The results are in: stress & sleep is officially the fastest-growing supplement category for the second year in a row. It grew by 13,4% in 2020, 14,5% in 2021, and 14,9% in 2022 (Euromonitor). Since it is evidently much more than a temporary post-pandemic trend, we analyzed how the category is behaving and where are the opportunities.
The pandemic induced an increased focus on mental health and with it, a growth in sales of supplements addressing sleep and stress. After 2021, we were uncertain as to how the category would behave – would it turn out to be a fleeting trend, or would sales continue to grow? The latest forecast by Euromonitor delivered an unequivocal answer – not only is the category still growing and not only does it continue to be the fastest-growing, but its growth actually increased in 2022. Consumers around the world are united by the desire to build more resilience, including by better managing stress.
The first exact indication of the upcoming growth of stress & sleep supplements was the clear spike recorded after April 2020 in Amazon US online sales. The spike transformed into sustained growth as sales increased by 31% y-o-y for stress relief and 55% y-o-y for sleep support supplements in 2021 (Clear Cut analytics, October 2021).
Later, Euromonitor showed that growth was seen worldwide and has not receded since the start of the pandemic. The latest forecast reveals that stress & sleep supplements will grow 14,9% y-o-y globally in 2022.
Pharmacy sell-out data by IQVIA shows detailed insights into the success of stress & sleep food supplements and OTC drugs in specific markets. For example, 25% y-o-y growth was seen in the stress & sleep OTC + FS market in Italy in 2020, 42% y-o-y growth in the same segment in Brazil, and 18,3% y-o-y growth in Germany in 2021.
It appears that consumers are giving stress and sleep support products a chance, but how satisfied are they with the currently available solutions?
Euromonitor data suggest that sleeping problems are in fact the category where consumers are least satisfied with their current treatment and are very frequently looking for new solutions (around half of the worldwide consumers in 2021), which presents a market opportunity.
Stress and sleeping disorders have been in the top 3 consumer health concerns in the past years. According to Euromonitor, consumers now define health as mental and emotional well-being, getting enough sleep, and feeling “good”.
In 2022, STADA published a health report in which 37% of European consumers said their stress levels became worse during the pandemic and 59% said they experienced or felt close to a burn-out. As stress and burn-out are reaching epidemic levels in Europe, they are also getting increasingly recognized by health institutions (e.g. the WHO), thusly opening the market to brands based on medical detailing.
To understand the opportunity, we analyzed how companies have recently been responding with new product launches. According to Mintel GNPD, significant growth was seen in the last 5 years in the share of global new supplement launches with sleep and stress claims – from 2,6% in 2017 to 4,5% in 2021. The share varies between markets but is generally still relatively small.
While capsules and tablets continue to represent the majority of new supplement launches with stress and sleep claims, chewables and gummies are gaining in popularity. New launches in this format grew from 1,6% of all stress and sleep launches in 2017 to 11,2% in 2022. User-friendly delivery forms are a viable differentiation strategy for new launches.
Some of the world’s leading and most innovative brands launched new stress and sleep products in the past two years. The segment is gradually evolving from a commodity-driven one to a more advanced, added-value, clinically supported one. Global pharma brands (Pierre Fabre, Uriach, Servier, Dietpharm) and innovator companies (Neurohacker, Nature Made, The Vitamin Shoppe) are launching premium products with branded and clinically studied ingredients.
With recent new supplement launches in the sleep segment, we notice increasingly specific positionings in terms of function and blending with stress. Low-cost herbal or melatonin products still represent the majority of products and gummies are prevailing in Western markets. In the stress segment, more and more innovative brands are choosing branded saffron and ashwagandha sources. Big pharma is mostly sticking to recognized herbals, magnesium, and vitamin B6, with some innovation in delivery forms.
Mental health supplement brands that are rated among the top 5 on Amazon US are basing products on branded and clinically studied ingredients.
For example, New Chapter uses branded and clinically studied ashwagandha, Life Extension uses branded and studied ashwagandha and L-theanine, and Pure Essence adds branded and studied rhodiola to the mix. The third best-selling product on Amazon US in September 2021, Goli gummies, also includes branded ashwagandha. Gaia Herbs, on the other hand, offer unique traceability of ingredients and quality test results at their meetyourherbs.com platform.
This hints at an opportunity for new supplement launches in the premium, clinically supported segment and a definite opportunity for added-value products. A 2021 survey by Friesland Campina supports this thesis. According to the survey, the three most important factors that drive the attention of stress support supplement users are:
84% of supplement users also stated, they are willing to pay a higher price for a product that has scientific proof of efficacy.
Another opportunity lies in personalized recommendations and the connection of supplements to tech, like personal health tracking devices or apps. For example, Librestil by EG has an online stress test and Proper offers a sleep-tracking app. STADA’s 2022 health report found that only 25% of Europeans between the ages of 18 and 34 do not use any health-related apps. Apps are mainly used to support healthy cooking and eating (19%), followed by monitoring sleep quality (17%) and mental well-being (16 %).
There is also an opportunity for products and brands focusing on children. Up to 30% of children may have a sleep disorder at some stage of their childhood, as estimated by physicians and psychologists. According to Nutritional Business Journal, children’s sleep supplements experienced an impressive y-o-y sales growth rate of 32,8% in the 52 weeks, ending on July 10, 2022. Holland & Barrett, for example, launched sleep gummies for children in 2022. The opportunity can also be expanded to products that all family members can use – Pranarôm has recently introduced sleep gummies in this segment.
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