Today's era is health-conscious with 48% of global consumers making purchase decisions towards health and wellness. We are becoming obsessed with our health and well-being. Owing to the thriving nature of the health and fitness industry, both health coaching services and health-related products remain in great demand. But what people demand the most right now are digital health coaching services that they can receive remotely from wherever they want.
Though it takes work to continue the process of health coaching digitally and make it grow, the availability of eCommerce platforms smoothens the process. The rise of these platforms is scaling these services and products further. Let’s explore the role of eCommerce platforms in scaling digital health coaching services!
How E-Commerce Platforms Facilitate Digital Health Coaching Businesses
There is an increased risk of health diseases among people in today's world. People are becoming more and more health conscious. Here's where the importance of health coaching services lies. Recently, the demand for these services has surged significantly. The credit goes to the people's increasing awareness of personalized healthcare and holistic well-being.
However, it would only be easy to provide these services seamlessly to health coaches with the assistance of eCommerce platforms. Until May 2024, with over 13,000 live Shopify stores in the Business Service category and 150 live Shopify stores in the Consulting category, the emergence of eCommerce platforms is empowering countless online businesses to be successful. The same is true in the case of the health coaching business.
From these platforms, you will get tools that will help you in:
- Inventory management
- Processing of payments
- Making the experience user-friendly, etc.
The eCommerce platforms are great for managing client interactions too. Given that 45% of customers prefer online scheduling over calling on the phone, these platforms will help you schedule your appointments, do live chat customer support, and even send newsletters and emails. Using these platforms, you will be able to publish unique and creative digital content, such as meal plans, exercise routines, etc.
Healthcare practices need online scheduling for undeniable benefits. Image source: Porton Health
Thanks to eCommerce platforms, they serve as integral tools for digital coaching services by contributing to the infrastructure ideal for their growth. These infrastructures are robust enough to scale the progress of digital health coaching services. It’s apparent that in a digitally advanced world, virtual health coaching services and the eCommerce trend are forming a symbiotic relationship.
The Evolution of Health Coaching Services
Traditionally, health coaching services were given in person. In these sessions, the people to be trained had to be present physically at the health coaching platforms. The health coaches then train the persons standing face-to-face with them.
With the expansion of different mechanizations and digital technologies, the healthcare coach market size is projected to reach $29.12 billion by 2032 with various digital advancements including: the surge of telemedicine and the provision of virtual consultation.
Also, the credit for this change depends on customers’ preferences.
Since there’s only 30% of patients reported that their doctors check in with them regularly between office visits, most customers today prefer to get digital health coaching from the convenience of their homes.
And why not? Today's modern world has become fast-paced. It's become tough to manage separate time for every person to visit the existing health coaching platforms after doing the whole day's work. Digital health coaching services cut travel time and eliminate geographical limitations. Hence, online health coaching saves every health-conscious individual from various health-related diseases. These digital services ensure their fitness and simultaneously save them extra time. The evolution in health coaching services from manual to digital is because of the choice of our present generation's digitally-driven society. In short, modern healthcare solutions need accessibility and convenience, and online health coaching services can provide that to customers well.
Many health coaching centers (both online and offline) keep personal health cheerleaders to provide enthusiastic support to their clients in their physical fitness journey.
A personal health cheerleader acts as a health mentor who motivates the client to pursue a better health and wellness routine. They encourage their clients by celebrating every milestone of their successes. The tailored strategies of the personal health cheerleaders bring positive changes in the client's lifestyles.
Therefore, in this modern and advanced world, where eCommerce scales the health coaching services, personal health cheerleaders serve as a beacon of inspiration in wellness.
The Challenges of Coaches Providing Offline and Online Health Coaching
Yes, it's true that with the advancement of digital technologies and eCommerce, the demand for digital health coaching services is increasing day by day.
However, though these digital fitness-related services are convenient for busy fitness-seeking people, the same does not apply to the digital service-providing health coaches.
The health coaches who earlier used to easily train fitness-seeking people physically are now facing different challenges due to the health training's shifting platform.
It has become quite hard for them to manage the entire process digitally. This is because all the health coaches are not experts in handling training classes digitally. They first need to learn the same before proceeding with it.
However, the challenges are not only faced by the online health coaches. Many challenges are faced by both online and offline health coaches, especially time management challenges since 41.1% of healthcare professionals don’t manage their time well. Other challenges include developing the business within a limited time, and balancing client sessions, the major ones are:
- Client acquisition
- Limitation in the availability of resources (technologies, staff, etc.)
- Maintaining service quality
- Regulatory compliance
- Technology integration for different purposes, including client management, communication, scheduling, etc.
Besides, there are also some specific limitations of offline health training.
They serve as hurdles in the path of seamless service delivery by the offline health coaching provider. The limitations are:
- Geographical constraints
- Limitations regarding time-intensive scheduling process
- Limited accessibility
- Need for travel to the health coaching center
- Time consuming
- Lack of flexibility
- Restricted to local audiences
The Role of E-Commerce Platforms in Scaling Digital Health Coaching Services
Digital health coaching always comes with challenges but not without solutions.
With the CAGR of eCommerce applications in the healthcare sector being 16.3%, the answer is revealed. ECommerce platforms come with many features like:
- Integrated communication tools
- Automated scheduling systems
- Secure payment gateways
They streamline the operations of health coaching services and also enhance the client experience.
Furthermore, eCommerce platforms have automation capabilities, which can empower online health coaching providers by expanding their reach and streamlining customer acquisition. This essentially takes away technical problems and helps health coaches concentrate better on producing quality services and programs.
Best Practices to Use E-Commerce Platforms for Health Coaching Services
Each eCommerce platform comes with great potential, and digital health coaching providers must leverage the full potential of these platforms. They should adopt some practices that would benefit their health coach business, including:
- Keeping the scalability requirement in mind.
- Going for the best features, which include customization options, integration capabilities, etc. It must also entail the facility of seamless payment processing.
- The platforms being flexible and customizable for business growth.
- The platforms must provide extraordinary customer support and self-service documents.
- Choosing the platforms that would fit their budgets.
- Optimizing product and service offerings according to the client's needs.
- Implementing tiered pricing models for getting recurring revenue.
- Running performance marketing and even sales.
Producing a quality and presentable website is essential to build trust with clients in health care services, and you now can utilize pre-built themes like HealSoul for a better jumpstart. Image source: ThemeForest
Practices adopted by the providers of health coaching services would maximize the success rate of online health coaching businesses, eventually driving sustainable growth.
However, you must also take care of the online and offline marketing of the health coaching services, including but not limited to:
- SEO optimization
- Engaging social media presence
- Email marketing
- Content marketing through valuable resources (blog posts, webinars, videos, etc.)
- Subtle paid advertising. An over-advertised healthcare service can create negative effects.
- Performance and analytics tracking tools
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Trends and Opportunities of Health Coaching Industries
- Integration of telehealth services
- Getting robust customization options (for generating tailored programs, tracking clients, etc)
- Virtual group coaching
- Integration with wearable technology
- The attainment of holistic health solutions (by having nutrient-rich foods, managing stress, etc)
- Telehealth technologies
- The integration of AI-driven analytics (will be useful for personalized health training)
- The expansion in various niches related to health coaching services
Wrapping Up
Running a digital health coaching center is not an easy task. It comes with several challenges, particularly for those who are online health coaching providers. Nevertheless, these hard tasks are converted easily by the eCommerce platforms into easy ones as they surge the health coaching services. So, the health & fitness students get seamless operations from the health coaching centers.
Also, the eCommerce platforms are capable of maximizing the reach of health coaching centers. So, pursuing such platforms along with the best practices will make your digital health coaching business thrive. The eCommerce platforms will not only help the health trainers survive the forthcoming challenges. They will also open new gates in the health coaching industry for invention and betterment.
