Beauty and haircare. Shopify for routines, repeat purchases and products that need explaining.

A shampoo does not come in twenty sizes, and yet a beauty store is not simple. The complexity lies elsewhere: in routines made of several products, in regular repeat purchases and in product information that is required by law. Customers compare ingredients, read directions for use and wonder whether a product suits their hair or skin type.

On top of that comes the value of regular customers. Anyone who has found a care product that works buys it again and again. The first purchase is therefore only the start. The store has to make the second and third purchase as easy as possible, without overwhelming customers with discounts and pop-ups.

That is why we start with three questions. How do your customers buy: as a single product, as a set or on subscription? Which system owns product data and mandatory information? And who else buys from you besides consumers, such as salons or retailers? Only then do we decide on theme, apps and page types.

A care routine rarely consists of one product. Shampoo, conditioner and treatment, cleanser, serum and cream: customers buy combinations, and many would like a recommendation on which products belong together. Bundles make that recommendation buyable, as long as they are properly connected to stock, prices and shipping.

At Hairshop Pro, volume discounts, product bundles, optimised checkout flows and sticky CTAs were part of the migration, built directly into the store rather than added afterwards. The case study states +20% in average order value from the bundle concept and cart upsells. That is the result of this project, not a general benchmark for every brand.

At Svenja Walberg, the bundle logic was structured as a building block for routines, sets and complementary products. A new cart drawer brings recommendations, bundles and checkout entry together. Technically, what matters is that a bundle consists of real items and that the stock of the individual products is tracked correctly.

A subscription suits products that are used up at a predictable rhythm: shampoo, care ranges, skincare basics. It suits new launches or seasonal products less well. On Shopify, subscriptions run on selling plans, which define delivery interval, price and discount and appear on the product page and in checkout.

At Svenja Walberg, the subscription function was a central part of the relaunch. The subscription flows were embedded into the product and checkout journey, so customers can replenish favourite products regularly with less effort. As a next step they can be tied more closely to product routines and customer retention. A good subscription can be paused, rescheduled and cancelled without detours.

Not every repeat purchase needs a subscription. Many customers do not want to be tied in, but they do want a reminder. A replenishment email at the right moment, a quick reorder from the customer account or a saved basket covers that case. We decide which products belong in a subscription and which work better through reminders.

The EU Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 sets out which information belongs on the packaging, including the list of ingredients with their INCI names, nominal content, durability details and warnings. Many customers look for this information in the store as well. If it only appears there as a photo of the packaging or as running text, nobody can filter or reliably process it.

We set up ingredients, directions for use, warnings and attributes such as hair type, skin type or vegan as metafields, with recurring terms as metaobjects. From these come filters on the collection page, details on the product page and product data that Google and AI search read correctly. If a PIM owns the data, it comes from there and is not maintained twice.

At Hairshop Pro, PlentyMarkets remained the PIM. An integration syncs product master data, inventory, prices, orders, fulfilment status and custom fields with Shopify Plus. That way PIM and storefront can evolve independently, and the marketing team manages campaigns, promotions and the range in the store without touching the data source.

In a salon, the hairdresser asks about your hair before recommending a product. Online, the product page takes on that role. Details on hair type and skin type, short directions for use and matching complementary products help with the decision. A product finder with a few questions can make sense, as long as it relies on the same metafields as the filters.

Advertising claims call for caution. The Cosmetics Regulation prohibits claims that attribute characteristics or functions to a product that it does not have, and the EU has set common criteria for such claims. Statements that sound like healing or treatment, for example against hair loss or eczema, also move a product towards medicinal products.

That is why we do not build claims about effects into templates that appear automatically on every product page. Claims belong in a separate field that your team or your legal advisers sign off. The same applies to AI-generated product copy: you are responsible for what appears in the store, no matter who or what wrote it.

Many haircare brands sell to two groups: consumers and salons. Hairdressers need different prices, larger pack sizes and often payment terms. Shopify Plus can handle business customers with their own catalogues, prices and terms in the same store. Whether that is needed straight away or later depends on how large and how different the professional business is.

Hairshop Pro is an online shop for professional hair and care products. B2B structures are set up in the backend, and business customers currently use the same storefront as consumers. The migration from PlentyMarkets to Shopify Plus covered products, variants, customer accounts, pricing logic, payment methods and tax rates. The case study states 3 months project duration and +35% conversion rate after launch.

For markets outside Germany, Shopify Markets handles separate currencies, prices, languages and domains. Svenja Walberg launched the relaunch in the DACH region, built so that further markets and languages can follow. In cosmetics this also means that mandatory information and advertising claims are checked in every language, not just translated.