Elix is betting on personalized, long-term care with its new health coaching model.
The traditional Chinese medicine brand, known for its custom menstruation support tincture Cycle Balance, is pivoting its business model to focus on health coaching following a successful pilot program. Users can sign up for three months at a time and receive their custom Cycle Balance formula, which is based on a comprehensive health assessment, along with coaching and additional education.
“We’ve been piloting this wellness coaching program for essentially the past year. We’ve had over 5,000 people go through it,” said Elix chief executive officer and founder Lulu Ge. “It’s an evolution of our business model.”
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The business pivot is strategic, according to Ge. For starters, 70 percent of the brand’s users are exploring traditional Chinese medicine for the first time, so education via health coaching is essential.
“What we’ve seen in our pilot is that we have a 30 percent higher retention and lifetime value if someone has a touchpoint with a coach,” Ge said.
It also takes time for users to experience a noticeable change in their symptoms, especially those that may be experiencing chronic conditions like endometriosis. According to Ge, the top concerns people are seeking traditional Chinese medicine coaching for from Elix include transitioning off of hormonal birth control, PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, perimenopause, irregular cycles and fertility health.
“We want people to be set up for success,” Ge said. “That’s why the entry point now is a three month bundle, because we know that it takes a three month commitment in order to start seeing results.…It’s part of our longer-term shift, where as a brand and as a business, our goal is to help people heal, we say heal at the root, but really form those healthy habits throughout life.”
Many are also finding the brand after trying out a slew of other solutions.
“For those who have tried all the various different things and haven’t been satisfied with the results and are looking for long term sustainable, visible results and are willing to invest in the lifestyle then we are here to serve them,” she said, adding that the brand has built out its medical advisory board to do so.
This new model was brought on by Elix’s existing members, many of whom were asking for additional guidance and one-on-one support.
“We’ve had community members who are like, ‘I want more,’” Ge said. “We make it really affordable for those who want more ongoing whether it’s weekly [or] monthly coaching to have access to that.”
While members will have to sign up for three months at a time to access Cycle Balance, the other products, such as the immunity-boosting Stay Well, $32, tincture, in the range will still be available to purchase.
“People will be able to buy as one offs and that’s where we think about a bifurcation of our product line in that there’s treatment products that are more so supporting chronic condition.…Then there’s our wellness line, which is more preventative in nature,” Ge said. “Our wellness line was developed because we saw from health assessment results and from feedback from our community, there were these needs around feeling fatigued after your period and stress.”
According to Ge, the shift in strategy also takes market conditions into account.
“A lot of brands are in this situation of macro volatility, where venture funding is not as prevalent as it was a couple of years ago,” she said. “One way a brand responds to that is to go mass, go retail, proliferate.…We want to be intentional, where we want everyone who comes in to the Elix experience to be able to feel a visible difference and to learn more about themselves.”
With this shift, Elix will also be holding more community events and investing in digital spaces where users can connect, she said.
“We’re nurturing that higher lifetime value and longer term relationship,” Ge said.
