Hiya!
Hope you’re having a delightful Friday. While I thoroughly enjoyed my break from travel this week, I am very excited to head to Los Angeles next week for the inaugural Talent Commerce Summit.
If you’re also going — or live in LA and want to hang out — drop me a note! I’ll be in town for a few days and would love to meet up for a coffee or a bite. ☕️
You may have noticed over the past few months that the FERMÀT website has undergone a significant facelift. This week, the marketing team completed the final sprint of our major web project, launching 8 new pages on our website!
If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend taking a peek at:
Our new Products pages - found under the Products dropdown on the nav
Our new Organization pages - found under the Solutions dropdown on the nav
Our new Roles pages - found under the Solutions dropdown on the nav
& our new Industries pages - found under the Solutions dropdown on the nav
If you’re interested in diving deeper into how you can leverage FERMÀT within your company, role, or industry, there’s a lot of juicy info for you to explore. And of course, shiny new product pages to show off all our nifty tech. 😛
Anywhoo, I’m so proud of my team’s hard work, and I think the new pages are pretty rad. Now onto the regularly scheduled programming!
In this week’s edition: How HULKEN's site makes chores sexy, Kendra Scott's AI-led sales surge, authentic fan engagement tactics, and more.
Wishing you a stellar, sunny summer weekend. ☀
Cheers,
Lex 💚
🛒 Store of the Week
HULKEN
I came across this brand while browsing Prime Day sales this week, and being the DTC girly that I am, I had to go check out their core ecommerce site. HULKEN makes trendy, giant tote bags on wheels. These carts are perfect for city dwellers to haul groceries, commuters to carry all their work stuff back and forth from the office, laundromat users, and just about anyone running errands.
I’m always drawn to brands that make un-sexy products feel very sexy, and HULKEN is an excellent example of that.
Some of my favorite elements:
Homepage/Hero → Love the video hero here - great for showing off the product size and some possible use cases. Great incorporation of their current sale promo as well; I find this hero very compelling.
Homepage/Scrolling Banner → I love this little thing. It highlights key product features, benefits, and uses all while showing off a variety of colors that they offer their totes in. Think the pace of the scroll here is perfect.
Homepage/Shop Original Rolling Tote → LOOK AT THIS SIZE GUIDE! A masterpiece. Click the hyperlink, and a little modal pops up with infographics, product details, and a CTA to shop for each size. Big shoutout to Hulken for the Quick Add buttons that appear when hovering over the product cards in this section, too.
Homepage/Schlep Smarter section → Effectively highlights that Hulken offers more than just the rolling totes they’re known for. Copy here is on-brand and expertly emphasizes product benefits/use cases. Again, I dig the slow-moving scrolling banner in a contrasting beige tone. Draws the eye to read 2 bits of info that combat purchase objections (return policy & number of reviews)
Homepage/Why 250K+ haul section → Lovely social proof section, just wish it was shoppable. Hulken has some top-tier UGC they’re showing off well here.
Homepage/How Hulken Stands Out section → Cool Us v Them visualization with video content
A few other quick callouts:
Navigation/Shop → Very well laid out. Love that you can quickly shop totes by size and by color
Navigation/How to Use → Each of these cards in the nav links to listicle-style articles on why the HULKEN tote is great for that use case. But even if shoppers don’t click through to these pages, they get a thorough overview of the tote’s multiple use cases with visualizations
Tote PDPs → Simple but effective upsell here, definitely go check that out
Shoutout to the HULKEN team. Y’all really crushed this site. Hauling things around town looks fun. You got me for sure; I’m buying one! 😆
🛍 Product of the Week
Wip
I admire many of you who live life without caffeine…because we are not the same. 😂 And while I do enjoy an iced coffee, energy drinks tend to make my tummy hurt. That’s how I was introduced to Wip.
WIP makes natural caffeine energy pouches that deliver “focused energy”. They offer both 100mg and 200mg caffeine strengths, and their pouches claim to be crafted with “premium materials for a softer mouth feel”. I’m sure the Zynn crowd can get behind this.
Each little pouch packs natural caffeine, B vitamins, and minerals into a convenient, portable format that you can consume just about anywhere. No chugging carbonated drinks, no fumbling with hot coffee cups, and no sticky energy drink residue on your hands. I’ll admit it; the convenience factor is intriguing to me.
At about $0.53 per pouch, Wip is certainly cheaper than buying a coffee or an energy drink out. If you’re interested in dabbling in a new energy consumption method, Wip might be the thing for you!
📖 Content of the Week
Modern Retail: How AI Is Driving More Online Sales for Kendra Scott
If you've been wondering whether AI customer service tools drive sales, Kendra Scott just dropped some impressive numbers to help settle the debate.
Their "AI Copilot" now handles 93% of customer inquiries and influences 6% of total e-commerce sales, with revenues from AI interactions up 160%. That's not just cost savings; that's actual revenue impact.
What's driving this success? Customer behavior is shifting. People are genuinely becoming more comfortable shopping via AI assistance. The tool goes beyond basic FAQs to guide shoppers through decisions like finish preferences, sizing, and budget considerations—essentially filtering thousands of options down to the most relevant choices.
This is part of Kendra Scott's broader digital transformation, which has already delivered a 50% sales growth. They're also utilizing predictive AI for marketing, analyzing over 500 customer behavioral signals to deliver personalized messaging, resulting in a 5% RPV lift.
For brands still on the fence about implementation, these results suggest it’s time to start taking AI seriously, especially for those that offer a diverse SKU catalog.
🎧 Listen of the Week
Meme Team - When Brands Listen to Fans: F1, Superman & Star Wars
In this episode of Meme Team, Sonia Baschez (fractional CMO) and Christina Garnett (fractional CCO) break down how leading brands are cracking the code on authentic fan engagement. They delve into three fascinating case studies — F1's approach to connecting with female fans, Superman's viral marketing wins, and Star Wars navigating fan expectations.
The F1 strategy breakdown was my favorite bit. Instead of just slapping pink branding on everything, F1’s team actually sat down to study how women engage with the sport differently from their male counterparts.
From that research, F1’s team built unique viewer experiences for their female demo. No surprise — as a result, female viewership is exploding.
This is a great listen if you're trying to build authentic connections with your audience, instead of just talking at them.
🧰 Tool of the Week
AnswerThePublic
Often the best insights come from listening to what your customers are actually asking. AnswerThePublic taps into that goldmine of search data, something many brands overlook.
This tool listens to autocomplete data from Google and other search engines, then generates every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keywords. With 3 billion Google searches happening daily and 20% being completely new queries, you're getting a direct line to your customers' thoughts.
It’s a great solution for identifying content gaps in your market and uncovering niche opportunities that competitors might miss. You can also monitor trends over time to see how search behavior evolves, keeping your content strategy ahead of the curve.
At $11/month per user, AnswerThePublic offers an affordable way to juice your marketing strategy with real search data rather than assumptions.
🎉 Upcoming Events
Talent Commerce Summit
July 15 // Los Angeles, CA
FERMÀT is stoked to sponsor Talent Commerce Summit - the first annual celebrity brand conference for the best minds in talent commerce. This event is all about the intersection of culture & commerce. Speakers include senior leaders from the industry’s top talent-backed brands, such as Rare Beauty, De Soi, Dr. Squatch, General Mills, Ouai, and more.
Amplify NYC 2025
July 21 // New York, NY
Catch FERMÀT at this summer’s Amplify event in NYC! Learn from top founders, Shark Tank alumni, & industry leaders. Get quick-hit, actionable insights from seasoned pros like Sean Riley (Founder & CEO of Dude Wipes), Aaron Kraus (Founder of Scrub Daddy), Iskra Lawrence (Founder of Saltair), Brooks Powell (Co-Founder of Cheers), and more.
Retail Brew’s Rewiring Retail - Mastering Data, Inventory, and the Online Customer Experience
July 23 // New York, NY
Join Retail Brew, FERMÀT, Google Cloud & other partners for a day of expert content all about staying ahead of the curve. Faced with ad fatigue, rising acquisition costs, and heightened customer expectations, turning clicks into conversions and winning loyal customers can feel like a constant uphill battle. This comprehensive event is designed to equip retailers with the knowledge of strategies needed to thrive in the digital marketplace. Speakers include Aanan Contractor (VP Storefront & Loyalty, Wayfair), Katherine Brodie (CMO, Frances Valentine), Kim Gallagher (Exec Director of Marketing & CS, Nuuly), Sharon Price John (CEO, Build-A-Bear Workshop), and more.
