Digital Darts

How HexClad went from a failed juicer startup to $380M+ in cookware sales.

Cookware brand HexClad went from shutting down a failed juicer business in 2016 to pulling in more than $380 million in revenue today.

It nearly went bankrupt just a year after launch, running on only three months of cash, before sales took off.

Founded by Danny Winer, the brand now sells globally and has Gordon Ramsay as a partner who uses HexClad pans in his restaurants and TV shows.

Danny wanted a brand people could trust for life. The timing was a perfect storm: a laser-etched pan design, the rise of direct-to-consumer shopping, and a pandemic that turned millions into home chefs.

How did they pull it off? Here are the strategies you can steal for your own brand:

1. Treat Failures Like Training

Danny’s first product—a cold-pressed juicer—completely flopped. Instead of quitting, he treated that failure as tuition. He asked tougher questions, sought honest feedback, and used the lessons to refine HexClad’s cookware.

If your launch doesn’t work, don’t just bury it. Ask, “What was my role in the failure?” Was it the product, the timing, the positioning? Every misstep sharpens your instincts for the next play.

2. Build a Legacy Brand, Not a Quick Exit

HexClad didn’t chase quick sales. They focused on durability and offered lifetime warranties when competitors wanted repeat purchases.

Think long-term. Would your customers trust you enough to buy your next product without even reading reviews? That’s how you build brand equity that compounds.

3. Use Rejection to Refine Your Pitch

Investors laughed when Danny pitched a DTC cookware brand. But every “no” gave him material to sharpen his messaging. What didn’t resonate in the boardroom later became the backbone of successful Facebook ads.

If people don’t “get it” right away, don’t throw the idea out. Reframe the pitch until you strike a chord. That practice will pay off when you’re marketing to customers.

4. Lead by Example

Danny made it clear leadership isn’t about telling people what to do. He washed dishes in the office sink. He broke down boxes at events. That culture of rolling up sleeves trickled down to the entire team.

Want your employees or freelancers to care as much as you do? Show them. Be willing to do the unglamorous jobs as it sets the tone for your whole organization.

5. Find Champions Who Believe in You

HexClad’s biggest turning point was Gordon Ramsay trying the pan, loving it, and becoming a partner. Is that luck? It was the product delivering on its promise.

Instead of chasing influencers with cash, focus on creating a product so good it wins champions naturally. The right endorsement can catapult you, but only if the product earns it.

I write a free weekly newsletter to help you grow your Shopify brand. You can get it at www.digitaldarts.com.au/free

4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 2

Digital Darts

Shopify brands, don’t fall for Google’s most expensive “recommendation.”

It quietly wrecks campaigns every week—and it’s hiding in plain sight.

I recently audited a store that was scaling fast… until Google told them to optimize for growth. They followed the advice. Conversions dropped. CPC exploded. ROAS collapsed.

So what’s the setting that destroys good campaigns and how do you avoid it?

At 10am AEST, I'm emailing 4000+ Shopify store owners with:

- the #1 bidding trap you’re probably walking into

- the 5 rules we follow before touching smart bidding

- how to scale spend without killing performance

Get the email here before your next campaign goes live:
👉 www.digitaldarts.com.au/free?utm_source=youtube&ut…

8 months ago | [YT] | 1

Digital Darts

How to do Shopify SEO in 2025 💃

🚀 Updated guide alert! The ultimate Shopify SEO guide for 2025 is live with tons of specific tips to boost your store's performance.

🔍 Pro Tip: Learn how to override Shopify's rel canonical value using metafields! Perfect for managing product pages that act like variants. Search the guide for "Products Versus Product Variants" to master this technique.

🛠 Fix indexation issues: In Google Search Console, you might find URLs that shouldn’t be indexed or no longer exist—like policy and terms of service pages. These should not be blocked! Google’s EEAT guidelines value trustworthiness, so indexing them makes sense. The guide shows you exactly how to fix this.

💎 Tap into free traffic: Check out the new section on Free Merchant Listings. Auditing these listings is an easy way to attract more eyes on your products without spending on ads.
Check out the guide now at www.digitaldarts.com.au/shopify-seo

11 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

Digital Darts

Every year I get brands to focus more on profits.

Many 7-figure brands don't understand contribution margin. They also fail to make any media buying decisions to optimize for customer lifetime value.

If this is you, the best thing you can do is to know what your contribution margin is right now.

The average contribution margin per order = AOV - Total CPA - ((COGS + Shipping Costs + Gateway Fees) / Orders) - (Return Percentage * AOV)

Next, set up a data connector with a tool like Two Minute Reports or use Triple Whale to begin tracking it daily as your northstar. The daily update is required so you can see the cause and effect of decisions. You stiill consider a 7-day total for inevitable decision lag.

This at least gets you making media buying decisions based on real business data for profit. That's stage 1.

Stage 2 is is calculating, and optimising for, customer lifetime value by advertising your hero offer that leads to the most scale.

This gives you predictability with forecasting, inventory, and a clear tripwire offer to focus on with your emails, sales, and landing pages. The path to growth becomes clear.

Treating CM as your northstar gets you profitable.

Treating LTV as your northstar gets you scale.

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

Digital Darts

Each year I see the same common mistakes made, predominantly a lack of omnichannel strategy with little-to-no thought given to discounts, creatives or budget.

BFCM is increasing every year. This year, Shopify generated a whopping $11.5 billion in sales. That was a 24% increase on last year. Yet many advertisers failed to grow this year.

Most of our clients took our advice and saw significant increases this year.

📈Increases of 14% to 79%.

For those that either didn’t participate or didn’t embrace an omnichannel approach, they either remained steady or saw a decline.

Here is how we help our Shopify clients prepare to get the most out of their BFCM campaigns.

✅ Plan early. Like two to three months early. A successful campaign can’t be thrown together a couple of weeks beforehand. Each of your marketing partners (Meta, Google, TikTok, Klaviyo, etc) need time to plan, produce creatives and build campaigns.

✅ Decide on your goals before deciding on the size or type of discounts you will offer. Do you want to clear stock or attract new customers with the goal or repeat purchases. A BFCM strategy needs to benefit both you and the customer. The last thing you want is to either run at a loss or break even when your goal is to make a profit.

✅ Go big on the discount or go home. 5% and 10% discounts aren’t going to cut it. Consumers expect deep discounts. If you can afford to, go 30%, 40% or bigger.

✅ Embrace an omnichannel approach. Attempting to run a campaign without other channels backing you up is a formula for failure. Brands that promote and nurture sales across multiple channels like Meta, Google and Klaviyo are more likely to see better results than those that go all in on just one channel.

✅ Invest enough budget to reach your goals. If your goal is to clear all of your stock for example, and your always-on budget clears a portion of it, then you need more budget. You also need to account for higher CPMs during the BFCM weekend due to increased competition. Simply, be prepared to invest more.

✅ Launch early. If your goal is to clear stock, then offer it to your existing free or low cost audiences first a few weeks out from the event. Do some early bird EDMs and social organic posts. Back it up with promoting the sale on your website. If your goal is to attract new customers, update your email pop up on your website to encourage email sign ups. A couple of weeks before the event, launch or scale up some paid media campaigns promoting samples of the stock you plan on promoting (using images of bestsellers is advised) to build up those remarketing lists.

✅ Keep an eye on stock levels during the weekend. If you run out of stock for anything make sure you tell your marketing partners. You don’t want to be spending money on ads for products you can’t actually fulfill.

Next year, start early, use multiple channels and invest an adequate budget.

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Digital Darts

Shopify slammed us with dozens of new releases on December 11 after a code freeze in the lead up to BFCM.

Watch their Shopify Editions update: shopify.com/editions/winter2025

Subscriptions and subscription management has become more friendly for customers.

I think more brands need to be pushing for account creation and management now, which lets you collect more quality information in post-purchase email sequences for marketing like accurate audience building (more data = better matching) and message marketing. I found out Ridge Wallet do this well after getting one of their wallets for a Christmas gift.

In the announcement link, you can read the updates or watch "boring TV" to get every update delivered to you by an AI video.

The updates are delivered in a clever way. Clever often leads to a bad user experience, but they've done well with a text summary to support the AI audio as well as channels on the TV that correspond to the update number.

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 0

Digital Darts

Connectively/HARO is dead. Good.

Here’s how we land better media features EVERY month for ecommerce brands.

With journalists still actively seeking expert voices, there’s never been a better time to position yourself as a go-to resource. By leveraging these 4 platforms and delivering authentic, high-value contributions, you can secure meaningful media features and backlinks to grow your authority like never before.

1. Qwoted

Qwoted’s sleek UX and transparency make it a standout platform for connecting with journalists. It features the highest quality of online publications where journalists actively work and request expert insights. You can see how many pitches a journalist has received, helping you gauge your chances of being selected. With two free pitches per month, it’s accessible for beginners, while premium plans start at $99/month. Once selected, journalists can communicate directly through the platform’s inbox, streamlining collaboration and ensuring clear communication.

2. Featured

Featured offers a clean interface to track pitch status—reviewed, selected, published, or not selected. Users get 3 free pitches per month, while pro seats start at $39.80/month for unlimited pitches. However, a downside is that some journalist requests are directed to Featured's own network of websites. Still, it remains a valuable tool for getting your expertise noticed.

3. SOS (Source of Sources)

Launched in 2024 by PeterShankman, the original founder of HARO, SOS is the newest player in the game. This free platform provides daily emails with journalist queries. However, with no filtering or barriers to entry, expect high competition.

4. Help a B2B Writer

This niche platform focuses on matching sources with B2B writers creating highly targeted industry content. As a source, you simply register, select your areas of expertise, and receive relevant queries via email. Only sources with matching expertise criteria get notified, keeping pitches focused and effective. While its focus ensures better matches, like SOS, there’s no barrier to entry, meaning higher competition and varying pitch quality.

And a bonus tip.

5. Focus on Building Relationships, Not Transactions

Don’t just pitch when you need something. Share their articles, comment on their posts, or send a quick note of appreciation for their work. Building genuine rapport pays off in the long run. Offer to be a go-to resource for future stories in your area of expertise. Journalists are more likely to reach out directly if they know you’re reliable and knowledgeable.

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

Digital Darts

It's your offer and changes on your website that increase AOV—not tighter targeting, higher ROAS targets, bidding higher on specific devices, or changes to ad scheduling.

Here are 3 ways most brands can increase their AOV:

1️⃣ Increase your product prices. Price boosts can be hard as DTC is the ultimate commoditization of pricing because of the speed that ecommerce entrepreneurs find and take advantage of arbitrage in markets.

Test price changes from a determined date then compare product sales and conversion rates, against the prior period and prior year. You must keep offers in ads consistent to reduce advertising being the influence. Be aware of other influential conditions like trends. Use a statistical significance calculation tool to get an honest test. Getting 100 product sales over a week is unlikely to be enough for a test.

2️⃣ Create a bundle of your hero product. Your hero product is what gets purchased first and sells well, and it generates the highest customer lifetime value.

Ask yourself what products compliment each other that usually sell well as individual items? Maybe a cleanser and moisturizer together? A Sankey diagram of the product journey helps.

You can always bundle with bonus items that support the hero product's usage. Manscaped have a toiletry bag and boxers. A bonus item can have an extremely low COGs that you wouldn't otherwise sell alone, but bundling it makes it valuable.

3️⃣ Increase your free shipping threshold the right way. By definition, your AOV is an average. To raise it, you have to strategize off of the "mode" value: the most frequent number in a sequence.

Look at the products purchased. Then you can increase your AOV and improve your free shipping threshold.

What have you done to increase your AOV?

1 year ago | [YT] | 1

Digital Darts

Amazon has stepped into the low-cost fast retail game, taking direct aim at Shein and Temu.

The ecommerce giant has launched a new mobile-only storefront that features super-affordable fashion and lifestyle products all under $20! Here's what you need to know:

📱 Available only on mobile in the USA
💸 All items priced $20 or less, some as low as $1!
📦 $3.99 shipping or free for orders over $25
🔖 Order $50 save 5%, Order $75+ save 10%
⏱️ Typical delivery times: 1-2 weeks
🔄 Free returns on items over $3 within 15 days
🛡️ Backed by Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee

With Amazon Haul offering ultra-low prices and expanding its reach, how are you planning to differentiate your Shopify store to retain customers and compete in this increasingly price-driven market?

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Digital Darts

Meta's new "automatic adjustments" feature lets their system make major changes to your ad campaigns without notifying you—pausing campaigns, tweaking budgets, even merging audiences.

Meta states that automatic adjustments requires advertisers to manually opt-in by clicking "apply", but some users report it's been activated by default in their accounts, causing unplanned campaign changes.

If you're seeing unexpected shifts in spend or audience targeting, this might be why! 🔍

To take back control:

Go to "All tools" → "Automated rules" → "Manage automatic adjustments" → Turn it OFF.

Protect your campaigns! Check your settings now.

1 year ago | [YT] | 0