Top Supplement Industry Trends in 2019
I held off on giving my predictions until after my “industry expert” article went live.
Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean I “cherry picked” the trends in that article. I actually wrote my predicted supplement trends down weeks before that article was written to ensure I didn’t do that out of “laziness” or being rushed with my schedule. As many readers know, I handle client projects on all sides of my focal industries and that gives me a unique voice…but I admit (and expected) some top trends were noted in that article. What you will see is that, even if mentioned, I actually had spins on those overlapped because of that unique perspective.
So, if you read that first article, you will still get insights and value out of spending a few minutes reading this article…
More than Convenient Products
This was the most talked about trend from the “experts article” and for good reason. The shift of traditional caps, powders, and pills to convenient product applications like ready to eat (RTE) functional foods and ready to drink (RTD) functional beverages has and will continue in 2019.
As a Millennial, I hate being generalized but I think being dubbed the “Convenience Customers” is pretty spot on. What I think most our missing is that this convenience needs to extend out past products.
To win in sports nutrition (or any consumer good), is about enabling a purchase without interrupting what consumers are doing, essentially creating a friction-less transaction.
- Where they want it (where they spend the most time)
- When they want it (faster fulfillment or other options like “click and collect”)
- How they want it (is it for me or not)
Convenience rolls up into this “Do It For Me” mindset. This isn’t about laziness but about trying to claw back time to do what a consumer loves. The brands that figure this whole value chain….wins!
Personalized & Customized Gets Real
I battled with this being a 2019 thing or a 2020 thing, but I feel good about at least talking about it here. I think though we are far off from the true “personalized nutrition” proposition, you are going to see advancements this year.
The main question with true personalized nutrition that is customization with fluidity to adjust to variables is…
Are consumers willing to give up this level of personal information in exchange for this “improved life”?
You will see tons of different start-ups emerging in this space this year as pretty much every major health or CPG firm has made investments in the area. You even saw the nutritional supplement retailer GNC come out with a DNA kit for personalized nutrition called GNC4u.
My hope is that this is the year it moves past basic databases and “semi-custom” SKU recommendations, that offer nothing more than the machine learning suggestions Amazon gives you!
CBD is the Acronym of Year
One mega trend that I thought would be talked about more from the “expert article” was CBD. Maybe it was the regulatory unease or maybe it just doesn’t seem to be as big as I think it will be.
Recently, my buddy Colby recently asked about a CBD protein powder and said, “CBD seems to be everywhere, oil, coffee, shampoo…feels like its getting to snake oil level. What’s your thoughts?”
My thoughts are that its just getting started, partly because the mainstream market will decide the preferred application and delivery system. Until then, expect the flood gates to open and see this in everything and I mean EVERYTHING!
Amazon Private Label Explosion
This is where my list completely goes in a different direction then the “expert article” and its likely because I follow Amazon (as a whole) closer than 99.9% of people.
Private labels are having their moment in the U.S. and Amazon is going to push it to limits we have not seen because of their newly launched Accelerator Program in late 2018.
Heading into mid-2018, the functional CPG category private labels had less than 5 offerings on Amazon. After the accelerator program opened, we now have about two dozen
My thoughts are that we will likely get that total number of functional CPG brands closer to 100 at current pace. You better get your competition mind going brands!
“Extreme” Diets Create Segmentation and Growth
Specialized diets like Keto, Vegan, Paleo, Carnivore, etc. are growing fast. This is partly the Internet (social media) that can spread ideas faster and also thought leadership and “influencers” looking to make a name for themselves to grow and drive tribes of people to different ideas.
Regardless, this brings in new consumers into the functional CPG market. As new consumers show up, products need to be introduced to help fuel results. Yes, this further fragments the market and creates more overall competition but these players “should” be focused on a targeted market. The brands that can introduce the products that these specialized diets need to have results and staying power will be seeing new growth.
Prefer to watch a video on this topic? Click on the embedded YouTube Video from my channel below!
