There are a lot of big players in the canned energy drinks industry, and there are even more focused on healthy energy. But there’s only one “better for you” canned energy drink offering Prime shopping benefits directly on the company’s ecommerce site. ZOA Energy Drinks are designed to support healthy immunity while providing a boost of energy, focus, and hydration from antioxidants in camu camu and acerola, B vitamins, electrolytes, amino acids, and natural caffeine.
“ZOA’s mission is to provide consumers with great tasting, cleaner, health-forward energy drinks that give you just the right amount of balanced energy to fuel all that you do,” says Melanie Hellenga, Chief Marketing Officer of ZOA Energy.
ZOA was born out of that pursuit in 2021, and it quickly grew into a brand loved by athletes, artists, business professionals, and the everyday consumer. Since launching, ZOA has expanded sales to retail outlets like Costco and GNC, to Amazon.com, and on the ZOAEnergy.com website.
Most recently, ZOA added Buy with Prime to its site, offering its growing community of customers—or ZOA Warriors, as the company calls them—the fast, free delivery, seamless checkout, and easy returns that they know from Amazon. Prime members can shop the brand’s collection of ZOA and ZOA+ energy drinks, add up to 20 cases to the Buy with Prime cart, and then check out using their Amazon account to get their orders shipped free, as fast as one day.
Since adding Buy with Prime cart to its site, ZOA has seen a 29.1% increase in average order value (AOV) for Buy with Prime orders. What’s more, it’s having an even broader impact on ZOA’s ecommerce sales. Since adding Buy with Prime cart, AOV has increased 6.5% across total site orders, including both Buy with Prime and those through standard checkout.
Where brands go to grow
Shortly after launching, ZOA expanded to major retailers throughout the US and on to Amazon.com to get its better-for-you energy drink into the hands of more warriors. Then in the second half of 2022, ZOA traded its third-party logistics provider for Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) to handle all of its ecommerce orders on channels beyond Amazon. Says Kevin Kruse, Director of Ecommerce at ZOA, “Amazon is where brands go to grow.”
Through its relationship with MCF, Kevin heard about a new way for Prime members to shop—and more importantly, a new way for online stores to grow their businesses—using Buy with Prime. When Prime members shop eligible products on brands’ sites and then check out using Buy with Prime, their orders are picked, packed, and shipped free in 1–2 days through MCF.
“Nobody can match Amazon’s fulfillment, and the price was right,” Kevin explains. “We were already selling on Amazon and using MCF to fulfill other ecommerce orders, so adding Buy with Prime seemed very logical and economical, a harmonious way to fulfill orders.”
It’s all about the AOV
This year, ZOA was the first merchant to activate Buy with Prime cart on its site, allowing Prime members to purchase multiple products that offer Buy with Prime in one transaction. Buy with Prime cart is helping ZOA scale and grow by increasing sales and AOV and optimizing fulfillment costs because MCF can fulfill multiple products from one Buy with Prime order in fewer packages. Historically, multiunit orders make up about 99% of ZOA’s orders, according to Kruse, and 70% of orders are from repeat customers. The brand offers free shipping on orders greater than $50, so most shoppers buy multiple cases of energy drinks ranging from $24.99–$34.99 to get free shipping.
With Buy with Prime, Prime members don’t have a minimum spend on ZOAEnergy.com and they can add a variety of flavors to the Buy with Prime cart to get fast, free delivery. For shoppers, “shipping speed is huge, so Buy with Prime offers an upgrade for Prime members on our site,” says Kruse. “But for ZOA, cart is so vital—it’s all about the AOV.”
After browsing and adding to their cart, Prime members can check out quickly with a secure experience that they know and trust. They sign in to their Amazon account and their preferred shipping and payment details are prepopulated in the order.
“It’s an attractive and easy-to-use experience,” Kevin says. “The ease of checkout is much better than others out there. Others make shoppers click through several pages, so it takes longer and I imagine those have higher abandonment rates as a result. With Buy with Prime, if you’re already signed in to Amazon, it’s so easy and fast. I would estimate that the Buy with Prime checkout abandonment rate is lower.”
Since activating Buy with Prime cart, ZOA has seen not only the increase in AOV, but also a 29.8% increase in Buy with Prime units per order (UPO), which is higher than the average across Buy with Prime merchants. On average, merchants have seen a 15% increase in Buy with Prime UPO after adding cart to their Buy with Prime checkout.*
Fueling something bigger
The ZOA team is building its brand through an omnichannel approach, ecommerce growth solutions like Buy with Prime, and their community of warriors. ZOA launched The Rock’s Warriors, a program featuring seven leading collegiate athletes who embody the same mantra driving ZOA and Co-Founder Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to “fuel something bigger.” It’s the “grit and hard work” of warriors like these, of ZOA’s founders and team members, and of partners across the industry that have made ZOA what it is today.
Although it’s been nearly a year since ZOA launched Buy with Prime on its site, it’s still early days and the team looks forward to other features like Buy with Prime cart to help grow its ecommerce business.
Go to the Buy with Prime blog to learn how to optimize Buy with Prime cart on your site.
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*Data is from a sample of 34 Buy with Prime merchants, and 15% is the average of the increase in units per order (comparing 30 days prior and post cart launch) for each Buy with Prime merchant in the analysis.