Hammock entrepreneurs look back on yet another successful season — and give thanks to their customers for valuable help
Amok’s hammocks have won several product tests and become a common feature in the Norwegian forest. The company give thanks to their customers for helping them with product development.
Unique products and talented team
Sleeping outside in a hammock has just become more and more popular during the pandemic. A winner in this market is Amok Equipment in Norway.
Their hammocks have won product tests at TV2 and Tek.no.
The idea behind making hammocks you can lay comfortable and flat came to Jonas Haug when he was sailing the Caribbean. When he returned to Norway and started studying entrepreneurship at NTNU, he got in touch with Steinar Bukve Witsø. Together they formed the project that now is known as Amok Equipment.
Amok’s turnover was roughly 30 million NOK last year, with an end result of a whopping 9 million NOK. This year they’re expecting to hit similar numbers. Steinar Bukve Witsø from Amok is very happy with the company’s results.
«The recipe behind our success is our unique products, in addition to having great employees and that we dare to be ourselves in our marketing,» says Steinar.
Thanking their customers
Steinar Bukve Witsø also wants to say thank you to their customers.
«Our goal is to make the best hammocks in the world. So working together with our customers has always been important for us. They are, after all, our best product experts.»
Witsø says that the company browses various social media platforms, looking for new customer insights about hammocks and Amok. With Lipscore, they now have a solution for gathering product reviews in their Shopify based online store.
Amok closely follows what their customers search for in their online store and the big web search engines.
«User feedback is alpha and omega. Their wishes and needs are what we live by. We use customer insight to develop products and the online store», says Witsø. He reveals that Amok has, among other things, made an ultra-light model and a hammock for tall people according to customers’ wishes.
Amazon didn’t fit them
Though Amok still is a relatively small brand, they don’t want to sell their products in big sports chains.
We have a visual product that is easy to sell to shops. But being a small brand, we don’t get much shelf place, and their employees don’t know much about our products. That means that sale is slow. We can’t work on selling our products to the big chains if it doesn’t leave their shops, Witsø explains.
He adds that Amazon isn’t a relevant sales channel at the moment.
«We have a daughter company in the US that decided to sell through Amazon. But our experience was that our products didn’t quite fit. If you visit our website you’ll understand why. When a customer shops a product from Amok, you need to add a lot of customization. That’s not easy to explain on a big external marketplace.»
Increases international ambitions
Historically, Amok has had 40% of its sales in Norway and 60% in Sweden, the USA, Canada, and Germany. However, during the pandemic, that changed, and Amok now wants to increase its sales internationally.
«Sales in Norway has grown rapidly in the last couple of years. Now we want to strengthen our international ambitions to reach the same level. We will focus on Sweden and german-speaking countries first.»
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