How an innovator in the cookware industry fired up sales with brand-building products
"As a registered brand on Amazon, you can very concretely bring your message home across all of your products to emphasize what’s unique. You can build brand awareness and recognition, and all of those factors are critical for brands who are launching in the Amazon store."
Jason Panzer
President, HexClad Cookware
An industry disruptor doubles sales in one year
HexClad Cookware is a premium cookware company founded in 2016. They had been selling their non-stick pots and pans at roadshows and on their direct-to-consumer (DTC) website for five years before they opted to enroll as a registered brand in Amazon’s store. HexClad’s line of hybrid pots, pans, and woks marries “the performance of stainless steel, the durability of cast iron, and the convenience of nonstick.” They are so durable they come with a lifetime warranty – a rarity in the cookware industry.
HexClad hired Premiere Creative to manage the strategy and enhancement of their product sales as a registered brand in Amazon’s store. In June 2021, they celebrated the launch of an official HexClad storefront. Since then, sales have boomed. In 2022, their first full year as a registered brand, they sold $36 million worth of products in Amazon’s store. In 2023, they’re on track to sell over $85 million.
HexClad’s experience makes the case for why brands offering innovative, popular products should enroll in Brand Registry. “Not having a presence on Amazon is a mistake,” says Jason Panzer, HexClad’s president. “We think Amazon has the potential to be a $300 million opportunity for HexClad within the next few years.”
HexClad hired Premiere Creative to manage the strategy and enhancement of their product sales as a registered brand in Amazon’s store. In June 2021, they celebrated the launch of an official HexClad storefront. Since then, sales have boomed. In 2022, their first full year as a registered brand, they sold $36 million worth of products in Amazon’s store. In 2023, they’re on track to sell over $85 million.
HexClad’s experience makes the case for why brands offering innovative, popular products should enroll in Brand Registry. “Not having a presence on Amazon is a mistake,” says Jason Panzer, HexClad’s president. “We think Amazon has the potential to be a $300 million opportunity for HexClad within the next few years.”
We started to see that when we drove people to the storefront, we had a much higher conversion rate.
A welcoming storefront and A+ Content mean more sales
Before anything else, Premiere Creative configured HexClad’s Amazon storefront. They went through numer¬ous iterations in the early months, adding new products and changing strategies. As they expanded the products offered in Amazon’s store, they sought to create more ways for people to spend more time there. “The storefront actu¬ally generated very solid revenues for us,” Panzer explains.
“We knew from the beginning that quality A+ Content was very important,” says J.J. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director. He believes that about 80 percent of a consumer’s decisions are made before a customer starts scrolling down a product page, but quality A+ Content, which appears “below the fold” helps resolve hesitations for a consumer on the fence about making a purchase.
HexClad’s A+ Content features professional photography and videos, infographics and industry personality endorse-ments, customer testimonials and reviews, and compari¬son charts. “HexClad is a premium product, so A+ Content is where we convey the story of how our product adds value, showcase content that demonstrates how to use our product and point out unique features.”
“We knew from the beginning that quality A+ Content was very important,” says J.J. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director. He believes that about 80 percent of a consumer’s decisions are made before a customer starts scrolling down a product page, but quality A+ Content, which appears “below the fold” helps resolve hesitations for a consumer on the fence about making a purchase.
HexClad’s A+ Content features professional photography and videos, infographics and industry personality endorse-ments, customer testimonials and reviews, and compari¬son charts. “HexClad is a premium product, so A+ Content is where we convey the story of how our product adds value, showcase content that demonstrates how to use our product and point out unique features.”
Recoup ad spending with Brand Referral Bonus
Abbott’s team has helped HexClad perfect a strategy with Brand Referral Bonus, or BRB, that fits their goals and priorities. “When there are big buying days, it’s hard to ignore Amazon,” Panzer says. They’ve had particular success activating BRB campaigns around Prime Day in July and October. Premiere Creative prepared ad content with BRB links for Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, as well as a robust SMS campaign. The results were significant. “In terms of attribution, the total product sales on our first Prime Day were over $296,000,” Abbott. says. “We were able to generate a $27,000 credit from Amazon. We recouped the cost of off-Amazon ads.” They plan to use this approach for Prime Days moving forward.
Data-powered selling gives customers options they can’t resist
The team at Premiere Creative has used data from Amazon Brand Analytics, or ABA, to build HexClad an effective, adaptive selling strategy in Amazon’s store. They paid special attention to Market Basket Analysis and used it to identify which products to use in sponsored ads. This tool also helped them learn which of their products customers like to buy in tandem. “It helped us determine which items we should try to cross-sell or upsell because we can identify typical purchase combinations,” Panzer explains.
This tool has helped them create virtual bundles that align with their customers’ buying patterns. “We could see that a big part of our sales, as much as 30 percent, were coming from virtual bundles,” Abbottt says. They started to diversify virtual bundle combinations so their customers had more freedom to choose which products they bought together. The
This tool has helped them create virtual bundles that align with their customers’ buying patterns. “We could see that a big part of our sales, as much as 30 percent, were coming from virtual bundles,” Abbottt says. They started to diversify virtual bundle combinations so their customers had more freedom to choose which products they bought together. The