As the health and wellness eCommerce industry grows at a promising rate, a lot of doors are opening. It is the right time to get your health and wellness brand from the ground up.
And that starts with a great business plan, where you clarify everything from your strategies to potential obstacles to your marketing and financial plans.
In this article, we will help you write a solid business plan from scratch to help you launch your health and wellness brand in 2025!
Growth of health and wellness eCommerce
These are a few statistics and trends that highlight the rapid growth in the health and wellness industry.
- The health and wellness market globally is projected to reach $7 trillion by 2025.
- The share of health and wellness personal sales online is expected to reach 46% by 2025.
- The health and wellness eCommerce sector is expected to grow in terms of annual online sales by 20% through 2026.
- Even as more shoppers started feeling safe to visit brick and mortar shops, the health and wellness eCommerce product sales have only increased since the pandemic.
What is a business plan for Shopify health and wellness?
A business plan is a document that strategically outlines a company’s goals and objectives, strategies and the time frame within which they plan to achieve their projected goals. It will include things like financial projections, market analysis, structure of the organization etc. and as a whole it sets a blueprint for the business to secure funding, launch and grow.
What are the major components of a business plan?
A good health and wellness business plan will highlight all the important aspects of your health and wellness company’s goals, strategies etc. Here are the key components of a business plan that you need to include to ensure that you cover all the important aspects you need to detail out for your health and wellness brand:
- Executive summary: This entails a brief overview of the entire business plan.
- Company description: A description of your business, what makes it unique, what it sells etc.
- Market analysis: Market research to understand the target market, your industry and your competitors.
- 4. Organization and management: Information on your business’s management and structure.
- Products and service: A detailed description of your product/service and its benefit to customers.
- Customer segmentation: Your target market/audience broken down into different segments.
- Marketing and sales plan: Your strategy for promoting your products/services and selling them.
- Logistics and operations: A breakdown of how your business will manage resources and run its daily activities.
- Financials: A detailed look at your business’s projected income, expenses, funding requirements etc.
Step-by-step on writing a business plan for Shopify health and wellness brands
Here are the steps we follow to write a good Shopify business plan for our clients:
1. Drafting an executive summary
Your executive summary is one of the most important sections of your business plan. We have listed this first for this reason, but it should be the last section you write.
This section will contain a highly detailed and clear overview of your business and will highlight major points such as your business concept, goals and vision, product description, target market, marketing strategy, current and projected financial states, the ask you are making and details regarding your team.
Take a look at this corporate overview provided by the healthcare apparel brand FIGS on their website.
2. Writing company description
Describe who you are as a health and wellness brand and explain what you intend to do. Here you showcase what sets your brand apart and why the investor should consider you. Typically, the company description will also contain your business’ principles, ideals and overall philosophy as well as more tangible things like the business model, value proposition, background and history, long and short term objectives etc.
Even though it is for promotional reasons, health and wellness brand Everlywell’s email letter perfectly showcases how to highlight the company’s identity and strengths.
Note that extra dedication to defining your brand values and writing strong mission and vision statements can make all the difference in how your business is perceived by the reader.
3. Conducting market analysis
Market analysis is a critical part of any business plan, as it will help you determine your target market, size of market, and how to position your health and wellness business.
As the health and wellness market is ever changing and continually expanding it is crucial that your research is thorough and reliable. First, use reliable data sources such as government health statistics, wellness industry market trends, and consumer wellness trends to estimate your potential market.
Then combine this with a SWOT analysis to see your strengths (e.g., unique product formulations), weaknesses (e.g., limited distribution channels), opportunities (e.g., growing demand for organic products), and threats (e.g., increasing competition).
It’s also important to do a competitive analysis, and differentiate your brand through cost leadership, unique value propositions, or niche segmentation, like targeting eco conscious or fitness focused consumers.
4. Outline the management and organization
Outline who is behind the running of your health start up in the management and organization section.
This section will also detail your business’ legal structure and will convey whether your business will have limited partnership, sole proprietorship or will be incorporated as an S corporation. You should also show your company’s internal structure, roles, responsibilities etc. through an organizational chart.
5. List products and services
In your business plan, dedicate a section to detailing your health and wellness products or services. For brands with multiple offerings, provide a general overview of each product line, while businesses with a focused range should include detailed descriptions of individual items. Highlight upcoming launches, intellectual property, and how they contribute to profitability.
Additionally, explain sourcing methods—for example, whether products are handcrafted, sourced locally, or obtained through drop shipping. This information helps your potential investors or partners understand your value proposition and operational strategy.
For example, the brand Derma Co sells a variety of skin care products. Its business plan will have a list of all the categories of products based on different concerns or different ingredients and will have important details about the products in different categories.
6. Segment customers
The cornerstone of your marketing strategy and overall business plan is your ideal customer, or target market. A detailed overview of this buyer persona should be included in your plan, as this buyer persona should guide your decisions.
Provide demographic and behavioral traits like location, age, education level, income, employment, values, and shopping habits. You can tailor this profile to your products or services, and explain why these customers fit your brand.
7. Define your marketing plan
Once you have defined the ideal customer segments you plan to reach, your business plan will detail your marketing efforts. Outline your health and wellness business’s current strategy as well as future changes in marketing plan.
For example, health and fitness brands like Les Mills have a strong presence on Facebook where they promote their latest products and deals. Their marketing plan will hence outline their social media marketing strategies as well.
8. Provide logistics and operations plan
Your operations and logistics are the workflows that can realize your business idea and hence this section is important even if you are writing the business plan purely for planning purposes.
This section should contain detailed information about parts like suppliers, production, facilities, equipment, inventory and shipping and fulfillment. The reader should be able to understand that you have a strong grasp on the supply chain and have good contingency plans to cover all uncertainties.
9. Define the financial plan
No matter how innovative your health and wellness business ideas are, its success depends on financial health. A strong financial plan gives stakeholders confidence and provides a roadmap to long term viability.
Typically, this includes three key financial statements: an income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, along with relevant projections.
The income statement shows revenue and expenses over time, and is used to outline profitability.
The balance sheet shows the difference between your business’s assets and liabilities. Cash flow statements track when money is received and spent, to help you see if you have a cash shortage or surplus. Forecasting these figures can help health and wellness brands manage operational adjustments, secure funding, and grow sustainably.
Why do you need a business plan for your Shopify health and wellness brand?
Your health and wellness business plan will be heavily relied on by your investors to understand if your business is worth funding. They can look for weaknesses, strengths and other potentials and thus better inform their decisions. Some of the other reasons to consider writing a business plan for your health and wellness brand include:
- Writing a business plan can help you clarify your ideas and strategically plan your business.
- You can recognize ideas that have the best potential and focus on them.
- The research involved in writing your business plan can help you better understand your customers and competitors.
- You can use the business plan to convey your vision to new hires.
- Potential collaborators can understand your vision, audience and business strategy better and hence decide on whether you are a good fit to partner with.
- Participating in business plan competitions can help you stand a chance at winning prizes such as investment capital, grants, mentorships etc.
Types of Shopify business plans
These are the three among the most common types of business plans that are being used:
Traditional business plans
Traditional business plans are very common but take longer to write as these are longer. These plans are often demanded by venture capitalists and lenders. It is not necessary if you are not planning to secure funding from outside.
Lean business plans
A lean business plan is like the traditional business plan but shorter. It has the same format but only contains only the information that is most crucial. These business plans are usually used to onboard newly hired people, for purely planning purposes or to modify existing plans for a market you are targeting.
Nonprofit business plans
Nonprofit business plans are usually written for social or public benefits and covers everything from the traditional business plan and describes the impact that the brand/company plans to make. These business plans can be especially helpful for health and wellness brands that are starting with initiatives that intend to help certain disease survivors or plans to solve a health and lifestyle problem through innovations.
Best tips and practices for creating your Shopify business plan
These are some of the best practices and tips to write a great business plan for your health and wellness brand:
Understand the audience
Even if your business plan is being written for you to gain clarity in your ideas, know who might be potentially reading it and tailor the writing, details and information accordingly.
Have clear goals
Have clear goals in your health and wellness business plan. Your goal behind creating the business plan is also important. If you are aiming to secure funding, the business plan needs to be much more detailed than creating a plan for your team.
Conduct thorough research
Your health and wellness strategy can be driven by your ideas but it is also important that it is informed by thorough research from independent sources. Invest into understanding your potential customers, the demand in the market, competitors etc.
Keep it short and readable
Your business plan should be short, to the point and readable. The ideal length can be around 15 to 20 pages. This makes the whole document comprehensible and ensures that it conveys everything without being inconveniently lengthy.
Maintain consistency in tone, voice and style
To maintain a consistent style, tone and voice in your health and wellness business plan, you can either have a single person craft it, or invest time in editing the document properly.
Leverage a business plan template
There are a lot of free business plan templates you can use to provide an outline or a skeleton for your business. This way you are sure to cover every aspect of the plan without missing anything.
Use a business plan software
There are tools that can help you plan, draft, create graphics, sync financial data, edit and more with your business plan. These software can help you craft your business plan within a few hours.
Mistakes to avoid when creating a business plan
These are some of the common mistakes to avoid when writing your health and wellness business plan:
- Try to avoid risky, too expensive business ideas as well as those business ideas that have little or no market.
- The lack of an exit strategy that allows the investors to leave with maximum profits, will make it harder to get funding.
- Having a poorly balanced team can negatively impact your business’s overall growth and operational efficiency.
- Missing financial projections makes for a poor business plan. Be sure to include your cash flow statements, balance sheet, income statement, P&L statements, break-even analysis and ROI calculations in your financial plan.
- Spelling and grammatical errors seem unprofessional and can reflect poorly on your capabilities. Avoid all minor and major errors by having an editor review your business plan and other documents.
Updating and revising your health and wellness brand business plan
Your business plan has to constantly evolve and keep up with the changing business world, which means it is not a static document. The health and wellness industry has drastically changed over the last few years and it continues to evolve, so your business plan should regularly be revised to adapt to this. Here is how you can update your health and wellness brand plan:
- Monthly revisions and updates: Update Key Performance indicators like sales, web traffic, customer/patient acquisition cost etc. and review the cash flow to recognize the need for changes.
- Quarterly revisions and updates: Analyze if you are reaching your target figures and update your successful marketing campaigns, financial performance and other successful milestones you overcame.
- Yearly revisions and updates: Compare your actuals against your projections and make the needed changes. Update your forecasts.
Your health and wellness business plan needs to be updated by consulting up-to-date data such as website analytics, surveys, etc.
Top tips for presenting a business plan
Here are some tips to present your business plan to stakeholders:
Know the audience
Do your homework on the audience. These can be the investors, a bank or even your potential business partners. Consider things like their background, knowledge level, interests, concerns etc. and depending on who you are presenting to craft your presentation in the best possible way.
Structure your presentation
Once you have a clear understanding of your audience, organize your presentation. A well-structured presentation answers important questions regarding what issues your business will solve, and how you intend to do this. Your market, your competition and what sets you apart from them, your money-making model, your expected costs and revenues and who your team is and their qualifications. Your presentation will only be strengthened by visual aids like graphs, charts etc. that better illustrates your plan.
Handle questions and objections
You are bound to face questions and objections. If you are thorough with all aspects of your business plan, you can answer most of them positively. The key here is to listen to the questions and fully understand the perspective of the questioner. These questions can also be used as an opportunity to show the strengths of your business plan and showcasing your knowledge, ideas and openness to feedback.
Conclusion
Our experts at Xgentech can help you create your health and wellness brand business plan from zero to launch and further towards growth.
