Walmart wants a bigger hand in enabling younger consumers' wellness-fueled lifestyles
As Millennials and Gen Z consumers fuel an intentional interest in adopting health and wellness as a lifestyle habit rather than a passing fad, brands and retailers are rushing to cater to their needs.
Just last week, PepsiCo signaled its intent to go full steam ahead into “healthy” sodas when it announced the launch of Pepsi Prebiotic Cola, its first functional cola beverage for the Pepsi brand.
On Wednesday, Walmart WMT 0.00%↑ announced its plan to become even more competitive with wellness offerings for its shoppers by adding two prominent and buzzy social media brands, Nutrafol (a hair growth supplements brand) and Ritual (a maker of multivitamins and supplements), to its lineup of 50 other wellness brands that it has launched in its stores and online over the past two years.
Both brands are now available on Walmart.com and Ritual products will also roll into stores in the fall.
Ritual boasts more than one million likes on TikTok, over 400,000 followers on Instagram and Serena Williams as a brand ambassador in her role as Ritual’s first-ever women’s health advisor. Nutrafol has close to 400,000 Instagram followers, more than 400,000 TikTok likes and its own roster of celebrity endorsers.
For Walmart, its expanded push into wellness products comes after observing how the trend has gained momentum in recent years.
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“It really started during the pandemic when customers started honing in on their own wellness journey,” Kristin Piper, vice president of wellness merchandising at Walmart, said in an interview with Bagable.com.
“It’s been this rising star that seems to have no end in sight. Every week we’re seeing new trends in wellness from gut health gummies to brain-boosting blends. We’ve grown the number of new customers in this category quite substantially,” she said. Many of them are younger shoppers and women, Piper said, who are destigmatizing aspects of their wellness journeys such as gut health.
According to a McKinsey report, younger generations especially are prioritizing wellness, with nearly 30% of GenZers in the US saying they are a lot more focused on it this from a year ago, versus 23% of older generations. The report said the wellness category in the US pulls in an estimated more than $500 billion in annual spending.
“We see these trend and signals externally that customers are talking about on social media and elsewhere and then we identify brands that align well with what customers are looking for,” she said.
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That process also requires that brands clear a Walmart checklist for selection, such as clinically-backed brands with proven results, traceable ingredients, accessible pricing and a strong brand identity.
“We have numerous conversations with brands and require them to submit different documentation so that we can work through the different claims they have on the packaging,” Piper said.
One other factor that’s important, especially to younger shoppers is how brands engage with them in a fun way, Piper said.
“We’re really seeing wellness brands latch on to how this topic can also be fun,” she said.
To that end, Piper said Walmart is collaborating with brands to add novelty in the category by offering exclusive flavors and formats, such as a mystery flavor launch with BelliWelli (a brand of snacks and supplements to support gut health) to new dessert-inspired offerings from Wonderbelly, a maker of digestive health products.
Julie Craig, vice president of shopper insights with Kantar Retail, said Nutrafol and Ritual’s entry into Walmart is an indicator of how hard the retailer is leaning into the health and wellness category.
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“These are really premium brands. I’ve seen Nutrafol sold through Sephora, said Craig. (Nutrafol also launched at Ulta Beauty earlier this month) “It shows that Walmart is doubling-down on this idea of democratizing wellness and bringing these premium brands to the masses as well as their own private label wellness products.”
“Walmart needs to win with the more affluent shopper and the younger shopper, especially as Amazon continues to branch out and own more of the pieces of the health and wellness food chain,” Craig said. “This move with Nutrafol and Ritual is smart to bring in these premium, DTC-proven brands that younger, more affluent shoppers like to revitalize Walmart’s health and wellness offerings.”