New Year, new me. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This time of the year is when people are thinking about refreshing themselves and planning for a more healthy lifestyle in a brand new year. That’s why it’s a prime time for supplements & nutrition retailers to thrive. To help seize every opportunity they have, in today’s article, we’ll present you with the best tips to drive sales for supplements & nutrition retail in 2021.
Overview
Keep track of changing trends and refocused needs
First and foremost, the element that business owners and operators need to focus on to drive sales for supplements & nutrition retail is the trends.
Non-bill formats
In recent years, the supplements & nutrition retail industry has been witnessing a supplement sales shift. Regardless of the formula, there has been a trend towards non-pill formats. Consumers are now more and more inclined to purchase supplements in the form of gummies, powders, shots, and effervescent. According to Claire Morton Reynolds, a senior industry analyst at Nutrition Business Journal, non-pill format dietary supplement sales accounted for 52% of sales across all channels. And the gummy supplements themselves increased from 6% to 13% of the market.
So maybe as a supplements & nutrition retailer, you might want to keep your inventory occupied with non-pill supplements.
“Modern conditions”
The concern about health and condition is increasing at a rapid pace. Together with the ubiquity of the internet providing a wealth of information, people are more and more cognizant of dietary supplements. As a result, the breadth of interest in supplements and nutrition has transformed from multivitamins generally to more specific functions. And they are called “modern conditions”. Those include sleep and brain health (cognition and focus), eye health, digestive health, inflammation, and immunity. Retailers in the market also agree that these categories will be the ones going strong in 2021.
So, a great tip to drive sales for supplements & nutrition retail: categorize your products or your in-store shelves as specific ‘modern conditions’ instead of just general labels like vitamins.
Plant-based products
As ‘naturality’ is emerging as a megatrend, the preference toward plant-based products is also growing. According to Trend Hunter, naturality indicates the demand for connections with nature, as customers have developed “the desire for sustainable products, including local, organic, recyclable, and pronounceable ingredients”. It deems the new era of sustainability.
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The report by Innova Market Insights forecasted a “plant-based” trend for 2021. With that being said, as consumers are more and more conscious about the environment, retailers should bear that in mind when deciding which products to stock.
Reasonable labeling and packaging
A study by the Nutrition Journal indicated great effects of labeling and packaging on consumers:
- 70% of the survey participants who bought dietary supplements were strongly impacted by the label information claiming the supplement to be free of banned substances.
- Over 50% of the survey participants saw the correspondence between the quality of the supplement and the product information and the label.
- About 40% of the survey participants were influenced by the ingredients present on the label while considering dietary supplements.
With such considerable impacts of labeling and packaging, one of the best tips to drive sales for supplements & nutrition retail here is to pay close attention to them. It’s necessary to consider various factors when working on the packaging and labeling design of the supplements and nutrition. Other than being attractive and eye-catching, the labeling and packaging of healthcare products need to follow strict rules and regulations. There are some questions you can ask yourself to determine the labeling and packaging that work best for your business:
- Is the product packaging overall appealing?
- Is the information on the label readable and informative enough?
- Does the description of the factual and scientific claims appear to be accurate on the label?
- Do the packaging and labeling comply with the current guidelines of the local administration?
Leveraging social media
Utilizing the power of social media is one of the marvelous tips to drive sales for supplements & nutrition retail in 2021.
According to Statista, social media usage is one of the most popular online activities. In 2020, over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide. And this figure is expected to reach almost 4.41 billion in 2025.
Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered accounts. Even more impressive, there are approximately 2.7 billion monthly Facebook active users. The ‘big 4’ (all with over 1 billion monthly active users each) when it comes to social media platforms at the moment are Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram.
With that being so, social commerce (a form of mobile commerce) is emerging quickly. It refers to the trend of selling products directly on social platforms. According to research, 51% of millennials are more likely to buy products via social media.
The introduction of Instagram Shopping Posts in 2018 opened the door to a whole new era of social commerce in particular and mobile commerce in general.
Social commerce is likely to expand in 2021 as there are more and more retailers trying to put their foot into this highly competitive yet extremely attractive and highly potential market.
Empower customers to have more control over their shopping experience
Create a frictionless in-store experience
As retail business owners and operators, you must be familiar with the idea that there are 2 types of buyers walking into your physical store. Ones who want assistance and ones who wish to shop on their own with any store assistant approaching them. Realizing that, there are many merchants offering ways to distinguish between these 2 types. For example, providing 2 color-coded shopping baskets. Customers now can choose the basket according to their shopping preference. And sales assistants can identify which customer to approach.
However, it seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the time, customers who don’t want to be approached still need to know more about the product information or even some product recommendations. Particularly for healthcare products like supplements and nutrition. That’s when a consumer app supported by a POS system comes in.
A consumer app can facilitate consumers to:
- Access easily right on their mobile devices.
- View all of the products available.
- Scan barcodes to view product information.
- Order temporarily out-of-stock products and choose to either pick up in-store or have the purchase shipped to their front door.
- Conveniently do self check-out with their mobile devices to skip counters.
- Pay with their go-to payment options.
With an advanced and well-functioning consumer app backed by a POS system, buyers now can have more independence when shopping for supplements and nutrition.
Embrace multiple payment methods
It’s a fact that there are plenty of payment methods available, and each consumer has their own favorite one. Other than cash, cashless payments are going strong thanks to their convenience. Especially during the pandemic when human interactions put society at the risk of spreading the virus, contactless payments are strongly recommended.
As retailers, it’s your responsibility and your benefit to offer your customers as many payment options as you can. Just imagine how frustrating it is when a customer realizes that their normally go-to payment option is not available at the very last stage of their shopping. And you can’t even imagine how much it will negatively affect your business.
Nowadays, technology is so advanced that you can easily integrate payments from third-party payment gateways. They support numerous types of payment methods from cash, credit cards, debit cards, etc. With that, not only can you ensure your customers see their favorite payment option at the check-out, you can also ensure the security and transparency of the transactions.
Are you ready for 2021?
Well, we’re reaching the end of 2020. As everyone is writing their New Year’s resolution, health will be one of the key elements. That leads to an upsurge in the demand for healthcare products. Thus, it’s high time supplements & nutrition retail refreshed and upgraded themselves to be able to successfully fulfill such a high demand of the market. Well, we hope that we helped you, as the owners and operators of the supplements & nutrition retail business, with figuring out some strategies to thrive in 2021. To sum up, the best tips to drive sales for supplements & nutrition retail are:
- Keep track of changing trends and refocused needs
- Non-pill formats
- Modern conditions
- Plant-based products
- Reasonable labeling and packaging
- Leveraging social media
- Empower customers to have more control over their shopping experience
- Create a frictionless in-store experience
- Embrace multiple payment methods
If you’re interested in such content like this, follow us closely and visit our blog page every day for more helpful articles. We, ConnectPOS, will always be your supportive companion on the way to your business success! Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!