Neil Shah, chief commercial officer at SharkNinja, tells Katie Searles how the brand grew from one product to over 35 categories – including viral air-fryers and robotic vacuums – through the power of consumer-led storytelling.
SharkNinja started nearly two decades ago as Euro-Pro selling steam mops and vacuum cleaners. Then, 2009 saw the introduction of Ninja, the name change to SharkNinja following quickly after.
Now the brands bring 20-25 new products to market each year, expanding into at least two new categories a year. In 2024, they entered the beauty space with the Shark CryoGlow an LED light therapy mask.
Its 2024 results also saw net sales increase 33.2% to $1.4bn, with net income growing by a staggering 606.8% to $132mn. This significant growth has been powered by its focus on “solving consumer problems”.
Shah explains: “Everything we do, every product we develop, every feature, every decision we make has consumers at the center. It has to give them a positive experience. While the company has grown so much over the last 17 years, what hasn’t changed is this consumer empathy.”
The brand is built around giving a five star experience when asking consumers to spend their “hard earned money”. This is done at such a granular level that they are trying to anticipate what problems consumers may be experiencing in their home with existing products.
An example of this is the anti-hair wrap technology on Shark vacuum cleaners. “Consumers didn’t come and say: ‘I want a vacuum cleaner that hair doesn’t wrap around the brush’. But we would see them use the vacuum cleaner and then every couple of days turn it over and pull out all the hair” notes Shah.
Shark understood that long hair or even pet hair was resulting in a poor customer user experience: “So we went and created anti hair wrap technology”. Sales skyrocketed as no-one wants to “pull dirty hair out from the nozzle”.
Social listening
The success of the anti-hair wrap system was also helped by the brand’s collaboration with content creators and social media influencers. In fact, the social media “virality” of products has been a cornerstone of its recent growth.
Shah notes that 17-years ago consumers did not have the same access to product information as they do now. The evolution of product content started with shopper reviews, and despite the sizable reach of social media, reviews remain critical to SharkNinja.
“We go through every review that gets written on a SharkNinja product across the globe. Each review be it five stars or less. Even in the five star reviews, there are nuggets of information.
“They may tell you they like the product, but also suggesting “if you did this, I would love it”, says Shah.
Creating demand
Of course, reviews are not only online. SharkNinja has benefitted further from word of mouth – as shoppers talk. And the brand has worked to create a buzz around their products. Shah uses the example of technology giant Apple, which famously saw city-block long queues with every product launch.
“It’s our job to create demand for the products” stresses Shah. The brand is aware that if a product already exists, if there are other brands occupying the space, there is not going to be this Apple-level of desire.
He uses the ice cream maker market to highlight his point: “Consumers aren’t spending millions of dollars every year on ice cream makers”.
When they first looked to introduce a frozen desert solution, the ice cream maker business globally was topping $75mn. Today, Ninja CREAMi is doing 5x the volume globally. “We’ve created a market by having a product that’s going to improve consumers’ lives and give them great experience. They’re willing to spend on quality products that have high value” notes Shah.
By applying this same mantra to all its product launches, SharkNinja has had to even close waitlists to ensure they had the inventory to match demand.
“When we launched Ninja Luxe Café last year [entering the espresso market], on day one there were 30,000 consumers on the wait list. Day two – there were 50,000 consumers on the waitlist and we had to stop it.
“Outside of all the other wins – like the growth that we’ve earned – when we saw 50,000 consumers waiting for the Luxe Café, that’s the biggest win,” states Shah.
This “consumer validation” circles back to the strength of reviews and word of mouth, as every person in that waitlist will of course be talking about it. But the increasingly digital-savvy consumer also has a host of platforms to say both good and less complimentary things.
Marketing by consumers
Shah says: “Social media has become the platform for consumers to tell each other about their experiences. And when hundreds of thousands of people are writing about how great an experience they’re having with a Ninja air fryer – the brand doesn’t have to do the marketing, the consumers are doing the marketing for the brand.
“Our job is to get those stories out there, to get the product to the influencers. What I love about it is – the authenticity. If a brand tries to market a product on social media, you fail. If you try to tell the story on social media, you win.”
He adds that it is their job to “create those wows”, and this will always start with building products that will make a consumer’s life easier. This has seen it evolve from a vacuum producer, into a kitchen must-have manufacturer and most recently a beauty brand, which it couldn’t have done to the same degree without its global team of engineers.
Advancing technology
The dedicated team of engineers work across all brand categories, they can be focused on a vacuum cleaner while the year before worked on the new outdoor grill. There are mechanical engineers, software engineers, and industrial designers, working on developing the best technology solutions.
Increasingly software has been critical as the brand develops its robotic vacuums. Shah explains: “Our robots are smarter than ever before. They can map the homes better than ever before. They can clean the homes faster. They can vacuum and mop before going back to the base.
“Those are all advancements in technology where we are now able to give consumers a full home solution,” he concludes.
This interview was conducted for the Global Homeware 2025 report, which will be published in full later this month.
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