Hanna Andersson Loyalty Tops 1 Million Members, Boosted By American Girl Collaboration

Hanna Andersson family matching pajamas for holidays

Courtesy of Hanna Andersson

Hanna Andersson, the direct-to-consumer children’s fashion brand that has dressed American kids for 40 years, has entered its prime selling season from back-to-school through the holidays with wind at its back. When the weather turns chilly, families flock to the website for new pajamas – sleepwear accounts for about one-third of company sales – and demand for holiday matching PJ sets is especially strong this year. TikTok searches for “matching pajamas” and “Christmas pajamas” exploded in September and Hanna Andersson can claim the first-mover advantage in the category.

Adding more lift this holiday season is an exclusive collaboration with Mattel’s American Girl dolls. Girls and their dolls can snuggle up in matching PJs while moms can also join in with their own sets, tapping into the nostalgia trend, as many of today’s Gen X and Millennial moms also grew up with American Girl, also founded in the 1980s.

Hanna Andersson is well-versed in brand collaborations – including The Grinch, Disney Princesses, Elf, Marvel, Star Wars, and The Polar Express – but the American Girl collab is the first offered exclusively to loyalty rewards members, free to join. That move has catapulted the reward program to over one million members.

“Our American Girl collab brings two beloved brands together in a way that feels incredibly authentic,” shared CEO Aimée Lapic. “It allows moms who grew up with both Hanna and American Girl to share that magic with their own children. When a collaboration can celebrate imagination and create joyful moments for families, that’s when we know it’s the right fit.”

Evolving Business Model

While Hanna Andersson has stayed the course with its premium-quality, long-lasting fashion for kids, the business of retail has changed dramatically since the Portland, OR-based company was founded by Swedish-born Gun Denhart and her husband, Tom, in 1983.

Hanna Andersson started as a mail-order catalog retailer, then opened its first of some 65 stores in the 1990s when it also got in on the ground floor of online retail. But after the pandemic hit, it was forced to close all its stores and turn exclusively online.

That was a propitious move, as revenues grew tenfold since it went exclusively online, but it also makes it harder for the brand to re-establish itself in physical retail. However, with some of the holiday pajama sets being sold in the eight American Girl stores, including the NYC Rockefeller Plaza flagship, Hanna Andersson will be introduced to a new generation of girls and get reacquainted with their moms.

The brand is also starting to show up in other specialty retail stores where its premium fashion is a fit. Currently it is carried in about 60 retail stores, most especially its baby line.

“We are starting to re-explore stores again,” said Lapic. “We want to get it into the hands of more customers because once they feel the Hanna quality, they don’t want to give it up.”

In July, Lapic celebrated her third anniversary at the helm of the company, privately held since 2016 by L Catterton, which is affiliated with luxury-brand leader LVMH and Groupe Arnault.

Lapic brought apparel experience from over a decade of increasing responsible executive positions with Gap Inc. and Banana Republic. However, her track record of driving growth in the e-commerce subscription space with Pandora – the music streaming service, not the jewelry brand – and GoPro, is what sealed the deal.

“Throughout her impressive career, Aimée has established herself as a proven digital and marketing executive, and as a highly skilled leader with a track record of driving results at iconic brands,” L Catteron managing partner Nikhil Thukral said at the time. “We are confident that her expertise will accelerate Hanna’s digital roadmap and build on the brand’s current momentum.”

Resale Opens Another Door

One of Lapic’s early initiatives was launching a resale site, Hanna-Me-Downs, from her own experience dressing her three children and observing the demand for the brand on ThredUp and Poshmark resale sites.

She is proud to announce that Hanna Andersson is the number one resold children’s brand in America, and to date, some 25,000 customers have sold more than 160,000 items on its “pre-loved” website.

“Our clothes are literally made to be handed down from child to child,” she explained. “With our pre-loved marketplace, we are doing our part to allow our customers to help build this circular economy.”

Hanna-Me-Downs is a proof point of the brand’s quality, as is the company’s remarkably low 4% return rate, compared to an industry average approaching 25% for e-commerce retailers.

The pre-loved marketplace is catching on with 30% year-over-year monthly growth in 2025. Consignors can choose between 70% cash back or 100% credit on the resale value once the item is sold. Some 80% of consignors choose the credit option, another proof point of brand loyalty.

“When I first joined the company, what struck me was the loyalty and love of the brand by so many people. We’ve built an amazing reputation and have continued to serve multiple generations,” she asserted.

Rewarding Loyalty

Recognizing that the customer loyalty she observed deserved to be rewarded, Lapic spearheaded the launch of Hanna Rewards loyalty program in September 2023. It has been remarkably well received.

Free to join, customers earn one point credit for every $10 spent and after accumulating 125 points, they can be redeemed for a $10 credit. Members also get free shipping for orders of $50 or more, personal shopping assistance, early access to sales and new arrivals and exclusive members-only offers, such as the American Girl collection.

With regular prices ranging between $30 and $70 for kids’ basics, and from $100 to $160 for adult pajama sets, it doesn’t take long for customers to earn their rewards. However, Hanna Andersson is currently running an early Black Friday sale with discounts up to 50% off for pajamas and 40% off everything else.

In just two short years, Hanna Rewards has grown to one million members, and they now account for about 70% of revenues.

“We are focused on mothers, including expectant moms and new moms with our baby basics. Moms know our clothing is going to last and she’s willing to pay a little bit more for the lasting durability,” she said, though she also gives a nod to the distinctive styles, colorful prints and high-quality fabrication and manufacturing standards the company maintains.

For example, earlier this year, the company launched a new fabrication, HannaSoft that was years in the making, in a collection of ultimate comfort baby sleepers, infant apparel, blankets and toddler pajamas with mother’s matching sets. Additional HannaSoft offerings with scratch-free seams and certified free of harsh chemicals are planned for new kids’ and adult items.

Celebrating Childhood

Hanna Andersson has thrived for 40 years by staying true to its founding mission: celebrating childhood. It’s a mission that resonated then, but even more so now, as many note that kids are growing up too fast – with social media and marketing pushing adult attitudes and behaviors before their time, and heavily structured schedules that allow for little unstructured playtime.

“Our mantra is to be champions of childhood,” Lapic concludes. “We enable moms to hold on to the memories and special moments that childhood presents. We don’t create clothing that makes children look like young adults. We create clothing that allows kids to be kids.”