How Benchmade Knife Co. Turned Data Into 6-Figures Of Incremental Revenue

Background

Benchmade Knife Co. is a nearly 40-year-old premium knife brand proudly manufacturing in Oregon City, USA. Known for its craftsmanship and loyal customer base, Benchmade’s challenge wasn’t brand awareness - it was conversion.

When Adam Hutton joined as Senior Manager of Digital Growth, his mission was clear: build a high-performing DTC testing engine from the ground up. With limited CRO history and a newly built Shopify site, Benchmade needed a fast, flexible, and data-oriented solution to launch and learn rapidly.

They found exactly that in Visually.

Challenges

Benchmade had:

  • No structured CRO testing program

  • A traditional retail DNA, now pivoting to modern DTC ecommerce

  • High traffic but plateauing AOV and CR metrics

  • A desire to prove why everything on the site exists the way it does

Technical hurdles also slowed progress, and developer bandwidth was tight. They needed a platform that worked fast, tested cleanly, and gave crystal-clear results.

 

Outcome

With Visually, Adam and the Benchmade team are able to:

  1. Launch A/B tests rapidly, without relying on developers

  2. Personalize key onsite experiences for different audiences

  3. Measure incremental impact through comprehensive and robust reporting

  4. Access strategic and creative support from dedicated CRO experts

Benchmade now runs a full testing roadmap on Visually, often launching multiple tests simultaneously across PDPs, cart, and checkout.

We move fast. Visually helps us test fast, learn fast, and scale what works.

Adam Hutton
Sr. Manager of Digital Growth, Benchmade Knife Co.

Here are some of their favorite wins:

Cart Messaging

Benchmade’s customers aren’t just buying a knife - they’re investing in a tool for life. Through testing, Adam's team discovered that emphasizing their Free Lifetime Service & Warranty drove more buyer confidence than messaging around free shipping/returns. Highlighting the warranty in the cart led to a 4.6% increase in conversion rate, proving that long-term value mattered more to their audience than short-term perks.

Cart Messaging
Checkout Warranty Banner

Checkout Warranty Banner

Visually’s ability to support checkout extensibility allows Adam and his team to further optimize their checkout experience, where naturally, 100% of their revenue will flow through. The first test included a simple banner with a warranty success message, which saw a 3.1% increase in conversion rate.

PDP Social Proof

Product reviews are the traditional mode of social proof for brands. But Visually offers an added element - dynamically displaying the number of recent purchases. |Adam tested the effect of showing returning shoppers how many times a product was purchased in the last day, and saw a 4.1% increase in revenue and 15.2% uplift in items per purchase. Now he will experiment further with the ability to change the time frame and purchase threshold.

PDP Social Proof
Shipping Cutoff Countdown

Shipping Cutoff Countdown

Before Christmas, Benchmade added a sitewide timer to communicate the time left for 2-day shipping to arrive before the holiday. The countdown generated a 32.4% increase in revenue per session, and will now become a staple for all holiday promotion experiences.

Benchmade’s results show what’s possible when an industry leading brand embraces a modern, data-driven approach to optimization, and pairs it with the right tools and team.

With Visually, Benchmade moved from ad-hoc optimization to a structured, data-driven growth program. Every test feeds a backlog, and learnings get baked into product roadmaps. Winning variants are being hardcoded into Shopify themes during redesign sprints.

Adam now maintains a CRO performance tracker to identify revenue lifts, conversion trends, and funnel gaps.

"Revenue is our north star, and Visually gives us the insight and control to chase it."

Adam Hutton
Sr. Manager of Digital Growth, Benchmade Knife Co.

Visually empowers them to:

  • Test new ideas weekly
  • Launch 3-5 new tests per month
  • Share wins across product, marketing, and UX

“Visually has helped us build our CRO program from the ground up with strategic guidance, execution, and reporting. We've already seen 6 figure incremental revenue gains in just a few months. Their platform is very easy to use and their support is amazing.”

Adam Hutton
Sr. Manager of Digital Growth, Benchmade Knife Co.