Cookware Darling Big Jones Gets Nomination by Meyer. Are DTC Home Goods Out of Stock?
This week, Fast Company broke the story that Great Jones, the popular DTC cookware maker for the millennial set, had been acquired by cookware giant Meyer. At Meyer, Great Jones joins a portfolio of brands that includes Farberware, Anolon, Hestan (including the Hestan Cue technology), Circulon, and Rachael Ray. According to Fast Company, six Great Jones employees will join Meyer, and founder and CEO Sierra Tishgart will become Meyer’s chief creative officer.
Meyer is an interesting place for Great Jones, a start-up that grew at the beginning of rocketship by using Instagram social marketing for products like the Dutch oven “The Dutchess”. From there, the company rode a roller coaster through the pandemic, internal strife, and eventually went into cold fundraising mode as investors cooled on DTC’s startups in recent years.
The cooling of the DTC has hit all categories of consumer goods as it became clear, especially after the lifting of pandemic restrictions, that growth will be limited in the end unless brands establish a specific brick and mortar channel strategy. DTC OG Warby Parker saw this early, opening its first stores ten years ago, which executives have admitted has been a huge success with plans to open 900 of them.
But glasses aren’t cooking utensils – you don’t need to try a pan to see what it looks like, after all – so why would the company need to appear in retail stores? Part of the reason is the rising cost of digital marketing, which is up 20 percent from 2021, and the rising cost of direct-to-consumer shipping.
But perhaps the biggest reason is that the conversion of customers in the store is often much higher than online, especially since many brands have appeared in the cooking section in recent years. While Great Jones already has stores in places like Nordstrom, Meyer’s access to a wider variety of brick-and-mortar retailers will undoubtedly accelerate the brand’s growth as it gains more exposure to retail customers.
However, as one of the early success stories of DTC homeware was discovered by a homeware brand such as Meyer, other DTC cookware startups such as Caraway and Misen continue. But the name Misen suffered significant layoffs last year suggests that the top-flight DTC cooking brands of the past decade may continue to struggle unless they consolidate power with a larger, sales-based product or invest in building their own sales channels.
With the acquisition of Great Jones, Meyer – a recognized brand outside of his Hestan Cue-affiliated culinary business – hopes to inject the DNA of the online native brand throughout the company, signified by making Great Jones’ Tishgart the company’s new creative director. It’s a smart move because, in the future, successful companies are likely to be those that are strong in sales and can navigate social media and online channels.
