Helium 10 Powers Years of Category Leadership

About Snooze Shade

Snooze Shade created a product that didn’t exist in 2008. Founder Cara needed a blackout shade for her baby’s stroller that could protect from wind, chill, and sun without the hassle of blankets falling off or coats getting run over by wheels. She invented the solution herself, launched at a trade show in 2009 with a prototype, and secured orders before FBA even existed. 

What started as one frustrated parent’s problem-solving project became the category leader in baby stroller accessories. The brand has held the #1 position in its category on Amazon UK for 15 consecutive years, maintaining consistent annual growth of 8-10% and reaching nearly £3 million in peak revenue across multiple international markets. The product has been used by members of the royal family and built such a loyal following that some customers transformed from critics to the brand’s biggest advocates. 

The company operates as a lean, family-run business. Cara manages the brand with help from her daughter and partner, plus a small team of freelancers handling customer service, social media, and logistics. Snooze Shade’s strength lies in product quality and safety—competitors can only compete on price. They cannot match the safety standards, quality, or unique design that has kept Snooze Shade at the top for over a decade. 

The product has been used by members of the royal family and built such a loyal following that some customers transformed from critics to the brand’s biggest advocates. 

Challenge

Snooze Shade faced critical challenges that threatened both growth and sustainability. The biggest obstacle was managing international expansion with a tiny team. The same product requires completely different keywords in different markets. What Americans call a “pack and play,” Australians call a “porticot,” and UK customers call a “travel cot.” Getting these nuances wrong meant missing customers entirely and wasting advertising spend. 

Manual keyword research consumed massive amounts of time. Cara spent numerous hours creating “pages and pages and pages of spreadsheets” trying to organize data. For a family-run business, this time drain directly competed with product development, customer service, and family priorities. 

Competition added another layer of complexity. At peak, 37 third-party resellers created chaos on Amazon with inconsistent branding and random product images. The US market became overrun with 40-50 sellers competing on price. Cara needed clear visibility into when to fight for market share and when to strategically retreat. After pulling out of the US and Canada due to unsustainable competition, relaunching required careful data-driven decisions about which products to test, which keywords to target, and how to minimize financial risk without perfect information. 

Solution

Daily competitor tracking revealed when US competition dropped from 40-50 sellers to 12-13, giving Cara confidence to re-enter with limited investment. Market-specific keyword research solved the terminology challenge by identifying local competitors and validating their terms in Helium 10 for each country. 

The platform organizes keywords into trackable groups, replacing spreadsheets with actionable data. When relaunching in the US, she started with limited shipments while data guided product selection, revealing which products would perform best in the changed market. 

Automation from Helium 10 allow Cara to stay present for her daughter’s critical exam years while maintaining growth. 

Results

Ten plus years at #1 in the UK category, with 8-10% annual growth maintained by a tiny team. After strategic exits from oversaturated markets, Snooze Shade relaunched in the US and hit #5 ranking, now operating profitably across three countries. 

“I have spent numerous hours researching keywords. Helium 10 has saved me huge amounts of time,”

Cara Sayer, Chief Sleep Officer at Snooze Shade

Those hours now fund product development and family priorities instead of manual research. The business generates more than a corporate salary, funds Cara’s pension, employs family members, and provides flexibility for life’s important moments. Data-driven efficiency proves eCommerce success doesn’t require sacrificing quality of life.