Gross sales of probiotic dietary supplements in america have declined in each mass and pure channels, in keeping with knowledge from SPINS. For the 52 weeks ending on Oct. 6 2024, probiotic gross sales within the mass market totaled simply over $833 million, a 4.6% lower from the earlier 12 months. Furthermore, gross sales within the pure channel decreased nearly 7% to simply beneath $116 million.
Regardless of this, the numbers are nonetheless larger than they have been pre-pandemic, stated Scott Dicker, market insights director at SPINS.
“There was elevated curiosity in non-GI associated well being focuses over the previous couple years with an general decline this 12 months in most areas,” he stated.
Certainly, wanting on the knowledge by well being situation, digestive well being is down 8%, temper assist is down 39%, immunity by 26%. The one well being situation reporting a rise—and an eye-popping enhance in addition—is reproductive well being, with gross sales growing a whopping 7,777% year-over-year to succeed in nearly $16.5 million.
However look to Amazon, and there’s a totally different story. A mixed prebiotics + probiotics class is the quantity 5 class on {the marketplace}, with nearly $840 million in gross sales, a rise of 9% year-on-year. Unit gross sales additionally elevated 10% year-on-year, in keeping with SPINS.
Information from Nielsen IQ supplied an analogous shift to on-line for another retailers. Whereas gross sales of probiotic dietary supplements in grocery shops did decline nearly 14% year-over-year, on-line gross sales from grocery shops grew 230%, stated Kevin Hutchings, shopper supervisor, product insights at NielsenIQ.
For membership shops like Sam’s Membership and Costco, probiotic complement gross sales in-store elevated 6.5%, he stated, however grew on-line by 60%.
Taken altogether, the numbers nonetheless level to annual development for the U.S. dietary supplements class throughout all channels of about 2% over the following 4 years, stated George Paraskevakos, government director of the Worldwide Probiotics Affiliation.
“In order that places america round $ 2.3 to $2.4 billion,” he stated.
Shopper traits
Whereas manufacturers want to grasp the shifting retail panorama, additionally they have to have their finger on the place and the way customers are educating themselves about these merchandise, and that’s the place SPATE comes into the dialog.
The highest manufacturers within the probiotics area embrace Culturelle, Doctor’s Selection, Backyard of Life and Align (in keeping with NielsenIQ), however essentially the most searched-for model on Google is Spring Valley, Walmart’s personal model. In accordance with SPATE, Spring Valley receives over 121K common month-to-month searches. This “suggests a broader shopper curiosity in additional mainstream, inexpensive probiotic manufacturers obtainable at main retailers,” Alyssa Williams, meals and beverage class insights supervisor at SPATE, instructed NutraIngredients-USA.
“Moreover, whereas decrease in views (1.1K common month-to-month views), Historic Vitamin sees a +128.9% year-over-year development suggesting this model has potential for future development.”
The image is sort of totally different on TikTok, nevertheless, the place Seed and its branded hashtag #seedprobiotics receives 260.5K common weekly views alongside probiotics, and #seedpartner receives over 24K common weekly views.
This knowledge “displays a choice for extra area of interest, premium or influencer-driven merchandise that emphasize science-backed formulations”, stated Williams. “This means a bifurcation in shopper curiosity—Google stays a channel for broad, purposeful searches, whereas TikTok displays a rising shopper demand for storytelling, instructional content material and person experiences round particular manufacturers.”
SPATE has additionally witnessed a major shift in shopper curiosity and searches on the 2 platforms. Google searches for probiotics noticed a lower year-over-year (-13.4%), Williams instructed us, whereas searches for probiotics on TikTok have skyrocketed (+209.3%).
“This means a shift in the direction of social media platforms for gathering health-related content material and dialogue, signaling a change in how customers interact with probiotic dietary supplements,” she stated. “This shift signifies an evolution from static analysis via Google in the direction of partaking, dynamic social content material.”
Evaluating probiotics and prebiotics reveals that shopper consciousness is way larger for the previous, which presents a possibility to extend visibility and schooling across the latter, stated Williams.
Consciousness could also be excessive for probiotics, nevertheless it additionally seems that buyers are deepening their understanding of the microbiome usually. Apparently, the most-viewed “concern hashtag” alongside probiotics on TikTok is #Microbiome with 42.9 million complete views, stated Williams.
“The give attention to microbiome well being is a very robust sign that buyers have gotten more and more educated on the complexity of intestine well being, suggesting potential for specialised probiotic formulations,” she stated. “Manufacturers could leverage this curiosity to supply tailor-made well being options, focusing on these particular circumstances via strategic advertising and marketing.”
