The market for nutritional and health products has undergone significant changes
Since the outbreak, the improvement of consumer health awareness, the cultivation of health habits, and the choice of healthy food will continue to affect the development and direction of the entire health product consumption market. According to the Kaidu Consumer Index (CTR in China) data, as of the end of 2022, the sales growth rate of nutritional and health products outperformed the overall food category, maintaining an upward trend.
What opportunities are worth paying attention to in the healthcare product market in 2023?
Pay attention to the demands of different consumer groups
From the perspective of family structure, overall, older families (if categorized by teenagers/adults/middle-aged and elderly) are the most noteworthy group in healthcare products, with higher sales growth rates than younger (young single&married/young with children) families. From the perspective of purchasing behavior, they will purchase more frequently, either more high-end products, or in larger quantities.
In contrast, the penetration rate of young families is constantly increasing. Nowadays, young people's health awareness and awareness of nutritional and health products have also increased, and more people are willing to try nutritional and health products to enter the field of health products.
Different populations also have differences in their needs. Young single and married families will pay more attention to the improvement of their current living conditions, therefore corresponding products such as liver health and whitening and hydration are needed.
Young families with children are more concerned about their own children's growth support and will purchase products that are beneficial for their children's development and growth, such as brain tonifying and eye health.
Teenagers and adult families have similar demands and tend to focus more on enhancing their own appearance, such as whitening, anti aging, and beauty related products.
The oldest middle-aged and elderly families will pay more attention to products that are beneficial to their physical health, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, immune enhancement, etc., due to the decline in physical functions.
Get twice the result with half the effort and choose products and ingredients with more opportunities
Immune enhancement, bone and joint health, and nutritional supplements are still the main functional needs of consumers. There are also opportunities for consumers to pay more attention to under different functions.
In the process of immune enhancement, consumers will pay more attention to components such as coenzyme Q10 and Ganoderma lucidum; In bones and joints, they tend to pay more attention to components such as calcium and amino sugars; Nutritional supplementation focuses more on vitamin B, vitamin C, and minerals.
Functions such as eye health and liver health, although not large in size, have an astonishing growth rate and are also worth paying attention to. Lutein/blueberries/cranberries in eye health, and thistles in liver health are all significant ingredients driving growth.
Develop product portfolio layouts for different types of consumers through different channels
Channels are an important connection between consumers and products. From the perspective of the channels through which consumers obtain health products, online shopping and gift giving are the main channels. The market share of online shopping channels accounts for over 40% of the total, and there is a trend of increasing year by year.
From the perspective of different types of buyers, new consumers of health products will prefer channels such as hypermarkets/supermarkets, pharmacies, and online shopping. For them, these channels can have opinions or suggestions from shop assistants/customer service, making it easier to make purchases; Repeated buyers, on the other hand, tend to purchase health products from channels with higher user stickiness such as direct sales, specialty stores, and gift giving.
Explore more needs and link more consumption scenarios
In order to explore more demand, we need to link as many consumption scenarios as possible.
In order to enter different consumer scenarios, more consideration can be given to innovating product packaging. For example, for young white-collar workers, the product packaging is portable (independent small bags/lipstick size/small bottles), and the design is convenient to use (candy form/open bag to drink/open bottle to take), which will meet their needs for consuming health products when going out or moving.
