Selling Health Supplements in an Online Store | Shopify

Supplements: A growing wellness trend

As a society, we’re on a bit of a health kick. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a collective shift towards living a more health-conscious lifestyle in an effort to become the best version of ourselves. In this pursuit of optimal health and wellness, many people are turning to health supplements to help enhance their physical and mental wellbeing. According to a survey by The Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA), over 71% of adults now use food supplements. Whether you aspire to achieve a healthier body or mind, improve your mood, quality of sleep, or the health and appearance of your hair or skin, chances are there’s a supplement out there to help you achieve your goals.

Research by market intelligence company Mintel found that the UK’s vitamins and supplements market grew by 25% between 2018 and 2023, reaching a market value of £568 million, a trajectory that Mintel forecasts to continue with a further 10% growth between 2023 and 2028. Society’s growing appetite for health and wellness products, coupled with the convenience and accessibility of online shopping, makes selling health supplements online a potentially profitable business opportunity.

We’ve put together a helpful guide to selling health supplements online, including advice on industry trends, best practices, and tips for setting up and marketing your online store.

Health supplement industry trends for 2024 

The health supplement market is constantly evolving according to consumer preferences and societal trends. In 2024, two key trends shaping the industry are convenience and sustainability.

Consumers’ busy lifestyles are prompting a demand for products that are easy to consume and integrate into daily routines. Health supplements in the form of gummies and powders that can be mixed into food and drinks have become increasingly popular as they offer a practical and enjoyable way to consume supplements.

Demand for vegan, organic, and plant-based supplements has also increased dramatically as more consumers prioritise ethical, sustainable, and natural products.

Trending health supplement products in 2024

Popular health supplement product types in 2024 include:

• Holistic or total wellness
• Performance nutrition
• Hydration
• Collagen
• Women’s health
• Mushrooms
• Adaptogens

How is the health supplement market regulated in the UK?

In the UK, most health supplements are regulated by either the Food Standards Agency (FSA) or the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), depending on whether they are food supplements or medicinal products.

Food supplements must comply with the Food Safety Act 1990, and medicinal products must comply with the Medicines Act 1968. Medicinal products must also get marketing authorisation before they can be sold.

The way that health supplements are advertised is also regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA); you must be careful to ensure that any claims made are accurate and based on scientific evidence and do not mislead consumers regarding the product’s benefits.

Why sell health supplements online?

Launching an online store has many advantages over opening a bricks and mortar store. For starters, it’s a more affordable and straightforward process. But beyond the practicalities, online selling also offers unbeatable opportunities for scalability and global reach. Let’s learn more about the key benefits of launching your health supplement business online.

Reach a wide audience – Selling online breaks down geographical barriers, making it easier to reach a global audience. Unlike a physical store, which is limited to local or regional customers, an online store makes products accessible to anyone with internet access.

Low operating costs – Launching and managing an online store requires significantly lower overheads compared to running a brick-and-mortar store, as you won’t need to pay for rent or utilities.

Convenience – Online stores are available 24/7, allowing customers to browse and purchase at their convenience. This level of convenience can boost sales and customer satisfaction.

Scalability – When you sell online, you have the flexibility to scale your business with relative ease. You can easily expand your product range, enter new markets, adapt and grow in response to market trends and sales data.

Marketing opportunities – There are many digital marketing strategies and opportunities that can help your supplement brand gain visibility online and attract more customers.

Are you allowed to sell health supplements through Shopify?

Shopify is arguably the best-known eCommerce platform in the world and an excellent choice for launching an online store selling health supplements. If you’re considering opening a health supplement store on Shopify, you may be wondering how easy it is to do and what the legal requirements for online supplement sales are. 

Before you start building an online store using Shopify, you should check out Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy and the Shopify Payments terms and conditions for your country to find out if your products are restricted on Shopify. In some countries, Shopify restricts the sale of regulated products like cigarettes, vaping products, and alcohol on its platform. 

While it is perfectly acceptable to sell health supplements through Shopify in the UK, restrictions may apply to using Shopify Payments, Shopify’s payment service and the default payment gateway for Shopify stores. In the UK, Shopify Payments prohibits businesses from selling regulated products or services. If your health supplement products are regulated, then you can still sell them through a Shopify store, but you may need to set your store up with an alternative third-party payment gateway.

Why choose Shopify to sell health supplements online?

Shopify has quickly become the most popular eCommerce platform for small and medium-sized businesses. If you’re considering opening a health supplement store online, Shopify provides all the features and functionality required to get set up and start selling online. Let’s find out what makes it the preferred choice for many online health supplement retailers.

User-friendly – What really makes Shopify stand out from other eCommerce platforms is its user-friendly interface and ease of use. Shopify is an all-in-one solution that makes it quick and easy to launch an online store and start selling. The platform is designed with simplicity in mind and features a drag-and-drop editor that allows users to create, manage, and customise their store without ever touching any code. This provides business owners with more control and autonomy over their store’s operations.

Robust eCommerce features—Shopify is an expert in eCommerce, and the platform provides all the essential eCommerce tools required to operate an efficient and streamlined online store, including a wide range of inventory management, marketing, and analytics tools.

Themes – Shopify offers a range of free and paid themes. Its range of free themes is not as extensive as some other platforms, but what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. All of Shopify’s themes are polished and simple to install and customise.

Over 8,000 apps – Shopify boasts over 8,000 apps in its app store. These can be used to extend your store’s functionality, improve user experience, and boost conversion rates. Whether you want to implement a loyalty program, provide personalised recommendations, or offer live chat support, there’s an app for virtually any need.

Security – Because Shopify is an all-in-one hosted solution, there’s no need to worry about managing your own security; it’s all included in the package. The platform is compliant with PCI standards and offers robust protection for both the seller and customer data, ensuring a safe and secure shopping experience.

SEO tools – Shopify’s built-in SEO tools can be used to improve your store’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic.

Global reach – Shopify supports multi-currency sales and international shopping, making it easy for stores to reach a global audience and tap into international markets.

What are the best practices for setting up a Shopify store selling health supplements?

When setting up a health supplement business, your store and user experience (UX) should be designed to build credibility and trust among website visitors. When visitors feel confident in the safety and quality of your supplements, they are more likely to make a purchase. Trust and credibility are also the foundations of customer loyalty.

We’ve put together a basic guide explaining how to set up a Shopify store for supplements and best practices for Shopify supplement stores.

Understand regulations – Before you even begin developing an online store, you need a comprehensive understanding of local and international standards and regulations surrounding product safety, labelling, and marketing claims. Ensuring compliance protects your business and builds trust with consumers.

Perform market research – Market research is an essential step in creating a memorable brand and user experience. Research your target audience and identify your competitors to help you carve out a niche for your brand that meets your audience’s needs and differentiates your store from competitors.

Develop your brand identity – A strong and cohesive brand identity should engage customers, instil trust, and clearly communicate your brand’s values, vision, and USP.

Choose a Shopify theme – When you choose Shopify themes for supplements, you should select a theme that aligns with your brand identity and offers a positive user experience. 

Customise your store – Next, it’s time to customise your Shopify theme to reflect your brand identity by adding your logo, brand colours, and imagery. Ensure that your store’s design facilitates an intuitive shopping experience by using product filtering and categorisation, a search functionality, and a streamlined checkout process.

Create detailed product pages – Providing detailed product information helps alleviate customer concerns and eliminate purchase hesitation. Your product descriptions should include ingredients, benefits, usage instructions, and safety advisories. This transparency can foster trust in your products and help customers to make informed purchase decisions. 

Create legal pages – All eCommerce stores require several key legal pages as standard to help them comply with relevant regulations and provide customers with important information. These should include your store’s terms and conditions, privacy policy, return and refund policy, and disclaimer. 

Set up payment gateways – Not all payment gateways can be used to sell regulated products like health supplements. Do your research and select Shopify payment processing for supplements that are secure and reliable and allow transactions for the products you sell. Offer customers multiple payment options to improve user experience and increase conversion rates.

Develop a shipping strategy – Consider which regions you will ship to, shipping costs, and delivery times. To encourage larger order values, consider offering free shipping for orders above a certain amount.

Need help with Shopify web design? At Create8, we’re proud to be a Shopify partner and offer bespoke Shopify web design and development services. Our focus is on building your brand identity online and developing a first-class user experience (UX).

How can I effectively market my health supplements on Shopify to increase sales?

Once your health supplement store is up and running, it’s time to implement an effective marketing strategy to boost its visibility online and start getting more eyes on your products.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) – Use SEO best practices like keyword and metadata optimisation and internal linking to help boost your online store’s visibility in SERPs and start driving more organic traffic to your website.

Content marketing – Regularly update your website with content that your audience will find useful or interesting. This could include educational content, user guides, how-to videos, and more. Updating your website regularly with unique, high-quality content can improve your SEO rankings and establish your brand as a trusted authority within its niche. Share your content across your brand’s social media platforms to engage your community and drive more traffic to your website.

Reviews and social proof – Gaining your audience’s trust is essential in the health supplement industry. An effective way to gain trust is to implement customer reviews on Shopify to collect and display reviews from satisfied customers prominently on your product pages and homepage.

Social media and influencers – Use social media platforms to connect and engage with your target audience, share valuable content, and promote your products. Consider partnering with social media influencers who align with your brand values to lend credibility to your brand and expand its reach.

Email marketing – Offer a discount code or a free piece of content to incentivise website visitors to subscribe to your email list. Send regular and tailored communications to your email list to keep subscribers engaged, build customer loyalty, and boost conversion rates.

Learn from the best: health supplement stores built using Shopify

Looking for some inspiration? All of the following successful health supplement stores were built using Shopify.

FLO

FLO sells gummy vitamins designed to alleviate PMS symptoms.

The FLO website has a bold, bright pink design. It focuses on fostering trust and credibility using social proof and trust indicators. The brand prominently promotes its 3,600+ 5-star reviews, customer reviews, and media mentions on the homepage.

The Patch Brand

The Patch Brand sells vitamins in a patch that is applied to the skin, activates in minutes, and can be worn for up to 8 hours.

Its products and website have a bold, colourful, and playful design. Key products can be quickly added to the cart from the homepage, which prominently promotes product bundles and the brand’s subscription model to encourage customers to spend more.

Wholier

Wholier sells plant-powered, vegan nutritional supplements.

The Wholier website has a clean, uncluttered design that is simple to navigate. It focuses on building customer trust and promoting the brand’s clean and sustainable values. Customer reviews and media mentions feature prominently on the homepage and product pages.

Neuro

Neuro sell ‘functional gum and mints’ to help you achieve the right state of mind, whether that’s energised, calm, or focused.

The Neuro website encourages visitors to sign up to receive free shipping in the header banner. The product pages are optimised to convert with prominent 5-star customer ratings and reviews and a ‘subscribe and save’ feature to encourage customer loyalty.

hiya

hiya sells children’s vitamins with ‘zero added sugar and zero gummy junk’.

The hiya website features playful, bold imagery and bright primary colours. Navigation is simple, and the latest offers are promoted in the header banner to incentivise visitors to buy. Customer reviews and industry expert endorsements feature prominently to gain customer trust.

Partner with Create8 to build a Shopify store selling health supplements

Are you ready to launch your health supplement products online? Whether you’re a brand-new business or want to give your existing Shopify store a boost, our team of web designers and Shopify experts can help!

At Create8, we are branding experts and a proud Shopify partner. We’re perfectly positioned to optimise your Shopify website for conversions whilst ensuring it perfectly reflects your brand’s identity.

Contact us today to learn more about our work with other supplement brands or to discuss your project with our team.