A.T. Cross: Relaunching D2C for a 180-year-old brand, replatforming to Shopify & more

[00:00:00] Patrick Maness: My focus has always been on revenue generation and making sure every initiative pays off. The challenge for me stepping into that was making the most of that investment and building the foundation for scalable, sustainable growth for the company, while at the same time earning the trust of leadership that they made the right decision to invest in this channel.

[00:00:18] Kailin Noivo: In this episode with Patrick, we got into what it's like to launch and relaunch ecommerce in a historic brand, what it's like to be able to convert customers that may have heard of you but never purchased from you online, and more importantly, all the challenges of taking on a legacy infrastructure and how to modernize it. Really excited for you folks to hear it.

[00:00:39] Kailin Noivo: Welcome to another episode of the Ecommerce Toolbox Expert's Perspective. Joining us today we have Patrick, who's the Director of Global Ecommerce from A.T. Cross. Welcome, Patrick.

[00:00:50] Patrick Maness: Thanks, Kailin. Great to be here.

[00:00:52] Kailin Noivo: So I would like to learn a bit more about our guests. So maybe talk us through your career journey. You've definitely seen a few things. So maybe start us off with how you got into your role.

[00:01:01] Patrick Maness: Yeah. Sure. So the first half of my career was spent on the agency side initially in direct marketing, specifically direct mail. And while that does sound very dated today, I wouldn't trade that foundation for anything. I mean, it taught me the fundamentals of data-driven strategy, customer insight, which are just as relevant, if not more so, today. And from there, I transitioned over to a more full-service B2B marketing agency where I spent several years working across a range of industry verticals as an extension of my clients' marketing departments. And, you know, that experience broadened my perspective on go-to-market strategies, channels, and tactics. But more importantly, I think it taught me how marketing operates as part of a larger corporation, or a corporate ecosystem, right? So, you know, partnering closely with corporate marketing teams, giving me that firsthand view of how marketing connects with sales, it connects with operations, production, finance, the C-suite, you name it, all to drive results. The culmination of those experiences, I think, ultimately prepared me for when I ultimately did go client-side, where I've had the opportunity to build and lead marketing functions in distribution, manufacturing, health and fitness startups, and now for a nearly 180-year-old legacy brand.

[00:02:22] Kailin Noivo: Yeah. And let's maybe double-click into that. So I've done a few podcasts before where folks work on modernizing brands that are over 150 years old. And one of the things that typically comes up is that because there are so many established channels, often D2C is deprioritized for a number of years. So maybe talk to us a bit about the digital maturity and kind of where you stepped into the business, and some of the challenges maybe that you had out of the gate.

[00:02:51] Patrick Maness: Sure. Sure. Well, to your point, when I arrived at Cross, ecommerce had been deprioritized for several years. The company's focus was almost entirely on B2B channels, business gifts, or corporate gifting, which still remains a significant part of our business, as well as selling to distribution and retail partnerships. Virtually all efforts went towards B2B with very little attention or investment in ecommerce or the D2C channel. When I joined Cross in January 2024, the ecommerce function was essentially a one-person department running an outdated Magento 2 instance. You know? So outdated, in fact, that it was on the brink of losing support entirely. So, fortunately, leadership knew this and had already committed to investing in ecommerce when I arrived, you know, and so much so that I knew coming in that I was expected to replatform the site. I mean, that was going to be the priority, both to enhance the online experience and to unlock the growth potential that a newer, more streamlined platform would offer. Right? So the challenge for me stepping into that was making the most of that investment and building the foundation for scalable, sustainable growth for the company, while at the same time, you know, earning the trust of leadership that they made the right decision to invest in this channel.

[00:04:08] Kailin Noivo: Very cool. And, like, where did you start? Like, what was the strategy? Obviously, you have high brand recognition in certain markets; maybe there are other markets that you guys were new to. So, what was kind of your strategy for launching and scaling ecommerce?

[00:04:24] Patrick Maness: Yeah. Sure. So, I mean, my strategy in the beginning was simple. You know, continue to generate as much revenue as possible with that Magento site, looking for any opportunity to improve what was being done before, find those quick wins, like I said, gain trust of leadership, all while running towards migrating to Shopify, which is where we are now. You know, in those early days, just to take from our global perspective, our global operations weren't profitable, so I opted to shelf it and focus on the U.S until we were in a better position to expand. And from there, it's been slow and steady. So if I were to step back and take a look at, you know, where we've been, I would say that it’s really been all about replatforming, that is, it has been all about rightsizing the channel, rightsizing the site to where the company is right now, and specifically where our D2C ecommerce efforts are right now, which is essentially a scrappy startup. I mean, that's kind of how we're operating. So, you know, taking a step back, laying a solid foundation for scaling, and that's really what we're doing from here on out, is just continuing to scale, to enhance that experience, and it's working.

[00:05:31] Kailin Noivo: Yeah. That's awesome. And maybe getting a bit more deep into the strategy, how you think about the U.S market looks a bit different from Europe? And then, obviously, Europe is not one market. Europe's a series of smaller markets. But, yeah, maybe getting a bit more specific, like, how did you kind of take advantage of the brand recognition in certain markets, and how did you start building it in others?

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[00:06:06] Patrick Maness: Well, I mean, having the advantage of, again, a nearly 180-year-old brand with built-in recognition is a tremendous starting point. You know, most people know the Cross name, and that heritage gives us a level of trust right out the gate. But like any brand, especially one at a higher price point, we still have to earn, you know, attention and relevance every day because, you know, a $150 pen is still a $150 pen, you know? For many people, that's a considerable purchase. You know? The key is that Cross isn't just selling pens. We're selling a meaningful, giftable experience. That's our strength, and it helps us connect emotionally with customers in a way few categories can or certainly few brands can because, I mean, I can look at my own experience with Cross, you know, started when I was probably five or six years old going to a department store with my mom, getting a Father's Day present for my dad, you know, the engraved gold Cross pen, a pencil set, right? So that's just my own experience in speaking to so many other people about their experience; it's a common story that you hear throughout. So all that said, you know, the fundamentals of ecommerce don't change regardless of what you're selling, regardless of your brand, right? You know, at any given time, you know, a small percentage of your audience, your addressable audience, is truly ready to buy. So our job is to continually attract new visitors, engage with them, you know, work on our funnels, you know, tell our story in a way that resonates. Sometimes that even means introducing the brand to people for the first time, you know? It's still shocking to me, but I've walked through conferences where the attendees were a bit on the younger side, and they see the Cross name on my badge and ask, What's that? You know, it's just a reminder that while our legacy is long and storied, staying relevant requires constant reintroduction. And, you know, that's what we're finding because, you know, we've invested heavily in paid media and digital storytelling and ecommerce to expand our reach, and our customer base is not only growing, but it's also getting younger. You know, we're attracting millennials, you know, even some Gen Z, along with our loyal Boomers and Gen X on the older side, because the truism when I started at Cross was that, you know, our audience is an older male demographic, right? So now we're finding that it's younger and the split is more 50-50, male-female. And it's exciting to see a brand with such deep roots finding new life with the new generation.

[00:08:42] Kailin Noivo: Oh, very cool. Yeah. Talk to us a bit about new markets. How do you approach new markets? Do you have kind of, like, a playbook for building awareness and then turning awareness into conversion? Curious, as you guys expanded markets online?

[00:09:00] Patrick Maness: Again, going back to the brand heritage and the legacy having been around for so long, I mean, we've got distribution globally. And the recognition that Cross carries is deep and wide, you know? But at the same time, you know, there's still definitely some built-in tribal knowledge within the company about where the strong markets are internationally. Germany's huge. Japan's huge. And,you know, with that global distribution network around the world, I mean, we're still, even with that, we're still in the early stages of developing that international ecommerce strategy. You know, when I first joined, you know, we were selling into the European markets, but our operations weren't fully dialled in. I mean, we were often losing money on every sale, and that was the kind of thing that immediately gets my attention because, at the end of the day, my focus has always been on revenue generation and making sure every initiative pays off. So we took a step back and focused on the U.S market initially and started to build out our international approach with a more sustainable model. And what we've landed on is a two-pronged strategy. First, we're partnering with a third party that can handle international shipping and take on the burden of collecting duties and taxes, which is great for my finance team because it frees them up from having to deal with all that. And second, we're deepening our relationships with our distributors in particular countries by standing up localized cloned versions of cross.com so they can manage it directly, right? And so, that's one of the advantages of being on the Shopify platform is we can do that. We can clone our store. We can pass it off to a distributor, let them manage it. Still keep it at arm's length, but at the same time give them the autonomy to localize it to their market, run promotions, that sort of thing. But, again, having that control over the brand experience overall and making sure that the brand message is consistent and centralized. And, you know, all this has been made possible again from the move from Magento to Shopify. You know, if we didn't have that flexibility built in, there's no way we would have been able to do that. It's a big leap forward from where we were before.

[00:11:13] Kailin Noivo: Very cool. And as everyone's starting to kind of get into the 2026 planning, maybe talk to us a bit about how you're looking at some of your priorities for next year.

[00:11:24] Patrick Maness: Sure. I mean, it's really about continuing to build on the foundation we've created and enhancing the customer experience. You know, making the site more sophisticated, intuitive, and aligned with the expectations of today's consumer. I mean, when you think about a legacy brand that's been around for, again, 180 years, that's a long history of doing things a certain way. But, you know, from a digital transformation point of view, you know, in our view, it isn't about necessarily changing who we are or rewriting history. It's really about leveraging the digital tools that we have to our advantage to meet customers where they are, understand their needs and anticipate them before they arise. You know, those are the types of things that I'm looking at going into next year. And then, obviously, just continuing to scale and do the things that are performing well and then improve upon them, right? So not taking anything for granted at all when it comes to the success that we've had so far because, you know, at some point, and you know, what keeps me up at night is it's not the right now. It's not where we are now. It's where the expectation is going forward because of the success we've had. It's challenging for sure, but it's one step at a time.

[00:12:38] Kailin Noivo: Makes a lot of sense. And, Patrick, wanted to really thank you for your time. This was great. Obviously, you've done a great job in such a historic brand, and thanks again for your time.

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