Health and wellness customers often shop with a purpose in mind. Whether it be specific ingredients, routines, or benefits, they can be very particular about what they need, as it can directly concern their well-being. So naturally, they bounce if they cannot easily find what they are looking for.
For this reason, streamlined product discovery is of critical importance for keeping customers, making smart search and filters a necessity.
In this post, we will walk you through actionable tips, best practices, examples, and more for implementing smart search and filtering for your Shopify health and wellness store.
Why smart search and filters matter in health and wellness
Wellness shoppers are often not merely browsing, but looking for products that align with their goals, sensitivities, health conditions, lifestyle choices, etc.
So, when they are looking for something with a specific use case, be it vegan protein powder, gluten-free supplements, or sensitive skin-friendly cleansers, they expect to find the product fast and comfortably.
With smart search and filters, you can empower customers to take control of their shopping experiences and reach products that they need seamlessly. Rather than having to scroll through endless and tiresome categories, customers can simply apply filters based on certifications, ingredients, dietary needs, etc.
From a business and eCommerce standpoint, this is a no-brainer as intuitive product discovery can directly contribute to higher conversions and reduced bounce rates, especially for mobile users.
Additionally, structured filters and search metadata can also improve the store's internal linking and SEO, meaning both customers and search engines will have a better understanding of your product catalog.
Smart search features to implement
Now that we have established why smart search and filters are essential, let us look at what smart search features you need to implement to provide the best product discovery experience:
1. Autocomplete with product images
Autocomplete helps customers find what they are looking for much faster by predicting the search term as they type. By incorporating product images in these suggestions, health and wellness businesses can add a visual cue through which customers can quickly recognize what product they need.
For instance, when a customer types “collagen,” among the suggestions, they might be able to spot the exact powder and capsule they have seen before, resulting in a shorter path to purchase.
2. Synonym recognition and misspelling tolerance
As wellness and health products can often come with complex names, abbreviations, or jargon, it is important that the smart search can recognize common synonyms and tolerate minor spelling errors.
For example, the smart search should be able to understand that “Mg” and “Magnesium” are the same, or that “pro-biotic” could simply be a typo for “probiotic”. This feature is crucial to ensure that, due to minor technicalities, shoppers do not hit dead ends regarding finding the right products.
3. Popular and recent searches
Another smart search feature you need to have for your health and wellness store is the popular and recent search suggestions. This is a great way to offer customers quick shortcuts to products of interest and is especially useful for returning wellness shoppers who frequently reorder or wish to explore trending searches.
4. Search suggestions based on collections/ categories
Turn broad searches by customers into guided experiences through search suggestions.
When a customer types something general, such as “immune support”, your smart search can suggest relevant collections like supplements, herbal teas, Vitamin C products, etc. This feature organizes the options for customers while at the same time introducing them to product types they may not have previously considered.
Filter options that improve wellness product discovery
Here are a few filter options that can work well for health and wellness product discovery:
1. By benefit
You can have a filter option that helps customers find what they are looking for based on their wellness goals or the product benefits that they are looking for.
Filters like better sleep, stress relief, gut health, immunity, energy, etc., make it easier for users to match products with their intended outcome.
2. By form/ format
Wellness shoppers have diverse preferences. For instance, some shoppers prefer powders or capsules while others might like teas, bars, liquids, or creams.
Allow customers to sort by product type to reduce any friction in the experience and improve the chance of a purchase by matching product types/formats to the preferences of customers.
3. By ingredients
Health and wellness shoppers are very conscious about the ingredients in their products and often seek products with specific ingredients.
Include ingredient-based filters to help such customers who already know what they are looking for.
4. By dietary preference
You can also offer customers filters to shop for products based on their dietary preferences and lifestyle commitments.
Filters like Vegan, Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, Keto-Friendly, Non-GMO, etc., help customers instantly identify suitable products without having to dig through each label.
5. By skin type/ hair type/ body type
For personal care products, you can offer filtering options based on skin type (for example: sensitive, oily, dry), hair type (curly, fine, color-treated, etc.), or specific body needs (hydration, acne, aging, etc.)
This can create a more personalized experience and reduce decision fatigue.
6. By routine or use case
There are many wellness and healthcare products that are tied to specific use cases and routines. You can help customers shop according to their lifestyle and habits by offering filters such as morning, night, pre-workout, post-workout, daily essentials, etc.
How to set up smart search and filters on Shopify
Creating a seamless product discovery experience starts with the right setup. Here’s how you can get started with smart search and filters on Shopify:
1. Use the Shopify search and discovery app
The easiest and most cost-effective starting point for improving product discovery is the free Shopify Search & Discovery app. The app lets you customize search results, define filter logic, and highlight relevant products based on user behavior, all without needing you to have any coding expertise. Explore our preferred partners here.
2. Organize product tags and metafields
Tags and metafields act as the backbone of your filters, so you need to use clear, consistent, and relevant tags such as “vegan,” “gut health,” “capsule,” or “night routine” to power filter options. Metafields are important as they allow for deeper customization, such as defining dietary preferences, use cases, skin types, etc.
3. Group products into meaningful collections
Smart search thrives well on structured content, so create collections like “Immune support”, “Post-workout recovery”, or “Stress relief essentials”. These collections can help shoppers explore related products easily while powering better search suggestions.
4. Use third-party apps for advanced features
For advanced functionality like AI-powered search, dynamic filters, analytics, etc., consider third-party apps like Searchanise, Boost AI Search & Discovery, Doofinder, etc. These tools can help in elevating your store's UX while catering to wellness shoppers who search with intent and precision.
Tips for better UX with filters
Smart filters can only work if they are easy to use and intuitive. Here are a few practical tips to ensure that your filters actually improve product discovery:
1. Keep filter categories relevant
You need to ensure that the filter options that you are providing are tailored to your specific product types. For a store selling wellness supplements, a color filter is irrelevant, but filters based on form, ingredients, benefits, etc., are a necessity.
2. Don’t overload with options
Too many filter choices can confuse customers rather than help them. Prioritize the most impactful filters, such as dietary preferences or skin type, and consider grouping less-used ones under something like “More Filters.”
3. Use icons for clarity
Use visual cues to make filters clearer and scannable. Simple icons such as a leaf for vegan, a flask for ingredients, or a sun for morning routines, help improve clarity and make for faster navigation.
4. Make filters mobile-friendly
A large chunk of your wellness shoppers likely browse on mobile. Use collapsible menus or drawers for filters so that they do not take up a lot of screen space and are accessible for mobile users.
5. Clearly display active filters
Always show users what filters are active and give them easy ways to reset or remove the filters. This will reduce friction and help users stay in control of their browsing experience.
Examples of wellness stores doing it right
Here are a few examples of health and wellness stores implementing product discovery features the right way:
Ritual
Ritual offers a great example of how brands can enable wellness shoppers to reach what they are looking for seamlessly with its ingredient transparency and benefit-based browsing.
Golde
Superfoods brand Golde makes product discovery exceptionally easy with its clean filters that allow customers to search for products based on ingredients or product types. Golde also has an autocomplete feature with suggestions that display product images, allowing customers to easily recognize what they are looking for.
Conclusion
Seamless product discovery plays a pivotal role in shaping the customer's shopping experience in the health and wellness space. Smart search and filtering features do not just improve navigation, but also guide customers towards the right choices and help them feel confident and cared for throughout their journey.
Even small changes and improvements to your Shopify health and wellness store’s search and filtering system can lead to major wins like higher conversions, reduced bounce rates, and improved customer loyalty.
Need help optimizing your health and wellness Shopify store’s filters and product discovery tools? Talk to our Shopify experts today!
