The State of the Supplement Industry

After a year or so of sinking trends, the supplement industry is looking bigger and brighter than it has in a while.According to NFM's Natural Retailer Market Overview, natural supplement sales have rebounded nicely as vitamin and dietary supplement sales grew 6.2 percent in 2015, reaching a market value of $14.3 billion.

Herbal and botanical remedies fared well, growing 7.8 percent to notch roughly $2.4 billion in sales.What should not be a surprise, according to Euromonitor International:·

The growing elderly population and the millennials are the core groups driving the market.
Older shoppers want to delay aging and reduce their risk of disease·
Millennials, having been raised by health-conscious baby boomers, are open to alternative care and nutritional supplements.
Both groups share a common desire to avoid expensive medical care, while looking to natural supplements for answers and sought out formulations tailored specifically to their needs.
Another trend found at the retail level via purchasing patterns of consumers is that condition-specific multivitamins are growing greater than broad based ones which cast a wide net. Thus the "womens" "mens" "athletics" etc. are being sought out more, which falls in line with the condition specific trends people are looking to treat; basically people want multivitamins and other solutions made specifically for them.

Another helpful piece of information from the Euromonitor data shows some of the hottest categories like digestive (up 12 percent), heart (up 6 percent) and immune health supplements (up 7 percent).

According to SPINS, sports nutrition experienced the most explosive growth last year, climbing 22 percent over 2014 to hit $96 million in retail value.

Other research has shown sports nutrition is pegged to be the highest growth category through 2018, and aside form core athletic products, its products for the casual/weekend athlete and lifestyle athletes that are expected to offer the biggest growth.

A major category that suffered in 2015, while expected to continue is the diet supplement market. The belief is this is a residual effect of the Dr. Oz craze, which came crashing down in the latter half of 2014, when a congressional hearing questioned his claims regarding supplements for weight loss.

Another area to keep your eye on is where supplement manufacturers are reinventing old standbys that had become commoditized (vitamin D, fish oils), such as unique combination formulas, once again taking lessons from the increased interest in multiple ingredient products and 'customized' formulas.

As people get more turned off by allopathic care, treating symptoms with more drugs, they are looking for alternative roots and therapies.

The trends are continuing to show this, often with a hiccup from a biased media attack, although the future looks very bright for the pharmacy who chooses to integrate themselves.