How Your Pharmaceutical Brand Profits Off a Progressive Web App

How Your Pharmaceutical Brand Profits Off a Progressive Web App

Progressive web apps (commonly known as PWAs) are the next big thing in the eCommerce world and are quickly replacing downloadable apps. In fact, seven out of the top 10 eCommerce websites deliver PWAs to their billions of customers. But why are PWAs the way of the future? For customers, they give a better user experience. For online businesses, they give greater conversions at a lower cost than native apps. At InteractOne, we recently wrote a blog post about the rise of PWAs that you can read here. But what are the specific benefits of PWAs for eCommerce pharmacies, have they worked in the past and how can you add one to your existing site? Read on to learn all of this and more.

Benefits of PWAs for the unique eCommerce pharmacy world

PWAs may be the future of every type of website, but there are a few unique reasons that PWAs are especially beneficial for online pharmacies.

  1. Customers can manage and refill prescriptions more easily. On a PWA, it’s extremely easy for customers to order medications and prescription refills. They can do it in a few seconds with one push of a button, from the comfort of their couch. Plus, adding a “Favorites” feature that allows customers to see their frequently-ordered medications on one screen (rather than having to search for them repeatedly) has shown to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
  2. You can engage with your customers more easily through push notifications. Push notifications on a PWA allow you to notify customers about what medications they need to take and when, inform them about valuable offers and promotions and give them useful healthcare tips (such as how to stay healthy while traveling).
  3. PWAs help prevent drug abuse and encourage authenticity. Unfortunately, many medications today are sold online illegally. However, with a PWA, it’s easy to maintain records and prevent drug abuse because every order is documented with a prescription. Plus, if there’s a counterfeit medication, it can easily be traced back to the manufacturer. This leads to customers being able to trust you and rely on you for quality medication.
  4. PWAs are cost effective. In general, PWAs save companies money. Because PWAs run in a browser, they’re less expensive for eCommerce companies to build and support than a native app. Plus, PWAs save developer time and simplify the process, which leads to significant cost savings for companies. Additionally, the commitment to a PWA is less for the user too. When using a PWA, customers aren’t forced to take the time to download a native app or have it take up memory space on their smartphone. The browser functionality eliminates that commitment. In the long term, PWAs are generally easier to maintain with simpler updates and require less of a commitment from all parties involved.

Have PWAs worked for pharmaceutical companies in the past?

Yes. There are numerous case studies from the past few years showing that PWAs work wonders for pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies with an eCommerce business.

In 2017, a pharmaceutical company called BePHenomenal had a slowly-loading, ineffective website — but they had big dreams for a much better site. That’s when they hired a partner to help them create it.

Before changing to a PWA, the company website’s load times were slow. It took more than 11 seconds before the content was visible on the page. After the PWA implementation, however, the site took less than one second to load! In addition, the site’s performance went from a 26 to an 88, the accessibility standards went up to 100 and best practices went from 67 to 92.

How can you add a progressive web app to your existing site?

To begin, it’s important to build a few functions that make your eCommerce site feel like an app. This involves enabling HTTPS, configuring your web app manifest and creating your service worker — but this is extremely the simplified explanation. 

To pull this off successfully, you have to get into the nuts and bolts of your website and what you want from it. As you might have guessed, this can quickly become overwhelming. We recommend working with a development firm to seamlessly add a PWA to your existing site.

Conclusion

If you’d like to further explore the benefits of adding a PWA, we’re here to help. Contact us today to meet with one of our expert consultants.

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Creating Customization Through Search, On-Site & Email

Creating Customization Through Search, On-Site & Email

The modern customer is more complex and demands better services from merchants than ever before. This evolution has pushed merchants to continually identify ways of making their products and services resonate with the purchasing behaviors of their modern customers. At the center of this development, customer experience personalization is providing a means of tailoring eCommerce stores to appeal to specific groups of people. One of the ways of achieving this higher level of tailoring your engagement efforts more towards smaller persona sets isby using eCommerce onsite personalization tools to deliver a personalized experience when customers visit your store.

On-Page Customer Personalization

On page customer personalization involves tailoring web pages of your eCommerce store to appeal to specific groups of customers. This could include tailoring content of a landing page to attract a specific audience  or adjusting the checkout page to offer discounts to another group. Onsite features like CMS banners, dynamic content, product recommendations (cross-sells and up-sells), segmentation and custom automation paths keep your customers engaged while at your store.

CMS Banners – These banners allow merchants to display images and blocks of personalized content to specific customer segments. And, they can be scheduled for a particular period, depending on the goals to be achieved.

Dynamic Content Offers – This feature involves using geographic and demographic data to personalize offers for each customer. A merchant can dynamically change an entire content section to make it more relevant and appealing to a group of customers. For example, a sports apparel store would not want football gear content being displayed to female audiences. Similarly, they would want a specific tennis racket displayed only for audiences interested in tennis.

Product Recommendations – The feature allows merchants to include related products, up-sells, and cross-sells for the customer to add them quickly to the cart. They are excellent at encouraging additional purchases and ensure that products get more views.

Shopping Cart Price Rules – This feature allows merchants to offer discounts and promotions to specific customer segments. For instance, new customers may get a one-off discount of 20% off their first purchase while recurring customers get a 15% discount on their cart total.

Customer Personalization on Search Results

Personalization of the Search results page ensures that the search results show products that reflect the filters visitors select or have previously searched for. When customers perform a search on your online store, they expect more than just the product they’re searching for. . Instead, they expect that each click will offer them an experience custom to their taste.

Machine learning allows store users to include targeted and personalized content like buyer’s guides, user-generated content, and blog posts that improve the quality of search results.

Look at the keywords your customers use to Search for products using search ads and other methods to dynamically show site content that matches the search intent of the customers.

Email Customer Personalization

Email personalization is a strategy that uses the subscriber’s personal information to produce more targeted emails by giving individual treatment to each customer. The process involves personalizing the content to appeal to the receiver and appeal to their buying behavior. A personalized email is written in a way that it provides relevant and timely information. It could also include the customer’s name, personalized subject line, content, imagery, and more.

Apart from personalized email, eCommerce merchants can also send personalized text messages to their customers (with customer permission). SMS creates a one-off messaging platform to create a loyal customer base by sending personalized messages like happy birthday wishes and recommendations to new products based on their purchase history.

These messages are effective in engaging customers and showing them that they are valued.

Providers of Onsite Personalization Services

eCommerce merchants typically use a suite of different providers and features to power all of these unique personalizations. This will usually depend on factors like webstore host platform or the kind of personalization features a brand is looking to implement. Some of the popular providers include:

Magento – Magento offers native features like onsite banners and promo codes that personalize experiences for customers. It provides the necessary starter features for small businesses and those starting with eCommerce.

Listrak – Listrak provides personalized email services to boost sales in an eCommerce store. This includes product upsell recommendations based on customer browsing and purchasing behavior on the site.

SLI Systems – SLI personalize the search experience of your online store to include predictive results that appeal to your customers. This helps to convert more customers, sell more products, and engage more shoppers.

Celebros – Celebros is a great provider for personalized search results. They help you improve your search result page and tailor it to the kind of customer visiting your eCommerce store.

Nosto – Nosto is excellent for an onsite personalized related product, upsell, and cross recommendations. It is a great provider for robust enterprises with a vast catalog and large customer base.

Bottom Line

The modern-day customer is attracted more to brands that show they care and offer unique experiences. Onsite personalization tools are designed to bridge the gap between what a customer expects when they visit the site and what they get. This way, customers become more engaged and likely to make a purchase. Given the importance of customer personalization to the success of an ecommerce store, you need to ensure you are doing it the right way. If you would like to discuss improving personalization on your site, fill out the form on our contact page to schedule a conversation with our eCommerce experts..

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Top 3 Online Demographics of Supplement Buyers

Top 3 Online Demographics of Supplement Buyers

Health supplement use has never been more popular than it is today. In fact, since the 1970s, there’s been a 40% increase in supplement use in adults 50 and older, and a 23% increase in adults younger than 50. In 2019, the supplement market was valued at $163 billion — and it’s forecasted to grow exponentially over the next few years.

As a supplement eCommerce retailer, this is great news for you. But who exactly is buying these supplements online? Where can you find them? And how can you get them to your site? Keep reading to learn about why people buy health supplements online, as well as the top three demographics of online supplement buyers.

Why do people buy health supplements online?

No matter who your audience is, the most common reason that people buy supplements online is because they’re experiencing some kind of pain, ache or health problem and they want to feel better. Other popular reasons that people buy/take supplements are to ensure that they get the recommended amount of vitamins, improve their energy levels, boost their immune system, improve any digestive issues and/or to lower their cholesterol.

In addition, a growing number of people are turning to health supplements because they don’t feel that they receive the right nutrients in their food alone. As a result, they try supplements in the forms of vitamins, minerals, botanicals and more. Many choose to buy them online because it’s quick, easy, convenient and doesn’t require a trip to the store.

What are the top three demographics of online health supplements buyers?

There’s a wide variety of people who buy health supplements online. According to our research, here are three of the top demographics:

1. Women 60+ in the United States 

In a nationwide survey, 49% of adults in the US say that they take health supplements. This group is made up of mostly women (54%), although men are beginning to take more supplements as time goes on. In addition, results of the survey also show that supplement use increases with age. In the age group of 20 to 39, 34% of people took supplements. In the age group of 40 to 59, it was 50%. And in the age group of 60+, 67% say they buy/take supplements. 

Where you can find this demographic elsewhere: When looking at where you can find this top demographic (women 60+) online, many are visiting dating sites, retirement living sites, travel sites, AARP’s website and Facebook. Advertising your online supplement store on any of these sites will definitely yield some valuable results.

2. People 60+ with health insurance

Of all Americans without health insurance, 31% say they buy their supplements online. However, of all Americans with health insurance, 53% say they buy their supplements online. That’s largely because more and more people are taking a personal, vested interest in their health and consider themselves to be digitally savvy. As a result, they’re looking for medications and supplements online vs. in a doctor’s office.

Where you can find this demographic elsewhere: For starters, this audience can be found on many different health insurance websites, such as Anthem, United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna and more. In addition, this audience frequently visits retirement websites and websites about aging. Advertising your eCommerce store in these places is a great idea.

3. People who report high levels of exercise

When people who rarely exercise were surveyed, 43% of them say they buy supplements online. However, when people who report high levels of exercise were surveyed, 56% of this group say they buy supplements online. 

Where you can find this demographic elsewhere: Not surprisingly, this demographic is all over websites featuring topics such as gyms, health, fitness, weight loss and stress management. Getting a catchy banner ad and/or a short blog post about your supplement eCommerce store on any of these types of websites will inevitably increase the traffic to your site — and then increase your sales.

Conclusion

When you’re trying to acquire new customers, finding them where they are online is key. It’s the first step to getting them familiar with your eCommerce store before their interest is piqued and they land on your site’s beloved “Shop” page.

At InteractOne, we work closely with our clients to find these audiences and then increase the high-converting traffic to their own sites. To learn more about how we can help your company, contact us today.

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    Sam Villa Video Case Study

    Sam Villa Video Case Study

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    Since 1998, InteractOne has been helping our clients grow and compete online, always keeping in mind to do what’s best for our clients. We build, maintain and market great eCommerce experiences.

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    Putco Video Case Study

    Putco Video Case Study

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    See the new M2 Putco site for yourself here.

    Click here to learn more about InteractOne’s experience in the automotive aftermarket industry:

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    Putco manufactures and sells aftermarket automotive accessories including chrome trim, LED lighting, step bars, truck accessories, and stainless steel fender trim. With its dedication to domestic manufacturing and innovative line of high-quality LED lighting products, Putco continues ahead of the change curve in the industry.

    Since 1998, InteractOne has been helping our clients grow and compete online, always keeping in mind to do whats best for our clients. We build, maintain and market great eCommerce experiences.

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