Consumer spending on health and wellness products is shifting to online channels

The trend: US consumers are buying more and more health and wellness products, prioritizing categories such as gut health and nutritional supplements. And their shopping preferences are shifting to favor online channels.

These trends were revealed in a recent report from Numerator, which analyzed consumer attitudes and behaviors over the past year when buying health products.

Interest in health and wellness surges: US sales in this sector grew 6.4% year over year as of the end of Q1 2024. While much of this growth was driven by inflation, consumers bought more health products both in terms of volume and frequency compared with the prior year.

Two health and wellness categories that stood out in the market over the past year:

1. Digestive health. 43% of respondents to Numerator’s survey cited digestive symptoms as the most important to treat and prevent, topping all other health issues that were listed.

Sales for OTC motion sickness relief and anti-diarrhea products were strongest across the gut health category. Laxative sales also saw a boom, driven by GLP-1 users who feel constipated. Some 9% of new laxative shoppers take an anti-obesity medication such as Ozempic.

2. Nutrition-based products. Sales of performance shakes and powders spiked 38%, the fastest growing of any health category measured. More consumers are shifting away from getting their nutrients through pills and tablets.

Where are consumers buying health and wellness products? Online merchants now top all other channels, just barely surpassing mass-market retailers such as Walmart and Target among other brick-and-mortar options.

• Mass retailers and drugstores lost the most market share among all channels for health and wellness products between 2020 and 2024.
• Online gained the most market share, primarily driven by Amazon’s category expansion into areas such as bladder control pills, energy chews, and superfoods. New online health shoppers are pulling their spending from drugstores more than any other brick-and-mortar channel.
• Some 39% of US consumers purchased an OTC medication or treatment online in the past year, per EMARKETER.

The final word: Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in the e-commerce room, including for customers shopping for nutritional supplements and OTC treatments.

However, physical stores still have an opportunity to enhance the customer experience by improving product availability, offering better promotions, and hiring more staff to reduce in-store theft (rather than locking up items). Retailers with an online presence should also prioritize speedy and low-price delivery while allowing shoppers to group items from different parts of the store into one order.

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