Knowledge about the relationship between the gut microbiome and overall health is moving at a rapid clip. An obvious gut reaction to that is by today’s consumers looking for more foods, beverages, and supplements that support gut health. Something else that seems extremely obvious to me is that there will be this sort of flywheel effect in the coming years and decades with new gut health research emerging, which drives additional consumer demand, that feeds more categorical innovation and product development. That increased market size feeds the additional research, and we start back up again bigger and bigger. We are in the early stages of a Gut Health Revolution, is your CPG brand ready to take advantage of it?

What do I see in my crystal ball this year for the Top 5 Supplement Industry Trends in 2023? Gut Performance (purchasing Gut Health Ingredients for athletic performance), Load Up on Only What You Need (Affordability and Value-Orientated Consumer Behavior), Big Brick Poppin' (Large Retail channels winning the share of dollar sales and contribution to growth), Flex Your Brain (proactive consumption for a high achieving life), and Supplementing with Purpose (Rise of purpose-drive sports nutrition brands).

I recently had the opportunity to visit the 1st Phorm headquarters in St. Louis, MO. I've probably visited a few hundred corporate offices/facilities over the last decade of J. Schall Consulting, but none of them gave me a feeling like this one. It had an energy that was distinct, unique, and inspiringly different! 1st Phorm is successful by any traditional capitalistic metric. More importantly though, 1st Phorm is also wildly successful by a non-traditional capitalistic metric. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.” At its best, capitalism is beautiful and can be the biggest positive change agent for humanity. Any company can say they have a mission, but only authentically mission-driven companies can show actual proof. The most powerful proof will come from its customers and employees. 1st Phorm has changed countless customer lives...that's super evident even with the quickest glance at social media, but what was really cool about yesterday was that I got to see the other side. Even with the highest of expectations of walking in those doors, I was blown away...

The cold, flu, and immunity supplement market skyrocketed in 2020, but should the pullback in 2021 and 2022 be worrisome or is the future bright for the category? The “COVID-19 Effect” undoubtedly pulled forward the demand for products a few years (which has now normalized), but this period more importantly changed consumer perception around immune health. That shift from only supporting your immune health seasonally to now making it a year-round pursuit is a big deal. Maybe the legacy immune ingredients with high consumer awareness or played out formulation approaches won’t see massive sales surges again in the near-term future and that’s OK. But it’s the massive wave of attention placed on immune health and investment put towards innovation that will open new opportunities…that’s exciting to think about and I predict it will provide strong categorical market growth.

The supplement industry continues to change faster than Garfield can eat a tray of lasagna. Much of that can be attributed to new technologies and shifts in consumption habits. These massive disruptions dramatically accelerated ecommerce migration, which is creating both new opportunities and predicaments for supplement brands. This article will cover a handful of significant ecommerce trends that supplement brands must watch out for heading into 2023…

In a “choose your own adventure shopping” world, consumer speak with their actions (and wallets). By 2025, the Nutrition Business Journal predicts that categorical sales will be evenly distributed across e-commerce, mass, and natural/specialty retail. Whether it’s Wal-Mazon or another large retailer, it’s apparent that recent merchandising strategies shows us they want more than entry-level buyers…they want the whole category. The question remains, will being a “Wal-Mazon brand” still have some level of negative (yet always misplaced) connotation in the next 3, 5, 10 years?

Sleep matters A LOT. It’s essential to every process in the body, affecting our physical and mental functioning the next day, our ability to fight disease and develop immunity, and our metabolism and chronic disease risk. Because of that…sleep is truly an interdisciplinary aspect of our health. Yet, if I was tasked to describe in one word the current state of sleep in America, I would use lackluster.

If you mention proprietary blends (aka prop blends) in the supplement industry social media groups, you tend to get a visceral reaction. In any other CPG category, a “prop blend” is considered a highly valuable trade secret. Do you know what goes into a can of Coca-Cola? How about that Oreo cookie? And the list goes on…Those formulas are a main part of what makes them $1B CPG brands. Which side is right? Is the supplement category unique? Should “prop blends” still be around today or not in the supplement industry?

Challenges notwithstanding, frictionless omnichannel retail is here to stay. It’s more than a trend, it’s a reflection of how today’s consumers live, and brands are well advised to take this into account. Just like the Choose Your Own Adventure books, alternate paths to the shopping journey speaks to the desire of control that consumers seek. Choice will become more important in an age of personalization. The future will be rich with personalized products, endless customer service options, 1-to-1 marketing, and loyalty programs that make us feel like special snowflakes. For all that, I guess we can thank Edward Packard.

It’s irrefutable that “COVID-19 Effect” headwinds/tailwinds changed almost everything about the supplement industry. With markets evolving quickly because of elevated consumer interest in the space…it positions the supplement industry as a key gateway into the $1.5 trillion global wellness market. This increased market growth is also bringing additional commercialization activity to an already ultra-competitive space. The fact is that brands must stay ahead of the curve by identifying specific trends earlier and being more aggressive in their actions to fill demand. My intent for this content is to provide supplement industry professionals with a snapshot of what benefitted, evolved, paused, and was damaged by most powerful “COVID-19 Effect” headwinds/tailwinds. These insights will surround the following marketplace variables; product Categories/Attributes, Business Strategies, and Shifts in Consumer Behavior.

Should the advice “better safe than sorry” be universally applied in business? I consistently mention strategies that increase safety, such as financial buffering, stress testing your business model, and building operational resiliency, but what about brand positioning? Despite this trying economic environment, some CPG brands continue to thrive. These top-performing CPG brands work tirelessly to understand their core consumers. Additionally, they identify what those consumers want, where, when, why, and how they want it. Fact is, the CPG industry is bursting with growth opportunities for unique, compelling brands.

The fitness world has always been fast-changing, but did the life-altering last two plus years create additional opportunities for supplement brands to focus on endurance activity participants? More than ever, humans are beginning to realize that movement is an essential component in quality of life. In my opinion, endurance sports (regardless of the level), continue to grow as the fitness/wellness link strengthens. Sports nutrition brands will have to recognize that the market is less concerned about increased performance and more about health, longevity, immunity. Are you willing to look past the challenges caused by this market evolution and see its massive opportunities?

What is the pink tax? Are all forms of price discrimination bad? When there is no difference between the male and the female versions, apart from a meaningless feature, how can it be fair to charge different prices? While the cheap razor example is often used in the pink tax debate, is there more nuance to this topic? Does the supplement industry struggle with the “pink it and shrink it” mentality?

What heck is going on at Amazon? Usually recessionary periods increase private label sales growth, but instead Amazon is reducing its private label ownership. While this action has broad implications for a variety of product categories, I want to focus on what it means for the supplement industry. Additionally, does it make building an Amazon-native brand in the supplement space easier?

As consumers commit themselves to losing the pandemic 15, the weight management category will continue to innovate and adapt. Whether it’s probiotics or herbal blends and extracts used in multifunctional supplements ingredients or indulgent-yet-healthy-foods and beverages, weight management isn’t dying anytime soon…it just might look a bit different now (and even more so in the future).

Is it time for wellness brands to start channeling their inner Silver Fox and Gray Panther spirit animals? Populations are aging radically different than previous generations, yet most wellness-focused CPG brands completely overlook them. With substantial wealth, controlling 70% of the America’s disposable income, and an interest in longevity, seniors have put a premium on health, wellness and nutrition. As it stands, the 50+ crowd is largely ignored by fitness and wellness brands. That is changing fast, as companies wake up to the huge underserved market that’s proven it plans on directing its accumulated wealth towards living longer and more dynamically. You can’t control that Father time will keep ticking away, but there are controllable within the aging construct. I believe more seniors will understand that and as the world continues to age, it will transform the way we look at the final third of our lives.

Gaming and esports can be described in many ways…it’s a vibrant and fast-growing sector of the market. It’s a legitimate means of monetization in today’s attention economy. It’s an entertainment medium for billions of enthusiasts around the globe. It might also be one of the most misunderstood opportunities in the supplement industry right now!

The often-cited low barriers to entry within the supplement industry are starting to disappear, as the cost of starting a brand, growing a brand, and sustaining brand equity have increased substantially in the last few years.

As more customer cohorts shop at dollar stores, trade downs will naturally happen across a broader range of CPG categories. This will show that not all aspects of the “race to the bottom” is negative across the functional food, functional beverage, and nutritional supplement categories. Brands positioned in each of those functional CPG categories should explore dollar stores in their sales channel strategy as consumers shift spending with the upcoming recession. So, if consumers are breaking down dated channel beliefs, why shouldn’t your functional CPG brand?