Wellness is a concept that has been around for a long time. Consumers nowadays consider wellness to be a much larger and more complex concept, embracing fitness and nutrition and entire physical and mental health and beauty. They also have more options for the types of items and services they purchase and how they are buying them.
Wellness is essential to consumers, and their interest is expanding. Health is vital to 80% of consumers in countries, and 45% consider it a top priority. In fact, during the last two to three years, consumers in every region have reported a significant increase in their importance on wellness.
The worldwide wellness market is estimated to be worth more than US$ 1.4 trillion, with annual growth of 6 to 12%. Companies will benefit significantly from a surge in consumer interest and purchasing power, especially if spending on personal wellness recovers after stagnating or even dropping during the COVID-19 crisis. Simultaneously, the wellness sector is becoming increasingly congested, necessitating an intelligent approach to where and how businesses compete.
These insights will be combined with the best methods for both established players and newcomers to address consumer wants and preferences in this solid and rising sector.
How consumers define wellness
Since wellness views are constantly evolving, companies must understand the market from a consumer perspective. Our Future of Wellness survey revealed the categories that interest consumers most.
Since people’s perceptions of wellbeing are continuously changing, businesses must understand the market from the consumer’s perspective. Consumers are most interested in the following categories:
Better health: the most conventional category connected with wellness includes consumer medical equipment and personal health trackers in addition to drugs and supplements. Consumers are increasingly taking control of their health: the market sees more personalized, data-driven care, applications that help people make medical appointments or get the medicines they need, and devices that allow them to track their health and symptoms between doctor’s visits.
Better Fitness: Getting in better shape has been difficult over the last year. When consumers can’t go to the gym as often or participate in sports as they used to, many struggles to maintain their pre-COVID-19 fitness levels. In the past year, creative offerings that address customers’ demands in their homes (such as Peloton, Mirror, and Tonal) have seen remarkable growth.
Better nutrition: This has always been an element of health, but today’s customers want their food to do more than taste good; they want it to help them achieve their wellness goals. Over a third of customers worldwide will boost their spending on nutrition apps, diet programs, juice cleanses, and subscription food services in the coming year.
Better appearance: This generally incorporates health-conscious clothing (athleisure) and cosmetics (like skincare and collagen supplements). In this category, several service-oriented offers for nonsurgical aesthetic procedures like micro-needling, lasers, and oxygen jets have lately sprung up.
Better sleep: It’s a relatively new category gaining traction among consumers, which is somewhat unsurprising considering the strains the pandemic has wreaked. App-enabled sleep trackers and other sleep-enhancing goods have joined the ranks of traditional sleep drugs like melatonin (for example, blackout curtains and gravity blankets). More than half of customers around the globe want more products and services to address the demand for better sleep.
Better mindfulness: Meditation-focused apps like Headspace and Calm, as well as relaxation and meditation, focused solutions like Travaasa and Soothe, have recently garnered broad market recognition. Globally, reports of mental discomfort have increased throughout the COVID-19 crisis; more than half of consumers around the globe want to prioritize mindfulness more. Half of the respondents expressed a need for additional mindfulness products and services, signifying a business opportunity.
Over the coming year, consumers expect to raise their overall expenditure on wellness products and services. A more significant movement toward services is expected, mainly promoting physical and mental wellness (personal trainers, dietitians, and counselling).
Companies must recognize that wellness customers are not a homogeneous group with uniform interests. Consumers are divided into numerous categories that act in a variety of ways. Wellness enthusiasts are high-income consumers who follow brands on social media, keep track of new product launches, and are enthusiastic about new developments. Brands that are environmentally sustainable and made with clean/natural components are preferred (and are ready to pay extra for) by the socially conscious. Consumers who are price conscious agree that wellness items are important, but they examine features and benefits before purchasing to get the most excellent bargain.
Passive participants are only minimally involved with the wellness category. They do not actively follow brands or new goods, whereas loyalists prefer to continue with their present habits and brands they are familiar with. Wellness fanatics and socially conscious consumers are the most lavish spenders. Loyalists and passive participants spend significantly less than the others.
While each market’s consumers are motivated by different brand-loyalty drivers, they all have a pricing and lifestyle compatibility motivator.
Winning in the wellness market
The worldwide wellness industry is thriving and expanding. Memory/brain boosters, anti-aging products, beauty supplements, non-invasive cosmetic procedures, nutrition (sports nutrition, juice cleanses, nutrition coaches, fortified foods), and meditation/mindfulness offerings all had substantial percentages of consumers wanting to increase their spending.
Traditional “Nutraceutical” companies with regulatory and licensing experience; global entrants with extensive value chains, marketing capabilities, and deep channel relationships; regional consolidators with local knowledge and partnerships; and emerging brands with digital know-how, integrated consumer data, and an agile operating model all have room for growth in this market.
Table of Content:
- Where the Wellness Industry is headed?
- What are consumers’ wants in this sector?
- What are the consumer preferences in wellness industry?
- Which Categories are consumers most interested in today?
- What numerous categories are consumers segmented?
- How to win in the wellness market?
- Is pandemic driving the growth of an industry or other major factors?
- Is the wellness industry becoming congested?
- Which approaches to take in the wellness industry to thrive?
- Necessitating to how and where businesses are competing with what strategies?