Success Case in eCommerce: Care/of

When we analyze case studies, it is always interesting to see different segments, niches, and business models. This helps us understand other needs and how to address them, making it much more inspiring.

 

And today, I am going to tell you how things are done at takecareof.com: a dietary supplements online store, capable of completely changing the way these products are purchased (and selling a lot).

In 2016 two visionaries, Akash Shah and Craig Elbert, decided to start an eCommerce for selling vitamins online.

 

In addition to being visionaries, both co-founders had significant experience in digital marketing (Elbert was the marketing director of Bonobos, one of the most revolutionary online stores in the fashion segment).

 

That is why they were clear that for their project to succeed, recurring purchases were necessary. So, they worked very hard on both the user experience and retention and loyalty.

 

Eight years and $50 million in revenue later, it seems they hit the mark with their proposal.

Let's delve into how they understand their business before discussing how they've grown it. It's important to understand their initial premise.

 

For Care/of, in the dietary supplementation market, solutions were becoming too universal, remedies applied generally to all users, almost indiscriminately.

 

This can be a contradiction if we understand that there is nothing more unique and individual than a person's health. We all have different genetic predispositions, lifestyles, types of diet... so each of us has different needs to meet for balance.

 

This leads to the master concept on which their entire strategy rests: the creation of customized packs (and subscription, of course).

The main difference between the vitamin niche and others is that it requires a certain level of knowledge or professional advice. Anyone can enter an online fashion store to buy a coat, but before taking vitamins, we need to know which ones are best for our needs.

 

When we access their online store, we can choose between taking a test for their advisors to recommend us or choosing for ourselves. We are going to talk about the test in detail a little later because it is worth highlighting the autonomous purchasing process.

 

We just surf the website while adding to our plan the different types of vitamins, with their corresponding monthly price. We can choose as many vitamins, probiotics, collagen supplements, etc., as we need for our treatment.

On the other hand, the recommendation form is very exhaustive, perhaps too much for some people who are not willing to spend 5 minutes in answering questions. 

Still, I must say that it is very well-designed, and the 53 questions are answered very quickly. They are divided into 5 blocks:

 

Thanks to the information it collects, its algorithm can know exactly what our profile is and what we need. This is all it needs to create a personalized pack ready to buy in the shopping cart with just one click.

Although we have already seen some screenshots, it is worth noting how well-designed Care/of's online store is.

 

All of this, as I said, is very well done, but the user experience design is even better. They have managed to make each product page contain a large amount of relevant information despite its apparent simplicity: