Consumer intelligence company NIQ has released a report examining the relationship between the beauty and wellness sectors, sharing that “wellness and beauty intersect more than ever, as shoppers want to look their best and feel their best.” The report details that the Beauty + Wellness category expands the market by 45%.
Driven by beauty, personal health, supplements, functional beverages and drinkable supplements, and candles and fragrance oils, Beauty + Wellness is currently valued at $140.7 billion, the report shared.
To gain insight into the Beauty + Wellness Report’s key takeaways, including unexpected findings, and how manufacturers and suppliers to the cosmetics and personal care product industries can leverage the report’s findings to improve product formulation and development processes moving forward, CosmeticsDesign spoke to Anna Mayo, VP of Beauty Thought Leadership at NIQ.
Beauty + Wellness report: surprising findings & crucial insights
Its analysts relied on several information sources to produce the report, including survey data and “NIQ Panel consumer segmentation, Label Insights, Label Insights trending search, and NIQ RMS,” said Mayo. Using this information, the analysts determined that “to beauty consumers, the definition of beauty is expanding to beauty from the inside out.” Further, she explained, when considering beauty and wellness, “consumers are waking up to the idea that to look their best on the outside, they also need to take care of themselves on the inside.”
This means that the average beauty and wellness consumer is “looking for solutions that support total body wellness, and beauty retailers are stepping in to provide these products, which increasingly include items such as vitamins and supplements, oral care, feminine care, sexual health, functional beverages, and home care items,” Mayo shared. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that “the influx of wellness will change the beauty industry, as retailers expand their scope and beauty brands find themselves competing across categories for shelf space,” she added.
One of the more unexpected findings that “struck us when creating this report was how stores of the future may start to look quite different, with space carved out for new categories, which of course may take away from existing beauty shelf space,” she elaborated. Additionally, “we were also surprised to see how large the wellness market has become, and the focus that consumers are putting on feeling their best, not just looking their best,” said Mayo.
The data’s industry impact
Mayo shared that these findings are particularly significant to cosmetics and personal beauty care product manufacturers and suppliers because “the landscape of cosmetics and personal care is changing” in several impactful ways. First, she explained, “the consumer idea of beauty is expanding, and consumers are applying their expectations of beauty to a wider range of products, which creates potential opportunities for beauty brands to expand into new spaces such as personal health or home care.”
Additionally, she said, “there is now new competition for both buyers and shelf space.” This means that “if beauty brands can expand into wellness, then wellness brands can, and will, expand into beauty as well,” and as a result, “brands will encounter more challenges than they have before,” she said.
Also, “there will also be a battle for shelf space, as retailers are carving off sections of their store to devote to wellness brands,” she said, and therefore, “beauty brands should be prepared to defend their space.” She also noted that “consumers will continue to be educated about the ingredients and benefits that they are looking for, as well as what they don’t want in their products,” which has potentially significant implications on purchasing decisions.
Therefore, Mayo concluded that “manufacturers should be thinking about how the products that they make interact with wellness trends, and how they may want to emphasize those attributes as their brands evolve,” adding the recommendation that “we think consumers will continue to expect more benefits from their beauty products, so putting a plan in place now will help position brands well for the future.”
Looking ahead
In its conclusion, the Beauty + Wellness report noted that the data indicates much on the horizon in the sector. For example, there has been a 43% increase in search volume for ‘hair growth products,’ a 10% increase for ‘algae,’ and a 431% increase in search volume for ‘snail slime’ in the indicated research period.
Therefore, the NIQ team will “continue to monitor the expansion of beauty into wellness,” and industry members can “expect updates on this dynamic and growing market,” Mayo concluded.
Want to learn more about Beauty from Within and other Next Generation Beauty Consumer Trends? Register now to listen to our free Beauty Forward Summit, which will be broadcast between January 29-31, 2024.
