Four in five sick of health brands' hard sell

Health, wellness and digital-health brands risk eroding trust when they use retail-style sales tactics in health-related journeys, according to new research from behavioural experience agency Pomegranate.

The research found that 79.3% of digitally active UK consumer-health users aged 18–44 become more sceptical when a health brand aggressively upsells. More than half (51.6%) said sales-led recommendations make personalisation feel intrusive. Nearly half (49.5%) also pointed to businesses using data they didn’t realise they had shared.

The Commercial Value of Trust Over Aggressive Funnels

For brands, the warning is blunt. Hard-sell mechanics that work in retail can backfire in health. Upsell prompts, product bundles, subscription nudges and opaque recommendations risk making a health journey feel less like support and more like a sales funnel.

Trust also carries clear commercial value. Almost 86% (85.6%) of respondents said they would pay more for a brand whose reputation they trust, underlining the value of trust-led user experience (UX) design for consumer-health brands.

Duncan Thomas, CEO and founder at Pomegranate, said: “Consumer-health brands have to sell, but health changes how selling is interpreted. In a standard retail journey, prompts and recommendations can feel like normal conversion tools. In a health journey, those same mechanics can feel like pressure when the customer cannot see how they support their wellbeing.”

“That difference also shapes how people respond to personalisation and promotion. People can welcome both when the relevance is clear and the experience supports the health decision they are trying to make. When a recommendation looks like a sales tactic, people start to question whose interests are being served.”

Designing Digital Journeys for Support Rather Than Urgency

Pomegranate’s research argues that consumer-health brands need to design digital journeys around trust as well as conversion, particularly where products or services are linked to wellbeing, prevention, symptoms, self-care or longer-term behaviour change.

Recommendations should respond to the customer’s immediate needs and support the behaviour change they are trying to achieve. Brands should also be transparent about data use, avoid excessive urgency and leave room for reassurance, evidence and support.

Thomas added: “The findings have thrown up some real surprises. These results should now act as a wake-up call for brands that have underestimated how quickly consumer behaviour and expectations are changing. Many brands have been assuming that familiar retail tactics transfer neatly into health, but in truth, a generic upsell can feel intrusive when someone is looking for help with their wellbeing. Each prompt has to earn its place by helping the customer make a confident decision. Push the next product, bundle or subscription too hard and trust can disappear.”

The findings form part of Pomegranate’s wider analysis of trust in consumer-health experiences, covering privacy, personalisation, evidence, retention, AI and digital experience.

The full report, Building Trust in Consumer Health, can be found on Pomegranate's research portal.