case:The Story
The Kitchen Lab is Swedish high end retailer of kitchenware, selling everything from sous-vides and Santoku knives to meat thermometers and ice cream machines. With industry competition as sharp as a Japanese kitchen knife and margins as slim as the delicate edge of a perfectly sliced truffle, having precise control of costs and profits are key to KitchenLab’s success.
With the economic climate growing more challenging in 2023, KitchenLab was looking to diversify risk and find new revenue opportunities. With the help of Bluebird Media, KitchenLab identified new international markets to expand to. Summarizing the year, it is clear that the European launch project has been a great success for KitchenLab, bringing significant added revenue and profits.
The Challenge
The Kitchen Lab wanted to start selling in more markets, to find growth and new revenue streams. However, selling to a European market as a relatively small niche player would be a challenge - how should The Kitchen Lab prioritize its investments and make sure to reach a positive ROI as soon as possible? The answer was in making use of market data, coupled with a high degree of automation of digital marketing.
The Solution
New localized sites were built, and a soft-launch digital marketing strategy was developed. In the spring of 2023, the international expansion was launched. Bluebird’s best in class digital marketing setup, combining automation, business insight and close collaboration with The Kitchen Lab helped make the launch a great success. In just under six months, international sales account for over half of KitchenLab’s profits.
The Results
It only took 3 months to reach a positive ROI, and within six months 55% of profit was coming from the new markets. In a tough economic climate with many ecommerce businesses seeing their sales diminish or even going out of business, 2023 turned out to be one of the best financial years so far for The Kitchen Lab.
