How can we get these shoes on more feet? How can we introduce more folks to the brand? These are the questions at the center of HEYDUDE ’s regular brainstorms with agency Momentum Commerce , an Amazon and Buy with Prime Partner that works intimately with the popular shoe brand. For the past few years, growth and reaching new shoppers has been the focus for HEYDUDE as it looked to continue the explosive growth that it saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, when work-from-home lifestyles spurred demand for comfortable loungewear and shoes.
But because HEYDUDE is a “customer first” company, it’s laser focused on questions like: How can we make it easier for shoppers to buy our shoes? And how can we get them to customers as fast as possible?
An answer came when HEYDUDE VP of Digital Commerce Tommy Kowalski passed by the Buy with Prime booth at ShopTalk 2023 and was inspired to see how the solution could help the brand grow its customer base and site sales. “We were intrigued by the idea of leveraging both the traffic on our dotcom and fulfillment through Amazon,” he says. “It’s the best of both worlds, so it seemed like a no-brainer.”
In addition, the Momentum team saw the opportunity to use Amazon DSP for Buy with Prime to help drive more site traffic using unique Amazon shopping signals to reach shoppers across the web and point them to HEYDUDE.com .
HEYDUDE activated a few SKUs with Buy with Prime, and “right away we got a lot of sales, without any marketing and even before our first Amazon DSP campaign,” Tommy says. “So we started to hypothesize what this could help us achieve from a business perspective, building Buy with Prime into our business strategy while keeping our customers at the forefront.” Since using Buy with Prime and Amazon DSP, HEYDUDE has seen uplifts in shopper conversion, new customers, average order value (AOV), and return on ad spend (ROAS).
Owning the brand experience
By the time Tommy learned about Buy with Prime, HEYDUDE had already been selling its shoes on Amazon.com for about five years. “We knew how successful our Amazon business was, so we wanted to understand how we could leverage Buy with Prime in a similar way on our own site,” Tommy explains. “It allows us to tap the best of Amazon, including a secure checkout and fast fulfillment, while owning the brand experience and customer relationships.”
On its own site, HEYDUDE remains in control of the brand persona and narrative and can provide a bespoke shopping experience. With Buy with Prime orders, HEYDUDE keeps the order and customer information, like contact details and purchase history.
“With those details, we can cultivate direct relationships with our customers,” Tommy says. “Knowing what they purchase can help us identify trends, which can help us understand our customers and how to serve them better. And that can help us boost lifetime value.” For example, the team can segment customers who purchased shoes from HEYDUDE’s licensed collections and email them about future releases.
Customer lifetime value is important to HEYDUDE’s long-term strategy as it strives first to increase brand awareness and customer acquisition. “We want to get the product on the customer’s feet as fast as possible, so they can not only enjoy the product, but also become brand advocates,” Tommy says. “It’s a shorter time frame to potential second and third purchases—and from there, advocacy and word-of-mouth.”
Getting orders to its customers fast has been particularly important during key shopping events, like Prime Day and the holidays. When HEYDUDE added Buy with Prime to its site in late 2023, the team prioritized Buy with Prime in its holiday activation. Not only did they see impressive results, but they also saw how offering the checkout extended the holiday shopping window . Last-minute shoppers could purchase Prime eligible shoes on HEYDUDE’s site just days before the holidays and still get them in time.
“That’s been a big unlock to give shoppers an extra couple days of shopping before the holidays,” Tommy says. “And for us, it means we can capture extra sales before ending the quarter.”
Reaching new customers across the web
The Momentum team sees HEYDUDE’s Amazon DSP campaign as another strategy to reach new customers . The Amazon Ads demand-side platform solution has a unique offering for Buy with Prime that leverages ASIN-level shopping signals to reach Amazon shoppers interested in merchants’ products, or similar products and categories, with relevant ads featuring their Buy with Prime products .
“We’re using Amazon DSP ads to reach folks who have already engaged with HEYDUDE on their website or on Amazon.com as a cost-effective way to drive traffic and conversions,” explains Ryan Walker, VP of Media at Momentum Commerce . Additionally, the team is leverage existing campaigns that market to net-new shoppers with ads that highlight fast and free shipping.
During its first Amazon DSP campaign for Buy with Prime, 46.8% of conversions were new-to-brand customers . And over the course of its Amazon DSP campaigns in 2024, HEYDUDE saw ROAS of 11.4x on its ecommerce site and combined ROAS of 26.7x across its site and Amazon.com.
“We’re very pleased with the engagement and the results that we’re seeing from Amazon DSP, how the ads are actually pushing up both our Buy with Prime orders and our Amazon.com sales,” Tommy says. This trend has been common among some Buy with Prime merchants, with many seeing a halo effect on their Amazon.com sales after launching Buy with Prime or a campaign with the unique DSP solution.
He adds, “Buy with Prime is allowing us to expand across both DTC and Amazon, especially as we’ve seen an omnichannel halo effect. When something happens on our site, we also see positive results in our Amazon Store .”
In addition, Momentum has witnessed a 13.3% increase in AOV of Buy with Prime orders during HEYDUDE’s Amazon DSP campaigns in 2024. “We’re trying to use upper funnel media to get the brand and products with higher average selling prices in front of premium shoppers,” Ryan says. “Since launching the campaign, AOV of Buy with Prime orders has been climbing . Outside of the total uplift in sales, being able to maintain a higher price point is a very big win given the quantity of shoe sales we’re driving.”
Keeping up with customer expectations
With a focus on its customers, HEYDUDE knows how important it is to keep up with expectations for online shopping. Consumers are shopping across more channels, looking for increasingly faster delivery, and abandoning orders that don’t offer free shipping.
“Consumer expectations and their behavior change every day—how they shop, where they shop,” Tommy explains. “We need to evolve or we’re going to get left behind. So how are we continuing to adjust to reach consumers where they are and meet their expectations?”
Offering Buy with Prime on its site means that Prime members who land on HEYDUDE.com can shop directly with the brand while still getting the fast, free delivery that they’ve come to expect. “We can’t match the scale and speed of the Amazon fulfillment network on our own, so Buy with Prime lets us tap into that network to serve our consumer,” Tommy says. “And because Prime members have confidence in the checkout, they know that their orders will arrive quickly.”
That confidence has ended up paying off for the shoe brand too. HEYDUDE conducted an A/B test with Buy with Prime in which the checkout was randomly displayed for half of site visitors to measure conversion uplift. “The results were very meaningful, especially because HEYDUDE is a large brand, so even a small uplift can have a big impact,” explains Ryan, emphasizing a 3.9% increase in shopper conversion. “Buy with Prime proved itself, that it was a good thing to have on the site. It wasn’t just a convenience addition for shoppers—it actually motivated them to make a purchase.”
While a motivated shopper is good for business, providing a stellar shopping experience for its consumers (backed by a stellar line of footwear) is what’s most important to HEYDUDE. Holiday sales quotas, ad performance, and growth goals aside, the team remains focused on the customers who have helped make the brand what it is today.
“We continue to put the customer first in all of our decision making, so we’re positioning ourselves to grow while investing in a good experience for our consumers,” Tommy says. “The minute we take our eyes off of the consumer and do only what we think is best for business, we’ll lose them and the relationships that are so important to our business.”