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This week on Winning With Shopify, we sat down with Matt, Head of Digital at Green People, to unpack how a long-standing, founder-led skincare brand transformed itself into a digital-first business—without losing its identity.
Green People has been around for 28 years, serving customers with sensitive skin through organic, natural products. Today, they’ve collected over 50,000 five-star reviews and shifted their business to be 80% digital. But getting there wasn’t easy.
Here’s the short version of what it took.
Leading with People, Not Products
Instead of leaning on ingredient lists and technical jargon, Green People refocused on what truly converts:
real customer stories.
Matt shared that they had become “too formal” at one point—too heavy on information, not human enough. Today, they use:
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- Video testimonials
- UGC
- Customer-led storytelling
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Because in beauty and skincare, emotion wins over features every time.
Why Reviews Are Their Superpower
With tens of thousands of reviews, Green People uses customer feedback as a core part of their marketing:
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Mining reviews for trends
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Putting the strongest testimonials on PDPs
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Running review-based ads
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Using post-purchase surveys for deeper insight
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Customers tell the story better than any brand can—and Green People treats those insights as gold.
How They Speak to a Wide Audience
Their customer base ranges from 20-year-olds to seniors, babies to adults. So instead of trying to market everything to everyone, they:
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Focus on core revenue drivers (sun care, fragrance-free skincare, hair care)
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Keep secondary products available but lightly marketed
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Build clear personas per product range
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Let word-of-mouth carry the rest
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The takeaway? Don’t spread yourself thin. Go deep where it matters.
AI, PDPs & the New Consumer Journey
AI-driven discovery is changing how customers shop. People now land directly on product pages—not the homepage.
So Green People rebuilt PDPs to be:
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More conversational
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Rich with FAQs
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Stronger in UGC
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Clearer in benefits for each persona
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And they’re preparing for the next wave: personalized PDPs driven by first-party data.
Retention: Why Customers Really Leave
Matt’s best line from this episode:
“People leave because you’ve given them a reason to.”
So Green People invests in:
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Loyalty programs
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Subscriptions
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Better post-purchase experience
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Cross-team communication
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Honest, value-led messaging
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It’s simple—but powerful.
Going Global (Without Burning Cash)
Green People’s international expansion approach is the opposite of “launch everywhere at once.”
Their strategy:
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Pick one country and do it well
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Use marketplaces like Amazon for visibility
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Optimize listings like they would their own website
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Expand slowly and intentionally
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Protect brand consistency across all channels
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Markets make expansion easy, but real growth still requires a strategy.
Matt’s Final Advice to Shopify Brands
His closing words sum up the episode perfectly:
“Don’t try to do everything. You’ll ruin your page speed, overwhelm your customer, and lose focus. Build your site for the people using it.”
Simple. Smart. And exactly why this episode is worth a listen.
Check out the full podcast here.
This episode was brought to you by Nick Trueman, Director of PPC & SEO Agency, Spec Digital.