Embark Veterinary makes DNA tests for dogs, on a mission to help dogs live longer, healthier lives through science. It sells through its own Shopify store, on Amazon and Chewy, and through other retail partners.
Embark has worked with GrowthPair since April 2025. Its Growth Marketer joined in August 2025 and just passed a year with the team. By early 2026, eCommerce needed help too.
Gavin Giorgio, Senior Marketer, Marketplace at Embark, watched one small team try to cover every channel at once.
“Before March, eCommerce was stretched across a small team. Marketplace and DTC work were competing for the same hours, and efficiency was slipping.”
Gavin works on Embark's marketplace channels, including Amazon. Before Embark, he spent more than three years at Perch, an Amazon brand company acquired by Razor Group. He studied at UMass Amherst's Isenberg School of Management.
Gavin on LinkedInThree problems stood out:
Embark didn’t need another set of hands for one channel. They needed someone who could find inefficiencies, run tests, and own daily operations without hand-holding.
GrowthPair paired Embark with Mary Joy, an eCommerce Manager based in the Philippines with 8 years of experience. Like every GrowthPair hire, she was vetted by marketers before Embark ever met her: a resume review, an interview with a working marketer, a proctored eCommerce assessment, and C1 English testing.
“We needed someone who could find inefficiencies, run tests and execute day to day operations, and Mary Joy was the perfect person for the job.”
She started in March. Today she owns:
“She also picks up ad-hoc projects every week, and she learns and executes them remarkably fast.”
Most marketplace hires run the reports they’re handed. Mary Joy built a better way to run the account.
“Mary Joy built her own advertising optimization engine in Claude. It pulls in data from across the organic and paid landscape on Amazon, and she uses it daily to report on and adjust a six-figure ad budget.”
She didn’t stop at version one. She improves it every month, and the results show up against Embark’s forecasts.
“Her continuous improvements to her Claude engine have driven YoY growth we didn’t think was possible when we set our forecasts.”
She does the same with new processes. When Embark needed a plan for running promotions, Mary Joy wrote the documentation and the execution strategy herself, polished enough to present to executives.
Embark keeps its Amazon numbers private, so there’s no revenue chart here. Here’s what Gavin could share:
“Mary Joy stands out every month.”
Embark pays $3,800 a month for Mary Joy, all-in. A U.S. eCommerce manager costs about $10,000 a month once you add benefits, before recruiting fees. Here’s the gap over time.
U.S. figure: Indeed's average eCommerce manager base salary of $83,802 (October 2026), plus benefits at 30% of total pay (Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2026), about $9,976 a month. GrowthPair figure: Embark's all-in monthly rate, which covers payroll, talent stipends, paid holidays, and the replacement guarantee.
Mary Joy isn’t Embark’s only GrowthPair hire. Its Growth Marketer has been with the team since August 2025.
“Mary Joy and our other GrowthPair associate have unlocked a level of value our executives never expected.”
“If you need someone who can plug in and own real work from week one, GrowthPair is worth a call. The match was right from the start.”
