or the calls and stuff like that. So yeah, I’m very bullish on it. I also am excited to see what happens at unBoxed next week from a creative standpoint.
Leland McFarland: All right. Now you kind of touched on some of the news, but after seeing all the announcements at Amazon Accelerate 2026, which new tools or announcements stood out to you the most?
Craig Leslie: I think the plug-in is probably one of the biggest, just from how I operate my business. Once we have access to it or once I have time to play with it, I think it will help me automate a lot of the reporting that we do. So from a bandwidth standpoint, that could be a huge game-changer.
I don’t know if this is tool-based, but Alexa for shopping—just understanding how that has changed or where Amazon is seeing more consumers going there. I think there’s still a long time for adoption, but we’re seeing people start adopting it. So that opens up another question: what do I do as a brand owner? How do we optimize our listings? So it’s really going back in. And I think with Seller Assistant, that’s also a huge update.
Leland McFarland: Mhm.
Craig Leslie: The hope is that I’ll be able to go in there and say, “Hey, okay, where are the gaps in my products, and what do I need to focus on to be able to optimize for conversion?”
Leland McFarland: Okay. Was there anything else that was announced at Accelerate that made you rethink how you might operate or grow the business?
Craig Leslie: I think a lot of it comes down to acting quickly: being the first to adopt some of this and try some of these new tools or these advanced tools.
Leland McFarland: Mhm.
Craig Leslie: Another big piece for me this year that I’m focused on is Amazon Business, and really trying to grow that piece of the business, because coffee obviously lends itself very well to either stockrooms or restaurants, etc. So that’s probably where my focus will be.
Leland McFarland: Okay. Beyond the announcements themselves, what did you get out of attending Amazon Accelerate this year?
Craig Leslie: It’s such a special conference. You have access to Amazonians, and you can ask questions. A big thing that people get excited about is the Seller Cafe, where they can go sit with somebody and really diagnose what the problem is or what the issue is. Interacting with other sellers and/or service providers, because we tend to be siloed as brand owners or smaller teams. So getting to share stories, and really talking to Amazon leadership or Amazonians that are listening and want to understand what our problems are and how they can help us solve them.
And that’s a big thing that’s changed over probably the last 5, 6, 7 years: the fact that Amazon really does look at us as partners, and they understand that if we’re not successful, they’re not successful. So they have built and are building tools that will make operating our businesses easier.
Leland McFarland: Okay. What was your favorite moment or experience from Amazon Accelerate? Just that wow factor?
Craig Leslie: Like tool-wise, or just in general?
Leland McFarland: Just in general. Any moment. It could have been walking past and finding some guy and having a great conversation, or seeing the drone dropping off a package. Your choice.
Craig Leslie: Yeah, I think it was being up in the Space Needle and running into Amazon employees and having real candid conversations with them.
Leland McFarland: Nice. Looking back at more than a decade of selling online, what advice would you give another small business owner who wants to build and grow a successful brand on Amazon?
Craig Leslie: It could go on for hours, but the biggest thing is have a quality product. Don’t just launch something. Make sure it’s quality, make sure you’re solving somebody’s problem. And then do your research before you launch, and understand really what the cost of doing business is going to be. Not only on Amazon, but look at the whole picture so that you understand the cost before you get into it.
Leland McFarland: Perfect. All right. That’s all the questions I have for you. Thank you for your time.
Craig Leslie: Yeah, of course. Thanks, Leland. I appreciate it.
Leland McFarland: Thank you.
My conversation with Craig Leslie offered an interesting perspective on how a small business can use e-commerce to expand its reach while continuing to operate with a relatively small team.
One of the biggest takeaways was the importance of combining the right technology with a strong product and a clear understanding of customers. For San Diego Coffee & Tea, tools like FBA have made it possible to handle order volumes that would otherwise be difficult for its small team to manage. Meanwhile, Subscribe & Save has helped the company build ongoing relationships with customers, including one subscriber Craig mentioned who had placed 51 orders.
Craig’s enthusiasm for artificial intelligence was another highlight of our discussion. He already uses AI tools in multiple areas of his business, but he sees even greater opportunities emerging from Amazon’s latest announcements. In particular, he is interested in how integrations with tools like Claude, improvements to Seller Assistant, and new automation capabilities could simplify reporting and other time-consuming tasks.
He is also looking beyond traditional consumer sales, identifying Amazon Business as a potential growth opportunity for coffee products used in offices, restaurants, and other commercial settings.
Perhaps the most valuable insight from our conversation, however, came when I asked Craig what advice he would give other small business owners looking to succeed on Amazon.
His message was straightforward: focus on offering a quality product that solves a customer’s problem, do your research, and understand the true costs of running your business before getting started.
As Amazon continues introducing new technologies and services, small businesses have more tools available to help them compete and grow. But as Craig’s experience demonstrates, long-term success still depends on the fundamentals: delivering value to customers, managing costs, and continually adapting to new opportunities.
For small business owners considering Amazon as a sales channel, or those looking to get more out of an existing presence, Craig’s journey provides a useful example of how steady growth, customer relationships, and a willingness to embrace new technology can work together to build a successful business.
