The New Wellness Retail Opportunity: Beauty from Within

Wellness retail has gotten increasingly popular over the past few years. But this year, the category is on fire, becoming a trend that is fueling and influencing consumers’ lives and retailers’ behavior. Beyond just natural products and healthy foods, health and wellness is growing and permeating the industry from within.

Brands and shoppers are full-on embracing that wellness is beauty – and vice versa.

[bctt tweet=”Retailers and innovative new products are emphasizing that beauty starts at the molecular level – not from the surface.” username=”medallionretail”] Take biotin to get shimmering hair. Spend time in an infrared sauna for skin purification (and a relaxing experience). Get IV vitamin therapy for glowing skin. Better yet, go to the new shop Clean Market to get all of the above.

The health and wellness industry is not only about feeling good – it’s about looking good. The two go hand in hand. And now brands are making that trend shine through.

Beauty becomes wellness

The lines are now so blurred between the sectors that established beauty brands are launching new campaigns that specifically tout wellness. Take L’Oréal. The global brand opened a new drugstore concept in Paris with the goal to be “an urban store for beauty from within.”

Offering its own beauty brands along with over-the-counter pharmaceutical products, healthy snacks and amenities for urban consumers, the new drugstore is sleek, modern and fun. In effect, L’Oréal is expertly tying together the connection between health and beauty.

L’Oréal is also making a push for its incubated sustainable beauty brand, Seed Phytonutrients. As part of its partnership with beauty and wellness store Pharmaca, Seed Phytonutrients will now be popping up in brick-and-mortar shops across the United States.

The stores only stock natural brands, and licensed healthcare professionals – herbalists, nutritionists, naturopaths – are on staff to educate consumers about the products.

Wellness becomes beauty

The crossover is also coming from the health and wellness side. After spending considerable effort in the health sector, CVS  and Walgreens have now turned their attention to re-establishing their large footprint in beauty, putting dollars behind concept shops that go head to head with specialty beauty stores.

Vitamin Shoppe is more clearly emphasizing the connection between nutrients and beauty, with specific products marketed as beauty enhancers (vitamin C serum to reduce wrinkles, essential oils for relaxing aromatherapy).

They also launched a specialized subscription service last summer, sending curated boxes of vitamins and goodies to loyal customers, resulting in soaring earnings and share prices. Think Birchbox but with a credible wellness bend.

Skillfull curation

In the beauty sector, many products hold a single purpose. Eye shadow is used for eyelids, lipstick for lip coloring, and cover-up hides pimples and spots. But in the world of health and wellness retail, products like vitamins and supplements can have multiple benefits. Vitamin D can strengthen your bones, repair skin damage and help grow strong, resilient hair.

Traditional merchandising organized vitamins alphabetically. But how about displays that group together products based on their purpose: skin care, aromatherapy, sleep aide, pregnancy – the lists of permutations are endless and provide fresh ideas each time a customer walks through the door. This is how retailers upsell their customers.

Consider display personalization tips from the fashion sector. Through displays, you can help consumers identify themselves through personas and inspire them with new products, similar to online “You Might Also Be Interested” options. For example, if a consumer is looking at biotin for hair strength, maybe point them in the direction of natural shampoos. It’s all about showing the consumer you thoroughly understand their needs.  What wellness retail does best when it counts the most.

Leaning on visuals and explanations

The beauty industry is very visual. Marketing these products relies on images – photos of the products, the colors, and happy, healthy people. You can perceive the benefits and the results from the pictures. And the pictures are worth thousands of words!

With its heavy emphasis on wellness retail, CVS  has made a commitment to Beauty IRL (In Real Life). Gone are airbrushed, impossible-to-achieve images, and instead beauty, with all its lines and imperfections, reigns supreme. The subliminal message is also that what’s on the inside matters equally with what’s on the outside.

Fresh, a pure beauty brand using natural ingredients, goes another route. Its signage and display do a great job of informing shoppers about product benefits.

Take a look at the page for this Black Tea Firming Overnight Mask. The product details include a list of key ingredients, explaining how each works to help your skin. What’s more, it includes a list of proof points from a consumer survey, giving the shopper a clear look into the before and after. It definitely answers the question: “How will this product help me?” Fresh knows its buyers want answers beforethey purchase, not after they’ve open the packaging and read the product insert.

Even better? Take the same online idea and bring it in-store, giving each product a dedicated card that informs consumers and helps them learn more about wellness and beauty. Don’t just leave education to the digital sphere – inform your consumers in-store with clear, helpful product details.

Want to create displays that bring the intersection of beauty and wellness retail to life? Reach out to Michael or Chris today at engage@medallionretail.com.