The Vitamin Shoppe Personalizes Product Discovery With Bloomreach

The Vitamin Shoppe saw its best revenue data in direct search performance. Customers who knew exactly what they needed (such as a specific brand of protein powder) would search for the product directly on The Vitamin Shoppe’s website, quickly find it, and complete their purchase. 

However, category browsing presented challenges for the brand. Shoppers who weren’t sure exactly what they needed — for instance, someone exploring “protein for muscle gain” options — often landed on search results pages or even category pages, where they required more assistance. Instead of searching for “gold standard whey protein” by name, they browsed these broader categories in the hopes of finding products that fit their specific goals. 

In a brick-and-mortar store, a Health Enthusiast (The Vitamin Shoppe’s in-store associate) would step in to guide these customers, asking questions, understanding their needs, and recommending the right product. Prior to implementing Bloomreach’s intelligent personalization platform, Loomi AI, The Vitamin Shoppe did not have an intuitive search and merchandising solution that could confidently fill in for the Health Enthusiast.

“What the team and I were really looking for with Bloomreach was an improvement with our category pages,” explained Tamara Pircz, the Vice President, Digital Commerce at The Vitamin Shoppe. “Our search customers tend to have a strong intent. They know what they want because they have either made their purchase before or done their research. The customer who was learning and browsing — that was the biggest opportunity for us.”