Winning the sick trip
How shopper understanding unlocked Express Delivery growth in Cold & Flu
We leveraged Scintilla to understand the barriers sick customers were facing and how we could better serve them.
This cold and flu season activation started with a simple premise: When shoppers are sick, speed matters. But Haleon wanted to understand what might keep customers from choosing delivery, even when staying home was preferable.
Haleon used multiple Scintilla modules to discover insights to address key barriers to Express Delivery, including cost, awareness, and minimum spend to make it easier for sick shoppers to get relief quickly.
The opportunity: Removing friction in the online Cold & Flu aisle
Haleon saw an opening to help sick shoppers get the medicine they needed sooner. Working with Walmart and Walmart Connect, the consumer health company wanted to understand what prevented shoppers from using Express Delivery for Cold & Flu products—and how removing those barriers could create a better customer experience while driving growth.
The approach: Understanding what sick shoppers really need
The team at Haleon used Customer Perception to uncover what shoppers liked about delivery, and what was getting in their way.
Balancing convenience and cost
The research showed that 81% of customers valued staying home while feeling sick, while 83% said fast delivery was important when deciding where to buy Cold & Flu products online.
Convenience alone wasn't enough, though: 70% of customers considered low or no delivery fees very important, while 52% didn't want to meet a minimum-spend requirement. The findings pointed to a clear tension: Shoppers wanted speed and convenience, but not at an added cost.
Beyond the Cold & Flu aisle
Using Shopper Behavior, Haleon looked beyond individual Cold & Flu purchases to understand the broader “sick trip.” The research revealed that 52% of shoppers bought multiple products to manage symptoms throughout an illness, 34% shopped for household members who might also become sick, and 50% valued being able to add Cold & Flu items to a Walmart delivery order.
Shoppers weren’t just buying Cold & Flu products for themselves. They were treating multiple symptoms, purchasing immunity products, and caring for others in their households. And as those baskets grew, Haleon saw stronger affinity for delivery.
Turning shopper understanding into activation
With the barriers identified and the basket understood, Haleon used Insights Activation to translate those findings into audiences and an actionable campaign that targeted Cold & Flu category purchasers, adjacent Pain and Immunity buyers, plus shoppers building broader sick-trip baskets.
Haleon created a curated portfolio across Cold & Flu, Pain, and Immunity and paired it with an offer designed to directly address the delivery-cost barrier. Walmart Connect then brought the activation to shoppers through homepage features and onsite and offsite media.
Once the campaign was live, Haleon used Digital Landscapes to measure what happened next. When homepage features were live, traffic significantly outpaced typical daily performance, showing a progression from discovery to engagement to action.
The results: Turning shopper insights into growth
Product page views increased 17%, add-to-carts increased 22%, and homepage activation days drove 94% of offer redemptions. Most notably, 52% of purchasers were new buyers.
What began as a question about making Express Delivery more useful to sick shoppers became a growth strategy designed around how customers actually shop when they’re sick. Ultimately, Haleon connected the right audience, a relevant product portfolio, and a meaningful delivery offer at the moment shoppers needed relief.
