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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 launch¬ing 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. Then, they offered coupons on the virtual bundles while holding single-item sales at full price. “This approach fueled a tremendous amount of growth,” Abbottt says.
Search Query Performance and Top Search Terms are also important dashboards in ABA for HexClad. Premiere Creative uses the Search Terms dashboard to consider the activity of HexClad’s competitors and plan campaigns that proactively capture business. The Search Query Performance dashboard helps them control their ad spending. “It helped us see that people who searched for HexClad typically wanted to buy HexClad,” Abbottt explains. This helped them make better decisions about when and how to use advertising programs.
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. Then, they offered coupons on the virtual bundles while holding single-item sales at full price. “This approach fueled a tremendous amount of growth,” Abbottt says.
Search Query Performance and Top Search Terms are also important dashboards in ABA for HexClad. Premiere Creative uses the Search Terms dashboard to consider the activity of HexClad’s competitors and plan campaigns that proactively capture business. The Search Query Performance dashboard helps them control their ad spending. “It helped us see that people who searched for HexClad typically wanted to buy HexClad,” Abbottt explains. This helped them make better decisions about when and how to use advertising programs.
Data from Brand Referral Bonus allows us to quantify performance and success of our Prime Day off-Amazon advertising resulting in a $27,000+ credit from Amazon.J.J. AbbottCreative Director, Premiere Creative
Growing a fan base with Posts
One of HexClad’s objectives with selling in Amazon’s store was to grow as fast as possible. To boost sales early on, Premiere Creative used Posts, Amazon’s immersive image-first shopping experience. “We were an early adopter of Posts,” Abbottt explains. “Impression levels were significant when that program started.” He shares that impression rates were around 40 thousand per day early on.
People like the safety and security of making a big purchase on Amazon. If they don’t like it they can box it back up, get a label, and return it easily. There’s a real sense of security for people when they shop here.
Using Vine reviews for a lucrative new product launch
Generating buzz around a new product can be hard to do, but HexClad has made good use of Vine, a program that helps brands gather honest reviews from consumers vetted by Amazon. “Vine is an important part of our new SKU (stock keeping unit) launch process,” Abbottt explains. He shares a positive experience they had with the launch of a ten-quart pot in October 2022. “We thought this was going to be a challenging launch, but positive reviews from Vine helped us sell 200 pots very quickly.”
With the new listing in place, 30 Vine Voices received the stockpot and five-star reviews began to appear. Reviews were positive and sales started to pick up quickly, so the stockpot was flagged as a “best new seller.” They now consider at least 10 Vine reviews to be an essential best practice when launching a new product in Amazon’s store.
With the new listing in place, 30 Vine Voices received the stockpot and five-star reviews began to appear. Reviews were positive and sales started to pick up quickly, so the stockpot was flagged as a “best new seller.” They now consider at least 10 Vine reviews to be an essential best practice when launching a new product in Amazon’s store.
Uncapped growth in Amazon’s store
With help from Abbottt and the team at Premiere Creative, HexClad has proven itself to be a power user of Amazon’s brand-building products. The tremendous growth and popularity they’ve enjoyed as a result of their presence in Amazon’s store can be an inspiration to brands of all sizes with a unique and valuable product to sell.
“Amazon is constantly evolving, getting smarter and better, and creating more levers and tools,” J.J. says. “We’re big on levers when it comes to our advertising techniques. We think that there’s a lot more opportunity here. We don’t see any cap to the business.” Brands like HexClad paired with strategists like Premiere Creative show that the sky is the limit when it comes to finding success in Amazon’s store.
“Amazon is constantly evolving, getting smarter and better, and creating more levers and tools,” J.J. says. “We’re big on levers when it comes to our advertising techniques. We think that there’s a lot more opportunity here. We don’t see any cap to the business.” Brands like HexClad paired with strategists like Premiere Creative show that the sky is the limit when it comes to finding success in Amazon’s store.
