Ulta is expanding its wellness shop to include more health-focused brands and more shelf space for wellness items, such as supplements. Beauty retailers like Ulta and Target are giving wellness products more prominence this holiday season, with spending on prestige beauty items accounting for 25% of annual spending. Wellness items now include products for nutrition, hydration, and sleep, reflecting a wider range of health-related products beyond traditional beauty items.
Wellness is gaining attention as consumers prioritize self-care and feeling good from the “inside out” since the Covid pandemic. Retailers like Ulta Beauty are devoting more shelf space to wellness items, such as probiotic gummies, sleep masks, and aromatherapy oils. Ulta has added nearly 30 new wellness brands to its stores, attracting customers across ages but especially appealing to millennial shoppers and consumers with household incomes over $100,000.
Neom Wellbeing, a UK-based brand carried by Ulta, offers home fragrances and body care items with essential oils to reduce stress, improve sleep, and boost mood or energy levels. Neom’s products focus on improving sleep and are popular as practical and giftable items. Bath & Body Works has also launched a new wellness fragrance collection, reflecting a broader trend of wellness-focused products gaining popularity among consumers.
Nutrition and health have become popular categories at retailers like Target, with wellness items cutting across various product categories. Target is considering expanding its wellness offerings next year as its partnership with Ulta Beauty ends. Grüns, a superfood greens gummies brand, is among the wellness items available at Target, offering a healthier alternative to traditional fruit snacks for adults.
Wellness items are becoming popular gift choices, with retailers like Walmart offering wellness products year-round. Grüns hopes to see a holiday sales bump with its gummies, including holiday-inspired flavors like Grinch-inspired sour punch. Other retailers, such as Best Buy and Kohl’s, have also embraced wellness as a gift-giving category with items like health-tracking wearables and massage guns.
During this holiday season, wellness may receive more attention from shoppers buying gifts for friends and family as well as for themselves. Circana’s Jensen predicts that wellness will become more prominent on holiday wish lists in the coming years, similar to anti-aging skin-care products. The wider acceptance and higher price tags of wellness items are expected to drive their increased popularity as holiday gifts.
Read more at CNBC: Supplements and wellness grow as Christmas gifts