Care Food Co operates in a highly specialised category where eCommerce is about far more than mere convenience - it is fundamentally about trust. They provide crucial products for customers living with dysphagia, a serious condition that makes swallowing difficult and sometimes dangerous.
Because their products are predominantly purchased by carers, family members, and support workers who are making careful, considered decisions for someone else’s wellbeing, the standard rules of online retail are completely upended.
In this space, product clarity matters more than flashy design. Absolute confidence matters more than quick conversions. The digital experience needs to genuinely support people during a stressful time, rather than just treating them as a metric to be sold to.
Challenge
When Care Food Co first engaged us around three and a half years ago, they were already set up on Shopify. The problem wasn’t the platform itself - it was exactly how that platform was being utilised. The website functioned on a technical level, but it was underperforming.
While steady traffic was coming through the doors, the conversion rates and repeat purchasing behaviours told a very different story. We had a remarkably strong product with a clear, noble purpose, but it was being held back by a digital experience that simply didn't reflect either of those strengths.
Our brief wasn’t to chase quick wins or inflate vanity metrics to make a report look good. It was to build an experience that genuinely worked for the customer. That meant:
- Helping carers make confident purchasing decisions without ever having to second-guess.
- Reducing friction across the site while still providing the exact right level of detail.
- Creating meaningful reassurance at every single stage of the purchasing journey.
- Supporting repeat purchasing in a way that feels genuinely helpful and supportive, rather than intrusive.
- Growing revenue sustainably without ever compromising trust.
Ultimately, the experience felt overly transactional rather than supportive, and our job was to change that. This wasn’t about pushing more products; it was about doing it properly.
Solution
We approached this complex project in deliberate layers. Our philosophy was to get the fundamental building blocks right first, and only then begin to layer growth tactics on top.
Rebuilding the product detail experience
We made the product detail page our absolute priority, as this is where crucial decisions are won or lost. We reworked these pages to clearly communicate texture levels, specific preparation requirements, and overall suitability. We presented this information in a structured, easy-to-scan format that perfectly balanced clinical accuracy with plain, human language. By creating consistency across all products, we drastically reduced cognitive load, ensuring that when someone lands on a page, they feel confident rather than unsure.
Introducing Reviews.io for social proof
In a medically sensitive category, trust isn't a nice-to-have - it’s critical. We implemented Reviews.io to weave real customer experiences right into the purchasing journey. This delivered genuine reassurance from other carers and created social proof reflecting real-world use cases. Over time, this growing body of authentic, indexable content has become a compounding asset for the brand.
Activating Klaviyo for lifecycle growth
Once the onsite experience was rock solid, we shifted our focus to retention. We implemented Klaviyo to build a sophisticated lifecycle engine across both email and SMS. This included considered abandoned cart flows, replenishment reminders based on specific usage patterns, and educational content that actively supports decision-making. This facilitated a meaningful shift from one-off transactions to ongoing, supportive relationships.
Driving basket growth with Rebuy personalisation
With unwavering trust and retention firmly in place, we introduced Rebuy to thoughtfully layer in personalisation. This allowed for relevant product recommendations that actually make sense to a carer. It increased the average order value through highly considered upselling and cross-selling, creating a guided purchasing journey where nothing feels forced or generic.
Scaling acquisition with paid search and paid social
Finally, we expanded into paid acquisition to drive consistent, highly qualified traffic. Across paid search, we captured high-intent queries related to dysphagia-friendly food and aligned our ad messaging with the clarity of our new product pages. On the paid social side - including LinkedIn - our focus was on educating healthcare-adjacent audiences, building brand credibility, and connecting with key decision-makers in the care sector. Together, search captured immediate demand while social built trust over time.
Results
The remarkable growth we saw didn’t come from a single change. It came from getting the fundamentals right, and then scaling them intelligently. Since partnering with us, Care Food Co has achieved:
Crucially, the business is no longer relying purely on expensive acquisition to drive growth. A significant portion of revenue now reliably comes from returning customers and lifecycle marketing channels - particularly abandoned cart and repeat purchase flows - which has fundamentally improved the overall efficiency of their business model.
Platforms
The human impact
The numbers are brilliant, but what sits behind them matters so much more. Carers can now make faster, much more confident decisions.
Families feel entirely assured in what they’re buying, and customers return time and again because the experience worked flawlessly the first time around.
In eCommerce, there’s always a temptation to chase the newest tactic, the shiny new tool, or the latest shortcut. This project stands as a powerful reminder that the fundamentals still win.
Clear information, a deeply thoughtful user experience, trust built through authentic customer voices, and retention done properly are what truly matter. Get those right, and sustainable growth naturally follows. Miss them, and nothing else really sticks.
This is how we approach eCommerce - starting with the customer, building the right foundations, and then scaling with precision.
webqem were fundamental in the growth journey of Care Food Co. They brought a suite of expert talents and viewpoints that an ecommerce founder and new ecommerce business just natively doesn’t have, they were able to get us to where we wanted to go faster than we otherwise would have been able to do on our own
David McAuley, eCo Founder | CEO
Build an eCommerce experience your customers can trust
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