Have you ever stood in the middle of a drug store under poorly lit overhead lights, squinting at the fine print of an over-the-counter medicine/vitamin bottle, reading the suggested dosage? Or, possibly this has happened when unpackaging the medicine/vitamin bottle from an eCommerce store.
Here’s what they don’t advertise, recommended doses are formulated for men participants and not women. A study conducted by professors in the Univesity of Chicago and the University of California confirmed that women easily overdose on medicine and suffer from 96% higher side effect rates than men because of a slower metabolism rate.
“For much of the time it’s been practiced, biomedical science has been done by men, on men,” says Brian Prendergast, a psychology professor at UChicago and co-author of this study, “We need to immediately reevaluate the widespread practice of prescribing the same doses to men and women.”
This small example is the start of a global problem, excluding women in clinical studies and medicines. But since brands have emphasized the importance of women’s healthcare products, we’ve seen these industries boom, and here’s why!
The Gender Gap in Clinical Studies
For centuries researchers conducted studies primarily on men, which excludes the mass majority of women (both human and animal). This is no shock considering women did not have rights in many areas, such as not being allowed to vote for presidential roles until the 19th century. In the 1970s, women finally participated in clinical tests and examinations.
Here’s the kicker, the test results drastically differentiated from male and female participants. While this is no surprise to the modern researcher, this raised an eyebrow for that period. One example was the symptoms of nausea, ingestion, and general discomfort that could result in heartburn for men. Yet, it’s more common for the same symptoms in women to be a heart attack.
Drastically different diagnoses yet the same symptoms. Why is this? Women and men’s species are biologically engineered differently. Gender-specific products treat many issues but contain very few cross-overs within both sexes.
Yale’s School of Medicine recognizes this by stating, “every cell has a sex,” including all bodily functions, tissues, etc. This discovery is crucial when formulating healthcare and wellness products.
With the news spreading like wildfire, after another 20 years later, in 1993, the NIH (National Institute of Health) made it law for female participants and minorities to be in clinical trials. Fast forward to 2022, the gender gap still affects many industries to this day. Still, in health research, it’s crucial to involve both parties. Now that female health is getting the exposure it needs, we can finally distribute scientifically accurate health and wellness products for a brighter future.
Pandemic Brought Awareness to Women’s Health
Covid-19 brought everyone’s well-being to light, but since women’s health concerns were on the uprise, the pandemic revealed newer and worsened conditions in female members.
Additional problems for women that Covid-19 revealed:
- Fewer wages = more concerns. The economic stance of the world raised problems. Still, since women are generally underpaid than men, this created issues when fathoming the thought of doctor bills for themselves or their families. Purchasing eCommerce wellness and health products brought security to women who wanted to prevent the risk of Covid or other complications.
- Greater risk of infection. Women make up 70% of the frontline worker in the healthcare industry. Exposure for women was at a high rate; they were at greater risk of infection. Not only healthcare workers but women bearing children were at considerable risk. “People who are pregnant or recently pregnant are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 than those who are not pregnant.” Also, “People who have COVID-19 during pregnancy are also at increased risk for complications that can affect their pregnancy and developing baby.” (Source: CDC)
If brands recognized the praise for women-driven health products, we could shed some light on a serious issue – women’s concern for their health. After reading these statistics and points, we can see why the problem rises. It’s time for brands to listen and supply women with their health products.
What Does This Mean for eCommerce Brands?
Women are usually caregivers. When women’s health is prospering, so are the elderly and children. But who’s to say the entirety of the population is not benefiting from women’s health too?
Nonetheless, women make up a large majority of buyers, yet they are still underestimated and undersupplied. Now that brands are grasping the women’s health market value, there are seeing the results – a boom!
One marketplace that’s reaping the benefits of focusing on women’s health is Kasha. Initially launched in Rwanda, Kasha is a women’s care and a health e-commerce website in Kenya. The CEO of Kasha, Joanna Bichsei, says, “E-commerce is thriving in East Africa, with over 21 million people accessing mobile financial services hence making it easier for consumers to shop online. However, women, who directly make or influence 80% of consumer purchases remain highly underserved in their access to high quality and genuine products.”
Africa now proudly represents 25% of vaccines and 28.56 Billion USD worth of pharmaceuticals. Kasha, in the midst of this, has successfully positioned themselves on this wave of African women’s healthcare growth with a boom in their business. It comes to show how listening to the needs of your audience can benefit you!
Kasha and many other brands are learning the importance of women’s healthcare products. Why wait? Catch the upward wave of this women-centric health and wellness industry growth!
What’s The Secret Behind Fulfilling These Women’s Health Products?
Behind every eCommerce company is a shipping team ready to tackle the fulfillment of these products. Especially with items like wellness subscription boxes, we need distribution more than ever. How do brands keep up with this exploding industry?
While fulfillment is not a one-size-fits-all, we need to recognize one major decision: do we choose in-house or outsourced fulfillment? While in-house fulfillment is excellent for many companies, there are great benefits to hiring an outsider fulfillment team.
Here are just a few benefits of outsourced fulfillment for women’s wellness products:
- Hire an outsider point-of-view (POV)
- Integrate advanced technology
- Form a close fulfillment provider relationship
- Receive professional counseling on navigating the carrier market
- Create a centralized, decentralized, and hybrid approach
- Save money on overhead
- Problem-solving solutions
- Assitance with carrier forecasting and carrier niche approaches
- Elevated customer experience
Excluding women from clinical studies, health products, and political rights are long gone! For brands facing these fast (yet spectacular) changes, we need fulfillment that sticks to reliable, communicative, and advanced technology. Do you want to hire an outsider 3PL (third-party logistics) but don’t know where to start? Download our free guide for finding the right 3PL for your business, or say hello to our professionals!
