ABN AMRO’s latest sector analysis carries a headline that says it all: online is gaining ground in the drugstore sector. The bank points to a cosmetics market that McKinsey expects to grow by 5 percent a year globally through 2030, fuelled in part by social media that keeps pulling new audiences into the category.
Retail figures from one of Europe’s most mature e-commerce markets confirm where that demand lands. Online stores in food and drugstore products grew 6.8 percent, and online retail as a whole grew 5.9 percent, well ahead of the 3.4 percent for total retail. Repeat purchases in this category are moving to the screen, and increasingly the entire journey happens there, without a physical store visit.
And this is bigger than the classic drugstore. The online shelf in health & personal care stretches from drugstore chains like Kruidvat, dm and Rossmann to beauty retailers like Douglas and ICI PARIS XL, from Amazon and bol to a fast-growing landscape of online pharmacies. Whether it’s a serum, a supplement or an OTC pain reliever, the consumer meets your brand on a retailer’s screen.
Wherever the trigger comes from, a video, an empty bottle, a recommendation on Instagram or TikTok, the next step is almost always the same: the search bar of a retailer. The drugstore app, the beauty webshop, the pharmacy platform, the marketplace.
And that’s the moment the game is decided. Because the shopper doesn’t arrive at your product. They arrive at a search results page, where your serum stands next to dozens of alternatives making similar promises at similar prices. Research shows the average brand faces 29 competitors on the online shelf, and that the majority of shoppers switch straight to a competing product when their first choice isn’t there or doesn’t convince. Demand for this category is bigger than ever. The shelf decides who captures it.
That competition is fought with three weapons: content, visuals and reviews. And nowhere do they weigh heavier than in health & personal care. Ingredients, claims, dosage and usage information have to be complete and correct, not just to convert but because this is a trust category, and often a regulated one. A wrong claim or an outdated ingredient list doesn’t just cost a sale. It damages credibility with consumers and retailers alike. Visuals have to prove the product is the same one the shopper saw in the video. And reviews do the final convincing: in this category, more than six in ten shoppers always read reviews before buying online.
So turn it around. This is not a threat, it’s a to-do list, and every item on it is within your control.
Make sure you’re listed, across drugstores, beauty retailers, pharmacies and marketplaces. Make sure you’re in stock, because the shopper inspired today buys today, from whoever is available. Make sure your content is flawless: claims, ingredients and usage information complete and correct on every shelf, in every market. Make sure your visuals are consistent and convincing, on every channel. Make sure your reviews work for you. And make sure you’re visible in retailer search, preferably on page 1, because that’s where the demand gets captured, by you or by a competitor.
You can only manage this if you can see it, the way the consumer sees it, on every retailer, every day. That outside-in view is exactly what digital shelf analytics provides: one daily picture of your listings, availability, content, prices, reviews and search visibility, next to your competition.
This is where digital shelf analytics and optimisation, certainly with Parker, Sitelucent’s AI assistant, makes the difference. It ensures you perform at your best on that shelf: easy to find, easy to choose. You know exactly where you stand against your competitors, including the ones you didn’t even know you had, and you get every handle you need to rise above them. Sitelucent enables you to stand out, and from there to genuinely drive revenue.
The demand in this category grows every day. Make sure it ends with you. Take control of your online shelf, and drive revenue.
Sitelucent. What stands out, sells.
