Stores.com has acquired Hammacher Schlemmer with a plan to reclaim the 178-year-old brand’s mantle as the place for curious shoppers to discover “The Best, The Only, and The Unexpected.”
The Stores.com leadership team includes veterans of daily deals e-commerce operation Woot.com. However, Hammacher Schlemmer’s new ownership said it plans to recapturing the sense discovery that made it legendary. In its heyday, from the 1930s through the 1980s, the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog first brought innovations to the United States such as the pop-up toaster, the microwave oven, the electric blender, the Mr. Coffee machine, the electric toothbrush and the cordless phone.
“Every Christmas season, there was one catalog I couldn’t wait to get my hands on: Hammacher Schlemmer,” said Matt Rutledge, CEO of Stores.com and founder and ex-CEO of Woot.com. “Now it just blows my mind that I’ve got the keys to the brand.”
Rutledge and much of the original Woot team exited in 2012 after its acquisition by Amazon, soon regrouping at Stores.com. Rutledge and Stores.com still run the daily deal e-tailer Meh. As Hammacher Schlemmer won’t follow that model, a key selling point for the newly acquired operation will be the Hammacher Schlemmer “Lifetime Guarantee of Satisfaction.”
“In an algorithmized, commoditized, throwaway era, when most retailers are nickel-and-diming customers on return policies, a ‘Lifetime Guarantee of Satisfaction’ borders on absurd in the best possible way,” Rutledge says. “We’re keeping that promise alive. If future generations are going to understand what great service feels like, someone has to keep saying ‘we’ll make it right’ long after everyone else has moved on.”
