Healthspan UK Ecommerce Case Study

DTC ecommerce for leading supplement provider.

Founded in 1996, Healthspan has remained at the forefront of advancements in the world of health and nutrition ever since. Having started with just six products, their two ranges now extend to hundreds of supplements and sports nutrition products used by some of the world's leading athletes including The New Zealand All Blacks, British Cycling, The Lawn Tennis Association, British Athletics and many others.

"In the last 20 years of doing ecommerce this is the fastest and easiest platform change I have been involved in. The single best thing was the Red Technology team made a real effort to understand our business needs and technology eco-system, and went the extra mile on more than one occasion."

Chief Technology Officer, Healthspan

Project Highlights

Customised designs
Completely customised designs, with unique components, across both sites meaning they can have different designs between brands, ensuring they stand out from their competitors and avoid the cookie cutter look & feel often associated with theme-based platforms
Seamless integrations
Seamless integration via web services with Microsoft Dynamics Navision including user data, customers, orders and subscriptions. Other integrations with CyberSource, Feefo, Qixol, Loqate, Google Tag Manager & Google Analytics
Replenishment subscriptions
Sites both feature replenishment subscriptions which are inherent to the platform meaning there are no clunky plug-ins, bolt-ons or apps and no additional costs
Product tracing
Batch certificates and expiry dates on every Elite brand product for easy tracing and customer convenience
Payment restrictions
eWallet payment method restrictions are automatically applied to prevent users ordering CBD products. Category name changes are also applied for users landing on CBD from social ads
Shared login
Shared users with single login across both sites for customer convenience

Project Integrations

Project Overview

When Healthspan initially approached us in 2020, they wanted to expand their online business into new international territories in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The project was initially just a tactical solution as their existing Sitecore implementation, which ran their UK sites, was too inflexible, expensive, and slow to deliver these new channels. Any expected ROI was also difficult to predict, particularly as they were launching into unknown or untapped markets where sales may not be in line with the initial and ongoing cost of operating there. tradeit provided the perfect tactical solution as it was quick and cost effective to deploy, without losing any of the functionality of Sitecore. They were delighted with the results.

Healthspan Elite ecommerce site on laptop

Replatforming

Having delivered those initial six sites for them, and having used our solution for a couple of years, they began to realise how expensive, slow and feature-poor Sitecore was in comparison. It quickly became apparent that tradeit could cater for all of the requirements of their two main flagship UK sites, but with less cost, more flexibility, and superior functionality. The obvious decision was made and they set about replatforming their UK channels to tradeit too.

Multichannel Ecommerce

Their installation of tradeit now caters for eight different sites across two brands and four different countries, with a mixture of both shared and unique content. Further channels can easily be added and can support different designs, languages (if required), currencies, content, products, prices, offers, shipping options, payment types and much more.

Lower cost, better performance

For a business of their size, with online turnover alone accounting for over 40% of their revenue, site performance and conversion is vital. Despite having already worked with tradeit for a couple of years, there's always some hesitancy when replatforming, particularly with the effect it may have on KPIs, Google Core Web Vitals, and SEO. Their UK sites account for a lot of their revenue.

Any fears were unfounded though. In fact, since replatforming, the site is faster and ranks better on SERPs. This, along with other front-end changes has already driven an increase in conversions on mobile and desktop, whilst subscription numbers are the highest they've ever been (including during COVID). Light development changes are quicker too, whilst content change speeds are infinitely faster than Sitecore.

There's one other huge benefit though, the great licencing and hosting economics mean they will save over 60% of their previous costs. So what started as a tactical solution is now their core platform for online growth.

"The site is faster and ranks better on Google experience and SERPs. This and other front end changes have also increased conversion on mobile and desktop, and subscription numbers in the first month."

Chief Technology Officer, Healthspan