There are few moments cozier than sitting in front of a crackling fire, surrounded by loved ones, sipping on a warm mug of hot chocolate and roasting a marshmallow (or three). Colsen Fire Pit wanted to make that experience more accessible to everyone with portable indoor and outdoor fire pits. Founder and CEO Armando Colimodio launched the brand on Amazon.com, and soon the fire pit manufacturer was lighting up the homes of customers across the United States.
When Jon Guess of ecommerce agency Above The Fray met Armando, his business was already a success. The manufacturer was not only performing well on Amazon.com but had also expanded to other distributors, like Wayfair and Brookstone. But Jon and Armando knew they could take it up a notch.
Optimizing Buy with Prime to incentivize shoppers
Armando wanted to build his ecommerce business beyond Amazon.com and strengthen his brand. He turned to Buy with Prime, which allows Prime members to enjoy the same shopping and fulfillment experience they already know from Amazon.com directly on Colsen Fire Pit’s website. However, after adding the Buy with Prime button to the site, he didn’t see immediate success because the website design fell short. Buy with Prime Agency Partner, Above The Fray, stepped in with the development expertise needed to troubleshoot layout issues and better highlight what Buy with Prime had to offer Colsen’s shoppers.
Jon is a senior business analyst at Above The Fray and spent a lot of time with the Colsen Fire Pit team to assess their needs.
“Armando was already making lucrative sales with Amazon, but he wanted to grow the direct-to-consumer side of it,” says Jon. “We needed to take a renewed look at their digital commerce to know where they stood. With any growth stage comes challenges, and business owners know they can be facing unchartered territory.”
As a Buy with Prime Agency Partner, Above The Fray’s superpower is that the team can help pinpoint the areas merchants need to grow and provide them with not only a vision, but also a roadmap for what their business can become. Jon used Above The Fray’s Ecommerce Maturity Model to grade Colsen Fire Pit on where it is in the ecommerce journey and identify opportunities for expansion. Colsen Fire Pit hoped Above The Fray could help the brand optimize Buy with Prime on its site to drive conversions.
Over the course of this relationship, Colsen’s expectations were ultimately met: Above The Fray was able to help Colsen Fire Pit boost sales 76% month over month by better integrating Buy with Prime.
Building credibility with a trusted experience
When someone arrives at a new ecommerce site, they might not know what kind of experience to expect. This doubt and uncertainty is what can stop a casual browser from becoming a loyal customer. With products such as firepits, shoppers want to know that what they’re getting is safe and carefully manufactured to the highest standards before they put one in their home. Shoppers want assurance that they’re buying their firepit from a reputable company.
Above The Fray knew that Buy with Prime could help build that trust. With Buy with Prime, Prime members know that they’ll get the fast, free delivery, convenient returns, and seamless checkout experience they’re used to from Amazon. The agency got to work on redesigning the Colsen Fire Pit website for both mobile and desktop screens so that the trusted Buy with Prime badge was more prominent.
“Buy with Prime gives a company like Colsen the credibility it needs to build trust,” says Jon. “When shoppers see the Buy with Prime badge on product detail pages, they feel good that they’re at an ecommerce shop where they can get a frictionless checkout experience that they’re already familiar with.”
To optimize the addition of Buy with Prime and grow the brand’s ecommerce sales, Above The Fray updated the product detail pages on Colsen Fire Pit’s website so that the Buy with Prime button would render properly regardless of whatever device the shopper happened to be on. The agency also recommended adding the Buy with Prime badge to all active Buy with Prime products so that Prime members could more easily spot which products they could purchase with their Prime shopping benefits. And finally, Above The Fray placed a scrolling marque promotional banner for Buy with Prime to the top of the website so that it would be the first thing Prime members would see when they landed on the website, signaling to them they would have a familiar shopping experience they trust.
“With some simple style adjustments, we were able to drive awareness of Buy with Prime and how it works,” says Jon. “And for newer customers who may not have heard of Colsen Fire Pit before, having Buy with Prime on the site is huge.”
Not only is Colsen Fire Pit able to build greater trust through Buy with Prime, but it’s also getting to nurture the resulting customer relationships. Using customer information, such as contact and order details, is important when it comes to building loyalty. This empowers Armando to re-engage customers post-purchase with new products and deals.
Increasing sales through an expedited shopper journey
Thanks to changes from Above The Fray, Colsen Fire Pit was able to streamline the shopper journey and remove barriers to buying—ultimately resulting in a 76% increase in sales. Jon believes this is just the beginning, though; he expects that number to continue rising.
“Colsen Fire Pit was coming out of its low season then, but now that we’re in the winter season and the holidays are here, they predict sales will increase even further,” says Jon. “Armando also has new products he plans to activate Buy with Prime on as soon as they launch this winter. So, the sky’s the limit.”
With growing sales, better customer relationships, and more product launches, the future is burning bright for Colsen Fire Pit. The future is bright for Above The Fray, too, which will continue to help the brand drive conversions and navigate the constantly evolving landscape of ecommerce. “Buy with Prime has had a huge impact,” Jon adds, “and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.”
Find out more about how agencies like Above The Fray are using Buy with Prime to level up their merchants.