18 Striking Health and Beauty Brands Turning Heads Across the Web

Health and Beauty, a $300 billion industry according to estimates from the US Department of Commerce, remains one of the fastest-growing ecommerce categories with online sales rising 17% YoY in 2016 to $28 billion globally.

With so much revenue on the table, health and beauty companies are stepping up their online selling game to stand out among the competition. Simple sites, clean product imagery and a formidable resonation with their customers (for whom feeling and looking good are personal values) are common across the best selling health and beauty sites.

Health and Beauty is one of the fastest-growing ecommerce categories, with online sales rising 17% YoY to $28 billion globally.

“In today’s competitive marketplace, it’s not enough for health and beauty retailers to simply have an ecommerce site; they need a compelling site that can inspire brand loyalty among their consumers,” said Tod Klubnik, senior vice president of global sales at BigCommerce.

The following 18 brands stand out for their understanding and implementation of UX geared to engage their target audience and push them through a buyer journey to checkout.

RSVP for the Ecommerce Growth Summit

Will you be in Chicago for IRCE in June? Us, too! We’re hosting our annual Ecommerce Growth Summit.

Register for the Ecommerce Growth Summit in Chicago this June. Hope to see you there!

Design Essentials

What I wasn’t expecting was the immediate lift we had in mobile conversion – we’ve seen a 68% increase since migrating over to BigCommerce in January.

Design Essentials, a leader in hair care products for women, needed an ecommerce platform and website that would grow with them for the long term. After extensively evaluating BigCommerce and Shopify Plus, the team went with BigCommerce citing the platform’s reliability and reputation among leading mid-market retailers as the key factors in the decision.

“My family started Design Essentials nearly 30 years ago and have no intention of going away anytime soon. We needed an ecommerce platform that had the capability to grow with us long term,” said Sholanda Armstrong, digital marketing director at Design Essentials. “With BigCommerce, we were able to develop a site that’s current, easy-to-navigate, and allows the customer to experience our brand in a way previously not possible. What I wasn’t expecting was the immediate lift we had in mobile conversion – we’ve seen a 68% increase since migrating over to BigCommerce in January.”

Why Fast-Growing, Mid-Market Health + Beauty Brands Chose BigCommerce

Design Essentials isn’t alone. BigCommerce supports more than 4,000 Health and Beauty brands across the globe.

Osmotics Cosmeceuticals

Our previous site just wasn’t optimized for mobile, and as a result, we were losing a significant amount of traffic.

For more than two decades, Osmotics Cosmeceuticals has been a leading provider of cosmeceutical treatments for skin and hair. The company made the decision to update their brand and optimize sales across channels in 2016. Within two months, Osmotics Cosmeceuticals saw a 46% jump in mobile traffic and more than 23% of sales originating from mobile devices, compared to less than 5% in 2016.

“Our previous site just wasn’t optimized for mobile, and as a result, we were losing a significant amount of traffic,” said Jill DeGroot-Schulke, ecommerce and digital marketing manager at Osmotics Cosmeceuticals. “Through its back-end flexibility, easy-to-manage tools and modern design tools, BigCommerce gave us the ability to refresh our site in a way that brings that personalized customer experience online, better positioning our brand for sustained online growth.”

Adding a Modern Touch

Mid-market brands are looking to optimize for revenue –– right now. Learn exactly how.

BPI Sports

With all of its out-of-the-box tools and functionality, BigCommerce allowed us to stop playing catch up.

Considered one of the largest supplement companies in the market, BPI Sports found its initial success by selling through brick-and-mortar retail channels. Today, the company has also launched a highly successful direct-to-consumer channel.

“For a company growing as quickly as we are, it’s just not possible to scale on a custom platform that requires extensive in-house development resources for even the most minor site update or addition,” said Bill Maroulis, digital strategy director of BPI Sports. “With all of its out-of-the-box tools and functionality, BigCommerce allowed us to stop playing catch up and start growing our ecommerce presence in a targeted and efficient way.”

BPI Sports Sees 207% Revenue Uplift

Built-in functionality is the primary reason BPI Sports went with BigCommerce when looking for a scalable B2C solution. Here’s why Bill and team chose to avoid the Shopify mess:

“Shopify is almost like a WordPress site. You can do a lot with WordPress, but if you had to use like 20 plugins to get it to work and do what you want to do, then it kind of defeats the purpose and just becomes a mess.”

Bulk Apothecary

We expected to see a modest dip in revenue due to seasonality, but since switching our online sales are up 15–20%.

“We talked with a lot of people when we were making the decision to scrap a $250k program on Magento. Ultimately, our research and past experience with BigCommerce gave us the confidence to re-platform,” says Gary Pellegrino Jr., President of Bulk Apothecary. “The BigCommerce team was able to work with us and make sure all our data was migrated in a clean, structured way.”

“We expected to see a modest dip in revenue due to seasonality, but since switching our online sales are up 15–20%.”

The Recipe for High Growth

See exactly how Bulk Apothecary saves $50,000 annually, spending that extra money on marketing resources rather than technology.

The Dairy Fairy

With a website, you have a lot more control over everything, especially your interaction with customers.

A one-woman shop based out of Southern California, Emily Ironi’s journey to launching The Dairy Fairy is inspiring at the very, very least. Today, she sells both on her own webstore and on Amazon, earning accolades from women the world over (celebrities like Chrissy Teigen and Zoe Saldana, too!).

“Amazon as a business is becoming more of a competitor to some of the brands, and bringing out their own products,” says Emily Ironi, Founder and CEO of The Dairy Fairy. “I find that it’s still critical to have your own retail presence. I have a lot of peers, especially in the baby products industry, their businesses were 100% on Amazon, and now they’re starting to catch up and trying to migrate more of their business to their own websites. Ultimately, you have a lot more control over everything and also your interaction with customers. It’s about finding that perfect balance.”

A Nursing Bra of a Different Comfort

How Emily went from pregnant and out-of-work to working mother and inventor (patent included!).

Organic Start

Google Shopping has tripled our revenue stream bringing in customers we never knew we could market to.

Formerly known as Organic Munchkin, Organic Start began with one man’s quest to find a baby formula that let his triplets (and he and his wife!) sleep. Today, the brand is growing exponentially through word of mouth, doctors recommendations and their Google Shopping integration.

“Google Shopping has tripled our revenue stream bringing in customers we never knew we could market to,” says Peter Baseio, Founder and CEO of Organic Start.

How to Launch an Organic Baby Food Empire

How Peter tapped into his own passion, and found a passionate niche market ripe for his product.

Primal Pit Paste

Companies reached out to us through our online presence requesting wholesale pricing. As a result, we hired a wholesale team to support them and engaged brokers this past year.

“While the majority of our business remains B2C, we have our products in just under 400 small to mid-size stores, as well as Whole Foods regional and global and HEB,” says Amy Cazin, CEO of Primal Pit Paste. “We have several other medium and big box stores scheduled to launch this year. Forging relationships with our wholesale customers was an organic growth opportunity. Companies reached out to us through our online presence requesting wholesale pricing. As a result, we hired a wholesale team to support them and engaged brokers this past year.”

How to Forge Relationships Wholesale Partnerships

Amy Cazin, CEO of Primal Pit Paste, offers up the details of how she got in to HEB and other retailers, and her strategy for making sure her wholesale partnerships drive online sales, too.

Flash Tattoos

Upgrading to BigCommerce Enterprise has been one of the best decisions we’ve made for growing our business.

“Upgrading to BigCommerce Enterprise has been one of the best decisions we’ve made for growing our business,” says Kirsten Stoddard, Marketing Manager at Flash Tattoos. “The team has really gone above and beyond to ensure our success. From working around the clock to ensure that our website could support the traffic from our Beyoncé collaboration to helping us maximize our SEO opportunities, we are continually impressed and amazed with BigCommerce.”

90% YoY Growth

From niche product, to perfect URLs to Beyonce collab, Flash Tats doesn’t slow down. Here’s how they achieve near 100% growth year after year.

Oyin Handmade

BigCommerce’s abandoned cart reclamation email has been wonderful! Over 14% of our abandoned carts have been reclaimed.

“BigCommerce’s abandoned cart reclamation email has been wonderful! Over 14% of our abandoned carts have been reclaimed,” says Jamyla Bennu, Founder and CEO

of Oyin Handmade. “We’d never used this feature before, and it’s resulted in an additional $27,000 in sales that we may otherwise have lost.”

Innovative Beauty Brands Choose BigCommerce

See how innovative beauty brands use the BigCommerce platform to grow sales now and in the future.

NaturallyCurly

Instead of having to rely on dev support, our ecommerce team can manage these feeds and drive traffic to the site quickly and easily, resulting in a 10% increase in traffic.

“BigCommerce has made it really easy for us to ramp up on SEM with the built in Google and Facebook channels,” says Jacqueline Cheney, Director of Ecommerce at NaturallyCurly. Now, instead of having to rely on dev support, our ecommerce team can manage these feeds and drive traffic to the site quickly and easily, resulting in a 10% increase in traffic.”

Did You Know?

Curly hair comes in various types and textures. Take NaturallyCurly’s Hair Type Quiz to figure out which type you have and which products will work best. Hint: you probably have more than one!

Hippie Butter

Our newest theme has doubled our conversion rate and raised our average order by 33%.

“We did a lot of research on websites that our customers frequently visit. It took an incredible amount of hard work and an open mind to decide which design our followers would find easy, usable and enjoyable,” says Brad Ervin, Founder of Hippie Butter.

“Hippie Butter has had many website designs over our five years at BigCommerce. We like to change the look and feel of our website whenever BigCommerce upgrades its great themes and templates. Our newest theme has doubled our conversion rate and raised our average order by 33%.”

BigCommerce’s Buy Button In Action

Are you using BigCommerce’s Buy Button yet? You should be. You can drop it in emails, on your blog toss it over to affiliates or use them in display advertising campaigns. Check out how Hippie Butter uses them on their blog.

BigCommerce’s merchants can install the Buy Button here.

NodPod

I was, and continue to be, inspired by Apple store products, as they are such innovators and leaders in design.

“I come from a family of artists, so it is safe to say I have an eye for color. When I started my design process, I wanted to evoke an overall feeling of calm and peace, therefore I choose this color blue,” says Melissa Bamberg, Founder of NodPod. “Next, the logo came about after doodling many months on paper. I wanted the shape to represent the product. Then a name – the nod in Nodpod is to represent sleep, and then pod to represent the shape of the eye mask, as it looks like a pea pod. Once I had my logo, name and color decided upon, I could visualize the design of the website.”

“I was, and continue to be, inspired by Apple store products, as they are such innovators and leaders in design.”

“We just recently finished the website, and I am now working on SEO to help increase my stores brand and awareness. Based on the feedback I get from customers, I am humbled to have created a product that people ‘can’t sleep without.’”

Love NodPod’s site design and SEO work?

Work with the BigCommerce partner agency that put it all in place. Meet Coalition Technologies, the experts behind NodPod, Whataburger, Walmart, Harvard, Coach and so many more.

Badass Beard Care

Now, we’re doing more than $300,000 in a single month.

Industry average for online store conversions is 2-3%. Charlie Moyer’s Badass Beard Care is annihilating that –– boasting 10% conversion on any given day.

“I went from $70 in revenue to $30,000 in three months at the end of 2014 from word of mouth,” says Moyer. “I thought it was just a fluke –– just the holiday season. But in January, our numbers didn’t decline. Now, we’re doing more than $300,000 in a single month.”

How to Build a Brand with a Free Product Facebook Ad

One ad –– hundreds of customers. Here’s how Badass Beard Care made it happen.

Ketochow

I looked at Shopify and at Squarespace. None of them really could handle the volume I was doing with all of the features I was looking for.

“When moving from WooCommerce, I looked at Shopify and at Squarespace. None of them really could handle the volume I was doing with all of the features I was looking for. I had a laundry list of needs,” says Chris Bair, Founder and CEO of KetoChow. “For example, I needed to have product variations because the product I sell has different flavors. That was one of the things that needed to be out-of-the-box. I also needed a ShipStation integration so I could do dimensional shipping. BigCommerce was the ecommerce platform that had checked off the most boxes.”

KetoChow Increases Conversions with Amazon Pay

See why so many BigCommerce’s merchants love Amazon Pay, and how you can use it, too.

Flora and Fauna

We launched in 3 months with 30 brands and just under 500 products.

“We launched on November 8, 2014. Ut didn’t take particularly long to get the site live. We had 30 brands at that point and just under 500 products,” says Julie Mathers, Founder and CEO of Flora and Fauna

“I have looked back on on that time and thought, ‘Geez, how on earth did I do all of that in pretty much three months?’ I was working like a crazy fool. When I was talking to brands back then, I was kind of selling them thin air. I’d say, ‘Hey, I’m from Flora and Fauna. We don’t have a website yet, but I’m going to talk you through the vision and what we’re trying to do.’ And then, we launched the site and kept the promise.”

Health + Beauty Showcase

See more health and beauty brands selling on BigCommerce. These 18 aren’t the only ones.

The Stray Whisker

That is another great thing about BigCommerce: little to no development work if we don’t want to.

“We haven’t changed too much in terms of design on our site since we launched. We use a pretty basic theme BigCommerce offers –– and then customize things here or there,” says Con Kazantzidis, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

“We did just update to the new checkout flow BigCommerce offered, which is super sleek and nice. It works really well, and we didn’t have to do any of the work there. That is another great thing about BigCommerce: little to no development work if we don’t want to.”

BigCommerce is the Platform of Choice for SEO Professionals

As told to BigCommerce by Con Kazantzidis, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

Prior to working in ecommerce, I was a high school teacher. A former student started his own business in SEO. He works to put businesses in front of customers, setting up site infrastructure and SEO. I asked him, “What would you suggest is the best ecommerce platform for us to go on?”

Without any hesitation, he said BigCommerce.

Sign up to take a demo of the product and see why developers and SEO experts recommend BigCommerce’s over all else.

BoHo Exotic Studio

We are now average profiting $60,000 in sales a month!

“BigCommerce has all the options and option sets we need and we are now average profiting $60,000 in sales a month,” says Deonna Lewis, CEO of BoHo Exotic Studio.

The Path to $60K Revenue Month over Month

“BigCommerce has all the options and option sets we need to run our website, and we are now averaging a profit of $60,000 in sales every month.” — Deonna Lewis, Boho Exotic Studio

Silk & Stone

Our sales have increased tenfold online and in our shop.

“Providing full access to base coding helped us to implement a mega menu on our site to present our complex operation in a very user friendly and simple manner,” says Syed Shah, President of Silk & Stone. “The flexibility to implement a customized Javascript helped us to integrate our live appointment system and our clients are able to make realtime service appointments, thus giving us more business and giving our clients and easy way to make the appointments when it isn’t convenient to call.”

We were also able to push customer reviews to our website. All this has increased our sales tenfold online and in our shop.”

Sell in the Sports + Outdoors Vertical?

Check out 16 brands knocking it out of the park in the sports and outdoors vertical.