Recently, SPINS, Inc. released a report entitled "Natural Health Products 2021," which provides an outlook on the current U.S. natural health products market and analysis of major retail stores. Currently, the U.S. natural health products market is showing the following nine trends.
Asian flavors are popular
Over the past year, sales of products with "Asian flavors" in the U.S. market have increased significantly. Leading this trend are sales of Korean and Japanese product flavors, with Japanese flavors up 28.8% and Korean flavors up 38.10% from last year.
Over the past few decades, Korean and Japanese cultures have been sought after in the U.S. market, such as music, television and comics. With the popularity of these media exports, it is relatively easier for food and beverage to go overseas. Meanwhile, based on the epidemic, many people are confined to their homes in 2020, with limited options for dining out. This provides an opportunity for consumers to create DIY food experiences at home and take the opportunity to incorporate global flavors into their own cooking. In the process, specific Asian flavors have been discovered.
Take brands like Kimino and Sanzo, for example, which bring innovation to the soda category by offering a unique take-out option. Featuring Asian fruits such as yuzu and lychee, Kimino and Sanzo offer Asian flavors not commonly found in offline retail stores. Emphasizing tradition and craftsmanship Kimino, with its unique ingredients and concept, saw sales of yuzu soda alone grow by 1,521.40%. Sanzo products also saw significant growth, with citrus lemon sparkling water leading the way with 941.0% growth last year, making it the hot Asian sparkling water in the U.S. market.
To the Chinese market food and beverage for example, the main focus on young consumers of sparkling water also ushered in the market development of the windfall and dividend period, the success of the Yuanqi forest out of the circle is to accelerate the rapid rise of this market, during the continuous optimization of product formulations and flavor design to meet the needs of more consumers. At the same time, the main plant herbal drinks of good hope water to the bubble juice drinks into a new category, the traditional herbal plants after boiling added to the drink, currently have honeysuckle, jasmine, Luo Shenhua.
Intelligent products worthy of attention
As the pace of society and the stress of life increase, more and more people are looking to improve their mental performance and focus, and intellectual products have been on a growth trend in recent years. In this era of segmentation and fragmentation, people are demanding high efficiency in their work and life, so brain health has become a key concern.
Different age groups have different needs for brain health. Children and teenagers focus more on learning and memory, adults may focus more on brain relaxation and stress relief, and the elderly focus on brain health prevention, etc. The compounding of raw materials and product formulations for different groups of people are diverse and different.
At present, the raw materials used in the product formulations are L-theanine, PS, pseudomarginine, L-carnitine, etc. In addition, the brain health market for sports people belongs to the blank area, more and more studies have found the importance of concentration for athletes, and there are also brain health products for e-sports people, etc.
"Sustainability" determines the right to buy products
Consumers have long sought natural and healthy products. Today, consumers are not only in a natural and healthy mindset when choosing products in this category, but also value the environmental and green values conveyed by the products themselves. There are multiple factors driving consumers in making this careful decision, with climate change and other environmental issues being a major concern for shoppers that can be addressed from the way the product itself is produced to the way it is packaged.
Now, shoppers can make a quick search to see if the products on store shelves meet these factors. For example, products from B-type companies (Certified B) can meet these criteria, demonstrating their concern for social, environmental impact, etc. In the past year, the U.S. market has seen growth in all categories for Type B business products, such as 17% growth in pets, 16% growth in frozen, 8% growth in groceries and 7% growth in body care. Smaller, newer brands tend to convey that type of message in their marketing and packaging, while larger brands will emphasize responsible manufacturing practices or contributions to various communities and organizations.
The market potential of mushrooms
Mushrooms are more popular for their application in various end products. Mushrooms are known for their diversity of nutritional value and are recognized for their diversity of applications. Functional mushrooms are growing 10% in herbal singles, 14% in shelf-stable coffee, 55% in shelf-stable beef jerky, and even 2% in performance supplements. Currently, some of the more popular mushroom ingredients include monkey head mushrooms, reishi, cordyceps, birch mushrooms, and ashwagandha.
Mushroom-based ingredients are also being used in expanding product categories such as frozen foods, fudge, coffee, solid drinks and more. Mushroom coffee may sound new to many shoppers, but it has been around since World War II and offers some alternative caffeine and additional health benefits compared to regular coffee. four Sigmatic, and Teeccino brands have launched related mushroom coffee products, some for general consumers and some for professional athletes, and it is expected that the mushroom The market for coffee products will continue to grow.
Natural cosmetics market is booming
The global new crown epidemic 2020 has had a significant impact on the cosmetics category, with cosmetics and beauty products declining by 6.3% over the past year. Despite the overall decline in sales, cosmetics and beauty products with natural ingredients and innovative ingredients are booming. One of the biggest trends in natural cosmetics is "clean beauty and free of certain ingredients". Over the past year, the price of cosmetics claiming to be vegan rose 33.7% and those claiming to be organic rose 51.8%. Natural cosmetics are taking up more shelf space than ever before, and shoppers are looking for products with a natural focus.
Cosmetics and beauty products are up 14.4% year-over-year in the past 12 weeks, driven by a return to normal habits and more people buying natural cosmetics. Transparency in the supply chain and easy-to-understand ingredients have become top of mind for shoppers across the retail space.
As clean beauty becomes the norm in the beauty space, natural cosmetic brands are becoming more distinctive in this space, preferring to use botanicals and innovative ingredients that provide skin care-like results to their cosmetics. For example, Cocokind'sMai-Light Rose Highlighter contains ashwagandha to provide antioxidant benefits. mad Hippie's Cheek & Lip Tint contains sea buckthorn berry and blueberry extracts for skin moisturization and antioxidants, a blend of botanical benefits and beauty applications is a trend.
Pet products are more natural and healthy
Pets have gone from a commodity to an emotional attachment. Pet owners are as concerned about their pets' health as they are about their own, and they are constantly on the lookout for unique and innovative products. Coupled with the 2020 epidemic, many pet owners are spending more time at home with their beloved pets, during which time sales of pet food and nutrition products have seen an increase. The pet retail market grew at an annual rate of 3.7%. Consumers are not only buying more toys, snacks and food, but are also making more health-conscious choices.
The pet supplement category saw significant growth, with pet joint problems, inflammation, gut health, anxiety and fur being among the top health concerns for pet owners, and ingredients such as curcumin, probiotics, fish oil and glucosamine starting to make their way into more products and pet diets. fish oil products for pets.
Low-alcoholic beverages open up new markets
As the low-calorie market evolves, consumers have higher expectations for beverages that not only offer good taste, but also do not break their dietary goals. Low-alcoholic beverages, represented by cocktails, are starting to rise, especially when it comes to offering unique flavors while also catering to consumers' DIY concoctions in different scenarios.
Brands like San Juan Seltzer and Cutwater are blazing a trail in the hard cider, soda and malt beverage categories, growing 65% across SPINS' multi-marketing channels. In addition, organic beer is growing in popularity, with sales up 20 percent across all channels. Specifically, sales of Flying Ember hard kombucha were up 557%.
"Light" drinks are still considered attractive, and with so many new competitors emerging on the market every day, brands are constantly innovating to meet expectations. Low alcohol beverages have a trendier synonym in the domestic market, "microbrews", and young people today are increasingly attracted to a state where they want to drink but not get unconscious, and where the alcohol must be good and not too heavy. This new consumer demographic and demand is opening up new directions for low-alcohol beverages.