Case Study: Building a New Shopify Tech Stack For Health & Wellness Retailer Bonasana

TL;DR

• Having decided to diversify its sales model and start selling DTC alongside wholesale, Bonasana Health was looking to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify.
• Swanky was tasked with replatforming Bonasana’s online store, as well as consulting on and implementing an optimised Shopify tech stack.
• The solutions we integrated with the brand’s Shopify site include Klaviyo, Okendo, Octane AI, Littledata, Recharge, Gorgias and Boutiq.
• Bonasana’s new ecommerce site, complete with subscription offering, provides a strong foundation from which the brand can accelerate its growth in the DTC health and wellness market.

Bonasana Health: Brand overview

Bonasana Health is a digital-first health and wellness retailer based in Hong Kong, headed up by entrepreneur Sasha Dennig. It stocks and sells a range of pills and tonics that help customers reduce the impact of ageing, target hormone imbalances, treat anxiety, manage cardiovascular conditions, and improve immunity.

The company was born out of a passion for health and a new-found focus on immune support during the Covid-19 pandemic. Having previously only distributed health supplements as a wholesale distributor of SVP Essential Health, the company has now embraced a hybrid model by also selling directly to consumers via its ecommerce website, incorporating additional brands and health products to provide a full suite offering. Bonasana has also adopted a subscribe and save model across its product range as part of its DTC expansion.

Following its rebrand to Bonasana Health, the business engaged Swanky in an ecommerce migration and development project. With a wealth of experience working across consumable health and wellness brands like Symprove, Daysoft, Huel, Innermost and Hercs Nutrition, and with a reputation as the go-to Shopify agency for subscription solutions, we were well placed to provide expert advice on how Bonasana could leverage Shopify and its integrations to navigate the nuances of DTC ecommerce in this industry.

The challenge: A frustrating online tech stack

Frustrated with the amount of maintenance required on their existing WooCommerce site, the Bonasana team sought to migrate to an ecommerce platform that would give them the opportunity to focus on revenue-driving activity rather than costly and time-consuming site fixes. They were already familiar with Shopify through other business interests, and confident in its abilities to accelerate Bonasana’s DTC growth.

As well as upgrading their tech stack, the team wanted to elevate the dated aesthetics of their existing online store.

The addition of a subscription offering was also a priority, helping to build a recurring revenue stream on top of occasional purchase behaviours.

How Swanky helped

1. Migration from WooCommerce to Shopify

Following our tried and tested ecommerce migration process, we replatformed the Bonasana website from WooCommerce to Shopify.

For us, Shopify represents a more comprehensive, reliable and user-friendly solution for online retailers. It is easier to innovate on, offers a powerful array of native features, and has a diverse ecosystem of apps and third party integrations. Crucially, it allows brands to stay agile and respond quickly to changes in the industry or shifts in customer needs.

2. Custom development

i) Logic to restrict access to certain products

Bonasana provides a range of products that should only be taken on the advice of a health professional. If misused, these could have potentially harmful effects. Therefore, as an ethical service provider, the brand wanted to restrict access to these products and instead guide consumers to seek professional advice via the company’s team of vetted practitioners. This would ensure that customers get the right product for their ailment.

In order to ensure that certain products could only be added to cart by wholesalers or practitioners, we created a logic in the theme code to show or hide the add to cart button depending on user tags.

If an end consumer comes across a product that isn’t available to buy without seeking professional advice, the add to cart button will be hidden and instead they will be prompted to book a call with a practitioner to discuss the purchase.

ii) Logic to display relevant resources to users

Bonasana is committed to providing dedicated resources to its practitioners. Thanks to logic we implemented behind the scenes on the Blog Feed, if an article has been tagged with “practitioner-only”, it will only display to users tagged with “practitioner”.

This hide/show logic is important for providing each user with a relevant website experience.

3. Implementing an integrated Shopify tech stack

When making recommendations for Bonasana’s tech stack, we took into consideration a number of factors, including each tool’s ease of management, compatibility with other solutions (in terms of data sharing and automation), and pricing.

It was also important to select tools that would be most suitable for use by Bonasana’s team, accounting for the number and capabilities of employees.

i) Recharge for subscriptions

We know that consumers across the globe have embraced subscriptions as part of their health and wellness routines, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic when hassle-free doorstep deliveries of our favourite health products became increasingly appealing. In fact, recent analysis by Recharge identified a 12% year-over-year increase in monthly recurring revenue for subscription brands in this space, as well as a 17% jump in average order value and a 13% rise in customer lifetime value.

Bonasana is tapping into the health and wellness market’s subscription trend, with a ‘subscribe and save’ offering powered by Recharge. Products will automatically be delivered to subscribers on a cadence of their choice, and crucially, subscriptions can be modified or cancelled at any time.

Enabling customers to easily edit, pause or stop their subscription in line with their evolving needs is really important. Empowering subscribers with full control and flexibility can positively impact customer satisfaction, retention and advocacy.

We talk more about the importance of flexibility for subscribers in our guide to a successful health and wellness ecommerce website.

ii) 1:1 video consultancy with Boutiq

Boutiq is an app that enables personal video shopping. In Bonasana’s case, customers can schedule an online consultation call with a practitioner in which they’ll be shown the latest products and can discuss their specific health and wellness needs.

Offering a personalised experience like this is key for online health and wellness retailers. Enabling shoppers to get tailored advice from health professionals based on their unique needs not only enables them to make an informed purchasing decision, but it helps to build confidence and trust in your brand.

iii) Octane AI for quiz-based product recommendations

Another popular way for health and wellness retailers to connect shoppers with the most suitable products for their unique requirements is through a quiz or similar diagnostic tool.

Having successfully implemented product quizzes for other clients using Octane AI, we chose to leverage this solution on the Bonasana store too. The quiz captures information about a user’s age and sex, before asking which issues they are looking to target.

It then uses advanced logic to ask questions about a user’s symptoms, based on the answers already received. Finally, it recommends one or more products based on all the information captured.

As well as being used to recommend suitable products, the zero-party data captured in the quiz is used to build a detailed profile of each customer in Klaviyo. This can be leveraged to provide personalised post-purchase marketing communications – as we discuss in more detail below.

iv) Intelligent marketing automation with Klaviyo

Marketing automation platform Klaviyo represents a key piece of the puzzle in Bonasana’s ecommerce stack. Integrating seamlessly with other solutions, it allows for a comprehensive view of the customer and facilitates meaningful interactions throughout the customer journey.

Discussing the integration between Klaviyo and the other solutions we implemented on Bonasana’s Shopify store, Namira Putri, Project Manager at Swanky, commented:

“My favourite feature of Bonasana’s new site is the tech stack. The tools compliment one another well and data syncs seamlessly between them. At the end of my sitewide QA session, my Klaviyo profile was really rich in data due to all the actions I’d completed on the site.”

As mentioned, data captured by Octane AI in the product quiz syncs with a user’s Klaviyo customer profile (you can see this information in the profile snapshot above) and is used to send targeted email communications.

For example, let’s consider a user who has selected “GI” as a key health issue in the quiz at the beginning of their journey with Bonasana. This would be recorded in their profile and could then be used to inform a number of curated email flows that:

• promote products that contribute to good gut health;
• share exclusive news about new GI product launches;
• recommend blog articles with gut-friendly diet tips; or
• share news about discounted pricing of gut health supplements.

A customer’s interactions with Boutiq are also tracked in their customer profile. Details such as call timestamp, call duration and assigned practitioner are synced with Klaviyo, and can then be used to inform future messaging. The team could, for instance, configure an automated survey email based on a user having a call through Boutiq, which asks for the customer’s feedback. The results of this could be used to measure customer satisfaction and inform meaningful improvements. Listening to your customers like this can ultimately improve loyalty and retention.

v) Littledata for sophisticated Google Analytics 4 tracking

We recommended Littledata as a suitable Google Analytics (GA) tracking solution for Bonasana. Amongst the many reasons we endorse this tool for our clients is the fact that Littledata enables full visibility in GA4, across the entire customer journey, and all with zero-maintenance, out-of-the-box, server-side tracking. It also provides users with complete marketing attribution for all conversions and enables custom dimensions and parameters to be added without any additional development time.

You can read more about why we recommend Littledata in this article about moving from Universal Analytics to GA4.

Project reflections

Leveraging our experience in the health and wellness ecommerce industry, we have built a Shopify website that will enable Bonasana to take on the complexities of selling health and wellness products directly to consumers online.

The Shopify tech stack that we have implemented will enable the brand to serve up an engaging and meaningful customer experience, whilst simplifying operations behind the scenes. We’ve also helped this ambitious brand tap into the health product subscription trend, bringing convenience and flexibility to its customers whilst increasing retention and revenue.

Ultimately, with a new Shopify store in its business toolkit, Bonasana now has a solid foundation from which to propel its DTC expansion.

Sharing his reflections on the project, Sean Clanchy, MD of our Queensland-based team, commented:

“As a long standing client of Swanky, it was great to work with Sasha and her team to deliver the Bonasana Health project. With Swanky’s demonstrated subscription and health expertise, it was an easy decision for her and looking at the final result, a great outcome for both of us. 

“I look forward to continuing our partnership and watching the additions to the Bonasana offering and service regions over the coming months and years.”

Explore the Bonasana Health website and all the features we discussed above.

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