How did Owala win ecommerce’s water bottle battle?

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It’s not easy to turn a normal household item into something fun. But our featured brand for today did it—even becoming a sought-after ecommerce brand!

Clue: It’s a brand that won the water bottle battle.

Want to know its secret to success?

• An ecommerce winner 🏆
• Get honest product reviews at 15% off ✍️
• NO to nepotism branding 🙅
• Multichannel retailing = Maximum customer reach 🤹

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

How did Owala win ecommerce’s water bottle battle?

Water bottles were never meant to be fun. They used to be something you’d grab at a gas station, lose in your car, and replace without a second thought.

But when Owala came, drinking water suddenly felt different.

Maybe it was the bold colors. Or the FreeSip® spout that lets you sip and chug like a hydration genius designed it. Whatever it was, Owala turned something as basic as drinking water into a trend.

💦 A brand born from a simple problem

• A brand with experience
  • Owala was launched in March 2020 by Trove Brands, the parent company behind BlenderBottle.
  • Steve Sorensen, co-founder of BlenderBottle, noticed that people were using BlenderBottles for regular hydration, not just for mixing protein shakes.
  • Instead of making small tweaks to an old design, they built a brand-new bottle from the ground up to fit modern hydration needs.
• The game-changing FreeSip® spout
  • The biggest problem with water bottles? They make you commit—straw or chug. Owala said, “Why not both?”
  • Their patented FreeSip® spout lets buyers:
    • Sip through an integrated straw when you want a chill, easy drink.
    • Chug through a wide-mouth opening when you need to hydrate fast.
  • It was a small but brilliant innovation that completely changed how people drank water.

🤔 Was Owala a "nepo brand"?

Kind of, but not really.

• Unlike BlenderBottle, which started as a garage business, Owala had the backing of Trove Brands’ existing resources—manufacturing, distribution, and all other things a typical startup wouldn’t have.
•  But success didn’t come automatically to Owala; it had to carve out its own space from the ground up. It wasn’t just connections that made it take off—it was a genuinely smart product and killer branding.

True enough, it's now the fastest-growing water bottle brand in the market, with over 40,000 five-star reviews on Amazon and beyond. So, the next time you see an Owala bottle, know that it’s the result of smart design and a whole lot of people realizing they actually love drinking water. 🚰

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DIVING DEEPER

4 strategies that rid Owala of nepotism branding

If you've been keeping up with the trends, you've probably noticed water bottles popping up everywhere. And let's face it—most of them look pretty much the same, right?

But then came Owala, and suddenly, hydration became a whole new vibe.

So, how did this water bottle brand break the mold of the usual bottles?

🍲 Owala's secrets

• Designed differently, built smarter. Aside from the FreeSip® spout, Owala offers leakproof lids, double-wall insulation, and a one-handed flip-top.
  • DYK: Owala landed on Time’s Best Inventions of 2023. When was the last time a water bottle made a “best of” list?
• TikTok's favorite bottle. Owala didn’t rely on traditional ads—it took over TikTok. More than 58 million videos later, fans aren’t just drinking from their Owala bottles; they’re raving about them! 🗣️
  • Tip: Want to go viral? Focus on real experiences. When people love a product, they’ll naturally want to share it with the world.
• Smart targeting and collaborations. A perfect example is their Clove collaboration for National Nurses Week. By teaming up with Clove, Owala reached engaged healthcare professionals who value functionality and style—two things Owala has in spades.
  • Tip: Focus on partnerships that target niche communities. When your brand aligns with their values, the impact is exponential. 💯
• Everywhere you shop, Owala is impossible to miss. Its products are right where you need them. And with exclusive Target shades, they give customers a reason to grab one before they’re gone.

🌟 A well-deserved spot

It’s easy to look at Owala’s success and assume it had an unfair advantage. But Owala proved that innovation and branding pave the way to the top much faster than connections

For sellers, the takeaway is clear: visibility isn’t given, it’s earned. The formula? Great design, better marketing, and a whole lot of strategy.

SUCCESS BLUEPRINT

Maximize your customer reach through multichannel retailing

Nowadays, customers expect seamless shopping experiences that allow them to shop how, when, and where they want. While 95% of marketers are grappling with this shift, only 73% have a strategy in place. If you don’t have one, you're falling behind.

According to BigCommerce, multichannel retailing is the key.

🛒 What’s multichannel retailing?

It’s the practice of selling your products across different sales platforms, including:

• Social media. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are game-changers for discovering new products.
• Website and mobile. Your website is your digital storefront, but don’t forget about mobile.
• Comparison shopping engines. Think Google Shopping, which helps shoppers quickly compare prices and make decisions.
• Marketplaces. Big names like Amazon and Walmart are where many shoppers complete their purchases.
• Brick-and-mortar stores. Despite the boom of online shopping, physical stores are still an essential part of the retail experience.

💡 Benefits of multichannel retailing

• Increased revenue. The more platforms you’re on, the more opportunities you have to catch customers’ eyes.
• Data insights. Multichannel retailing gives you rich data that you can use to fine-tune your approach. By tracking customer behavior across channels, you can smartly elevate your sales strategy.

Of course, managing inventory across multiple channels can be tricky and requires a financial investment. But by starting small and testing different platforms, you can reduce the risks and ease into this approach.

Let us know which channels you're on! We'd love to hear about your experience. 👂