How To Grow When Your Products Last Too Long #581

Most ecommerce founders dream of having customers who buy again and again. But what if your product’s so good, they never have to? That’s the challenge facing durable product brands like she wear, Ecosa, and Snotty Noses Australia. When your boots, mattresses, or devices are built to last for years, how do you keep growing without compromising quality or purpose?

In this playbook: 

• Why durable, long-lifespan products break traditional ecommerce growth models
• How to build a consumable ecosystem around a single hero product
• The role of word of mouth when repeat purchase is limited
• How customer use cases can reveal new product categories you never planned for
• How to turn durability into your brand moat, not a commercial constraint
• The shift from selling products to designing experiences and ongoing utility

Connect with Stacey
Explore she wear

Snotty Noses' Episode
Klipsta's Episode
Ecosa's Episode

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

When your brand is riding a wave that just keeps growing, you need more than just the right platform. You need the right partner. Gander Clothing was scaling rapidly, but their e-commerce tech just couldn't keep up. That's when they partnered with Convert Digital. Since launching a Headless Shopify Plus Stop in 2021, they've seen incredible results. A 300% increase in daily orders, 16% revenue growth, and a 12% conversion boost. With faster load times, seamless checkout experience, and powerful omnichannel integration. Gander has transformed into one of Australia's biggest retail success stories. And it's all powered by Convert Digital's commerce expertise. It's commerce that stacks up. Read the full case study at convertdigital.com.au. A slightly different playbook this week, and it's a problem that we come across a lot in e-commerce. It's kind of one of those problems that is really good to have, but annoying at the same time. And that's when you go to the effort to create a product that is actually quality, that you put a lot of time into making sure that you have great design, really awesome materials, and you put a lot of love and thought into your craftsmanship to make sure that when customers have a product, it's something that they might have for life, or maybe even pass through generations. We've had this a few times on Ad to Cart. And while that's great from a customer experience standpoint and also customer word of mouth, it doesn't help when your customers have a product that they'll never need to replace. How do you sell to them again if they've got something that they love and they're not thinking about replacing or adding to? It becomes a real challenge. Durability and quality has actually become your biggest competitor and growth limiter. So in this playbook, we want to explore how long lifespan e-commerce brands, the ones that I actually love the most, can evolve from selling things to building relationships, about turning one-off purchases into ongoing engagement through service, storytelling, accessories, and community. So customers keep coming back to them and being part of their world even when they don't need to. So to get into this mindset, we need to think about our relationship with the customers, not as a transactional one, but as a relationship that might go in many different directions. So that customer might come back and they might upgrade the product that they bought. They might buy accessories or other items from our range. That's great. However, they might also just interact with our content, whether that be social, whether that be fording an email onto a friend, whether that being an advocate in the community, or they might just want to stay in touch with us, read our content, be involved in our community so that when the time comes, they haven't gone anywhere. It's all about those touch points along the way in that post-purchase moment to build connection, advocacy, and identity. And one of the people that I think does this so well is Stacy Head, the co-founder of SheWare. I spoke with Stacy back on episode 565 and she raised this issue herself. She said one of her biggest problems is that she puts so much effort into providing quality footwear that her trade customers actually can have for a long time on a building site, especially in a world where those things are meant to break down pretty quickly. She wants to make sure that the customer doesn't need to rebuy often, but it doesn't help her business by designing it that way. So let's throw to that part of the conversation with Stacey where she talks around that challenge and how she's overcoming it.

SPEAKER_00: 3:35

We predominantly focus on shoes with our product design. So our brand products are still mainly shoes. And then we do the no-brainers, the socks, the laces, the care kits, and whatnot. So I mean they're a no-brainer from an increasing average order value and bringing customers back. We also sell workwear now, but we don't actually manufacture any of that. And it really is more to do with bringing the customer back because our shoes are known for their durability. So even our fashion shoes, which we've now gone down that track, can last years. We still have customers in our work boots from nine years ago.

SPEAKER_01: 4:08

That's not a great business decision. You've got to make shoes that like self-destruct after a few years.

SPEAKER_00: 4:13

I know. It's this, you know, from an environmental and financial perspective for our customers, you want them to last, but from a business growth perspective, it's not great. So that's kind of why we've morphed into more of a functional footwear brand. But the workwear is really just to be a one-stop shop and and be a place where women can feel safe to purchase what they need to for work.

SPEAKER_01: 4:34

When you say safe, what does safe look like for your customers?

SPEAKER_00: 4:38

You know, I don't want to go to through the male versus female thing. If you go into a workwear store, they're huge, right? They're work, they're warehouses effectively. But they are 99% catering for men. And you know, if women, and I mean, we cater for women of all shapes and sizes, if you're walking into a store and you're just told, oh, we don't really have many women's, but you know, what's the difference? Just wear a pair of men's pants or pair men's shoes. And it just doesn't feel good. And if you're shopping for fashion, you you want it to be a delightful experience. You want to feel comfortable. Why shouldn't work be the same? Like it should be an enjoyable experience because you're at work for a long time.

SPEAKER_01: 5:18

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so when you've designed your first store, how did you design that differently to create the experience, that safe experience that you want for your customers?

SPEAKER_00: 5:28

So it's more of a boutique feel. So it's certainly not a white with fluoro lights and silver racking. So it feels more like a boutique. And because we have fashion and the work and safety, there's kind of different zones in our store. So the safety section, we've painted it black. It's a bit more moodier because we do have women that will come in who might be dirty or sweaty from work and they feel a little bit self-conscious that they don't want to make things dirty. So, you know, there's been a lot of considered design going to our retail store as well to make them feel comfortable to feel at home as well.

SPEAKER_01: 5:59

Have you learned a lot about your customer by being able to be? I know you've always done a lot with the community and being face to face, but it's different when you've got people coming through the door every day. Have you learned much about your customer by having that physical presence?

SPEAKER_00: 6:12

Yeah. We we have actually had a showroom at our warehouse for years, but we just s started to see that really grow with organically. So that's kind of why we went down the official bricks and mortar route. But look, it's great feedback. Women will tell us exactly what they do and don't like, that's for sure. Yeah, they're very black and white in our store. So it's great from a brand narrative perspective, but it's great from a feedback perspective. And you can test on your customers that are in store as well. You know, how does this feel? Where does it feel good? Where does it not feel good? So they can be crash test dummies and not even know it in our store.

SPEAKER_01: 6:50

So come into the store and you'll be an experiment.

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

Oh, basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 6:54

How do you how do you prioritize? Because even with the footwear, I saw that you've got still your work boots, but then you've got uh boots for professionals, so nurses, teachers, and the rest, and then lifestyle, for lack of a better word, all very different types of shoes. How do you prioritize where you put your attention?

SPEAKER_00: 7:12

Look, a lot of it again is from customer feedback. You know, the only reason I went from safety into lifestyle was purely we all of a sudden started having customers say, Oh, I wear your steel caps, but I don't even need steel caps. They're just so comfortable. And because they're designed to be worn all day, they're durable. And then it was like, Well, why aren't I designing everyday shoes? This is crazy. So, you know, we even morphed into doing slides and now the new active shoes. It is hard to prioritize because it'd be nice to do everything. I want to do heels, comfortable heels, but I also acknowledge that's a big step, part in the pun.

SPEAKER_01: 7:49

Tell you what, if you make heels comfortable, then you've you're on a winner there. So, yes, quality products are great for customers, terrible for growth. From a financial perspective, Stacey's shoes were too durable to drive repeat sales. So she had to evolve. She started adding accessories like laces, socks, and care kits. Then she moved into lifestyle shoes because customers were saying, I wear your steel caps, but I don't even need them. They're just so comfortable. What a nice position to be in. And that's the moment where she wear shifted from product to experience. It stopped being a workwear brand and it started being a footwear lifestyle brand built on comfort, confidence, and community. That's what they want to be known for. They want to be that place where you come for comfort, confidence, and community, and then design product for that rather than the other way around. Now, if I think back to some other guests that we've had with this problem, I wanted to go back and think of their advice. And I've got a couple of lessons for you here. First one is around thinking about the ecosystem around a hero product. It's the same playbook that Laura Klein from Snotty Noses Australia. They have an amazing device that just rips the snot out of babies' noses, something that I wish I knew about. But it's one hero product. And she talked about this in episode 415. Her hero product, the Snotty Boss nasal aspirator. How's that for a product title? It's a one-off purchase. And you only ever need one. Whereas still, you probably only need it for a couple of years while you've got a really young child. But she built a consumable ecosystem around it: essential oils, balms, wellness add-ons, everything you need when you've got a child at that age. She got the confidence in the consumer from selling the hero product, but then kept customers coming back by having all of these products around it. Laura said it herself. She said that loyalty and word of mouth, that's the goose that lays the golden egg. Exact words out of her mouth. So if you've got long-lasting products, the trick isn't about selling replacements. It's about building everything that surrounds that hero product. Think coffee machine and pods or cameras and lenses. If your product is built to last, make the things that keep it useful or make the ownership of it more enjoyable. Second one there is don't get stuck. Let customer feedback drive progression and innovation into new areas you might not have thought before. This was brought up by the team at Clipster in episode 491. Their product is a tiny, durable clip that goes under hats, onto bags, and is just designed to solve those everyday problems. They had very specific uses in mind for it at the start, but their customers started using it for everything. So when your product solves a problem so well it eliminates the need for replacement, because once you've got a clip, you don't really need more clips. Where does the next sales cycle begin? It begins by listening intently to how customers are using your product in unexpected ways, leading to expansion into entirely new, high utility markets. Again, that's what Stacy did with her lifestyle range. With Clipster, the team found that farmers use it to hold Acubras in their trucks. Nurses clipped their glasses to scrubs. Fashion lovers use it as a handbag hook. None of these use cases were in mind when it was originally designed to keep school hats on school bags. The founders of Clipster didn't invent those use cases. Their customers did. They just listened. They tested and they built around it. That's how Clipster grew from one clever clip to an entire category of everyday problem solvers. Your customer base, especially those buying high-functional, long-lasting products, provide free innovation roadmap if you take the time to listen. Compliance or unexpected use cases are prime opportunities to develop new, durable products that solve adjacent problems, allowing you to expand your reach in completely new commercial markets without losing your focus on utility. And again, if you do it well, you keep quality at the core of everything that you do. You just go broader. And the third piece of advice is to lean in to that quality and value angle in your marketing. So if you have a product that lasts for decades or has a huge amount of great customer reviews because customers have had such an awesome experience with it, lean into it with marketing. For Ringo Chan at Ocosa, their promise is simple. They want to help people sleep better. Everything flows from that. It's not just the mattress, but it's the pajamas, the pillows, the bed frames, even the forthcoming Sleep AI app. ACOSA has evolved from selling a one-off product into everything to do with sleep. But what they do well is they have such confidence in their product that they're able to offer an extended guarantee and a trial at home, which rarely gets taken up because they have that quality. So if you have the problem that your products are too quality, take what makes it special and put it on the line. Add it as a USP and shout about it. Think about extended warranties or extended guarantees. Think about using customer testimonials in all of your marketing and leading with the customer's voice, being the advocates for you in market. Think about some of those executions you can do around doing stress tests or scientific research, if that's appropriate, around what makes you better than competitors. In a world of Timu and Shein, anything that you can do to showcase that you have a quality product not only helps you attract new customers, it helps you elevate your price point so that when you do get those one-off sales, they're actually more valuable. All right, that was a bit specific. I know that won't apply to everyone, but if you have a quality product, firstly, I salute you. Well done on being sustainable and caring for your customers. And secondly, I hope you had an idea or two that came out of this that can help create a more sustainable model for your business. If you liked what you heard today, hit that subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple, wherever you're listening. And if you want to throw around more ideas like this, come and join us on the Ad to Cart community. You can join up at addocart.com.au. We have about 500 e-commerce professionals in there, always sharing ideas, thoughts, answering each other's questions. We'd love you to join. It's free. Head on over to addocart.com.au to join up. I'll see you next week.