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A gorgeous redesign and replatform help Aromatherapy Associates supercharge its D2C
Wellness is a thriving and increasingly crowded global market—valued at US$1.5 trillion in 2021, according to a McKinsey & Company report, with an estimated growth of 5 to 10 percent each year. From fitness to nutrition to mindfulness, consumer interest in health and well-being skyrocketed during the pandemic and has continued to flourish even as the focus on COVID-19 has waned.
Aromatherapy Associates, a British-based beauty and wellness brand with a growing global presence, was eager to expand the benefits of its product to a wider consumer base. The business had traditionally focused on B2B and marketed its products to spas, but the organization pivoted during the pandemic to sell its therapeutic oils directly to consumers.
Aromatherapy Associates wanted to double its revenue. Ongoing problems with the customer journey and technical issues meant in-house teams were spending their time firefighting instead of focusing on creating the premium digital experience that today’s wellness consumers crave. And the manual processes surrounding content and product management added even more to the internal workload.
To fulfill its growth ambitions, Aromatherapy Associates was keen to implement a new tech stack that served the needs of the business now and for the future as well as to modernize the UI and UX through a complete redesign. And the brand turned to Astound to get the job done.
We began with a consultation process where we offered guidance on how to overcome Aromatherapy Associates’ commerce challenges, and Shopify Plus was selected as the new platform to fuel the brand’s D2C growth. Leading from a design lens, we conducted an in-depth discovery process to understand the company’s ambitions and visual language to ensure the new site was anchored in the brand’s unique aesthetic and offered a modern consumer experience that exceeded the competition. On the back end, we focused on creating a seamless management experience that would allow internal teams to easily manipulate content on the new site. To clarify brand messaging, we produced a website playbook that would help those teams populate the site effectively and guide them on content creation.
By leveraging our internal accelerator for Shopify Plus, we optimized the replatform process and sped time to market, allowing us to complete the build and launch in under three months. The new site offers elevated capabilities such as gift with purchase, product bundles, and a customized blend finder quiz that simplifies the consumer journey for new shoppers—and our aesthetic design employs subtle brand tie-ins, like detail pages that adopt a product’s packaging colors as a visual cue for customers who associate different blends with specific hues. We perfected the user journey and shopping experience by deploying Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, WishList, Global-e, and user-generated content. And we added third-party integrations that would forge stronger customer connections, including Yotpo to drive loyalty through reviews, Klevu to provide optimized product searches, Ometria to manage better data-driven relationships, and Octane AI to offer quizzes and surveys for improved personalization.
“Not only have Astound created a future-proof platform that will support our D2C growth plans, but they have also created a website that is beautifully polished and positions our brand as the well-being category leader it really is–delivering an immersive, brand-rich experience to engage and delight our discerning customers.”
—Laura Bailey, Global Head of Ecommerce, Aromatherapy Associates
We launched the new Aromatherapy Associates site in October 2022. Highlights include:
