Ninja is working to acquire customers through baby registries and ‘less traditional’ gift guides
As it works to grow revenue, kitchen-appliance brand Ninja is gunning for a top spot on “less traditional” gift guides and wishlists, including baby registries and other platforms where people may not expect Ninja products, the brand shared with Modern Retail.
For instance, in the third quarter, Ninja partnered with Babylist, which says its registry tools cater to more than 50% of first-time parents in the U.S. The partnership involved a mix of custom editorial, influencer content, CRM newsletter marketing and a spot on Babylist’s on-site registry feed. As one example, in September, Babylist published a sponsored article promoting Ninja’s coffee machine, the Ninja Luxe Cafe Premier 3-in-1, detailing how the appliance “keeps a sleep-deprived mom going.” A corresponding Instagram video from creator and mom Sarah Kim (@hoemgirll) garnered more than 15,000 likes in two weeks.
The Babylist partnership is part of a newer strategy for Ninja, which, under parent company SharkNinja, is looking to diversify its media buys, including brand partnerships and affiliate programs with registries. Already, shoppers can find some 100 Ninja products on Zola. Gift guides and wishlists, as Ninja sees it, are an ideal investment, “as they’re intercepting someone at a point in time where they’re trying to make a decision,” Kaitlyn Hebert, global CMO for the Ninja brand, told Modern Retail. And baby registries, in particular, are a “big opportunity” to reach core audiences, especially young families, Hebert said.
Some of Ninja’s most popular items include the Ninja Crispi (air fryer), Ninja Creami (ice-cream maker) and Ninja Slushi (frozen-drink maker), in addition to the Ninja Luxe Cafe. “You might expect to see Ninja on wedding registries, but we also want to explore less traditional opportunities — like places where a coffee maker might not typically appear,” Hebert said in an interview.
In the case of the Ninja Luxe Cafe, Hebert said, “parents are actively researching products that make life easier during this critical time, … and who is more in need of a caffeine boost than a new parent?” Laughing, she added, “As a mom of two young boys, I can tell you that if there was an espresso maker when I had my registry, I would much rather have had that than a onesie.”
Ninja’s interest in sponsored gift guides and affiliate recommendations corresponds with its parent company’s larger push into advertising. As Modern Retail previously reported, SharkNinja spent about $585.3 million on advertising in 2024, equivalent to 10.6% of its net sales, per an SEC filing. That’s up from $409.2 million in 2023 and $270.8 million in 2022.
For its quarter ending in June, SharkNinja reported that net sales had increased 15.7% over the prior year to total $1.4 billion. Its food preparation appliances division — which includes Ninja products — enjoyed a 52.8% year-over-year bump in sales, totaling $404.8 million.
“Across our direct-to-consumer sites, we see more repeat buying behavior and more cross-brand shopping than ever before,” SharkNinja President and CEO Mark Barrocas said on an earnings call in August.
There’s no shortage of baby registry tools on the internet, said Brad Jashinsky, director analyst at Gartner, who is expecting a baby with his wife this year. For a brand like Ninja, being wherever new and potential parents are could help with customer acquisition and loyalty. “Not only is it great for the people who are getting married or having a baby, but also think about all the brand awareness for everybody that’s looking at the registry, whether they purchase a specific item or not,” Jashinsky said.
Jashinsky also added that Ninja caters to those participating in major life events, a highly sought-after ad demographic. As soon as ad targeting tools detect someone is moving or having a baby, “all of a sudden, you’re part of those audiences for retail media networks and Google and Meta,” Jashinsky said. “But once you’re in that audience, it becomes a lot more expensive and crowded to try to reach people through paid media. … I like that [Ninja’s] approach [here] is a little bit different.”
Independent of its media buys, one of the ways Ninja hopes to organically get on gift guides is through emphasizing its price points at a time when many consumers are cutting back. In August, Barrocas said that SharkNinja had made targeted price changes due to tariffs, which had “resulted in minimal, if any, demand degradation.”
Ninja has many products that are “multi-in-one,” like the Ninja Creami 7-in-1 Ice Cream Maker (up to $219.99) and the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System (up to $179.99). “The cost of going to the grocery store, or going to the drive-thru, adds up,” Hebert said. “If we can help people find ways of saving and having that value in-home, that’s huge.”
Gartner’s Jashinsky thinks this message could resonate during the holidays, especially as a Gartner survey from August found that 40% of respondents expected to see fewer brand discounts this winter, up from 32% in 2024.
Outside of gift guides, Ninja has primarily leaned on social media to drive buzz, with both creator-led content and user-generated content racking up millions of views. Cooking demonstrations are especially popular online, as are posts touching on unboxing and product setup.
Ninja is also experimenting more with Reddit Ask-Me-Anythings, with plans to involve in-house chefs who can answer questions and give recommendations.