Winx Health takes a digital-first approach to its national Walgreens launch
Women’s health brand Winx Health is making its national retail debut in Walgreens this week, hitting more than 5,000 locations with its full suite of sexual and vaginal health products.
Winx launched in 2019 in Philadelphia as a direct-to-consumer company selling pregnancy tests. Since then, it has grown into a profitable eight-figure business that sells other sexual and vaginal health products like emergency contraception, condoms and UTI pain relief. Last year, it debuted a UTI “Test and Treat” kit that helps customers connect with a provider for a prescription treatment.
But beyond just getting its product on shelves, Winx is promoting its availability through delivery services that link to Walgreens. Co-founder Jamie Norwood said it sees almost a bigger opportunity to expand its reach through services like Instacart, DoorDash, UberEats and other quick delivery services — knowing that’s where the brand’s customer is doing much of her shopping.
“There are tons of young moms who are so busy and live on Instacart,” Norwood said. “We know that she’s on her phone and she’s logging into DoorDash. So we know that digital is our bread and butter.”
Winx’s marketing rollout includes paid media on delivery services and a promoted rebate campaign for 50% off a purchase. The brand is also running an ambassador program at seven college campuses that have a high concentration of Walgreens locations and investing in more influencer marketing campaigns. Much of its content in its campaigns and owned media aims to be educational about the symptoms or treatments — essentially serving as “real answers to your last 2 a.m. Google spiral,” as one headline calls out.
“We’re going up against legacy brands with really massive marketing budgets,” Norwood said. “So when we took a look at our launch and put together a marketing strategy, we knew that where we can win is on the digital shelf.”
And at a moment when many pharmacies are closing and health care costs are rising, Winx sees retail as an opportunity to sell products to women that they may not otherwise have easy access to. While nearly half of counties in the U.S. don’t have an OBGYN, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, at least 70% of Americans live within five miles of a Walgreens. Winx is anticipating the Walgreens launch will help propel its 2025 revenue to grow 150% over last year.
“We’re letting this partnership act as a Trojan horse for accessing care for critical women’s health,” Winx co-founder Cynthia Ploth said. “This launch really helps us continue to build on this mission, and Walgreens saw that.”
More broadly, though, the Walgreens launch shows how the struggling pharmacy channel has an opportunity to supercharge its offerings by selling newer brands that can cater to different use cases and know how to show up more than just on shelf.
Norwood said a big selling point to Walgreens was Winx’s UTI Test and Treat line that debuted last year. After taking the test with a urine sample, the user can scan a photo and connect it to Winx’s provider network, which can provide a prescription — which, in turn, could be filled at Walgreens.
“It’s about modernizing this antiquated aisle that, we like to say, hasn’t been touched since our mothers were our ages,” Norwood said.
The opportunity for modernizing pharmacy care is ripe, given an overall shrinkage of the industry. Data from Placer.ai shows that foot traffic has dropped precipitously, dropping by as much as 5.6% at Walgreens this year. But some of that is due to the chain’s shuttering stores: Walgreens is shutting down 1,200 underperforming stores, including 500 this year. CVS, for its part, saw overall foot traffic in August down just 0.6% year over year. Meanwhile, Rite Aid is closing down its stores as part of its Chapter 11 filing and has closed almost all its locations.
Looking at the average number of visits per location, though, shows a different picture. Walgreens saw just a 0.8% year-over-year drop in foot traffic this August. Elizabeth Lafontaine, director of research at Placer.ai, said this signals it has managed to keep a customer base coming in even as it closes underperforming locations. Third-quarter sales increased 7.2% year-over-year to $39.0 billion, per the latest Walgreens earnings report, and the company went private in late August after an acquisition from Sycamore Partners.
Lafontaine said the closure of some pharmacies may shift traffic to other types of stores or smaller independent chains. “People aren’t pharmacy loyal,” she said. “They’re focused on finding the most convenient alternative in their community, without disrupting their daily or weekly routines.”
As far as what may bring people into stores, Lafontaine said the chains have an opportunity to capitalize on the health and wellness interest that’s been helping to elevate retail spending.
“Consumer demand could be what helps drive the category forward, if chains can rebuild relationships with shoppers and become brands that are top of mind,” Lafontaine said.