Not long ago, wellness was a niche market with a limited number of products and services, catering mainly to hardcore fitness enthusiasts. Now, with four in five consumers planning to buy new health and fitness products and services in the coming year, wellness is a major driver of economic growth. The global wellness economy is booming, valued at US$5.6 trillion in 2023, and ripe with new opportunities in almost every sector. David Knies, wellness and innovation expert at PA Consulting, tells us more.
PA Consulting’s recent report on the ‘Future of Wellness’ surveyed 4,000 consumers in the US and UK, and found a real growing demand for products that help people manage their health and fitness. From home exercise equipment to sleep-enhancing lighting to subscriptions to wellness apps, business is growing in every sector.
Yet the survey also revealed that these products are not delivering the results consumers want. Only half rated their physical health as good, only 45% were satisfied with their current sleep quality and quantity, and just 47% were happy with their diet and nutrition. One of the main sources of dissatisfaction was that wellness products and services are not personalised enough for individual needs. Wellness products can be generic – one size fits all – and consumers are often quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of areas to address.
PA’s findings underline the scope for a new, more tailored approach from providers. Consumers ultimately want to ‘stack’ personalised solutions to fit their unique needs across sleep, movement, diet, mental wellness, financial wellness and social wellness. Nine in ten said they would like a personalised wellness and fitness product or service and two thirds said custom vitamins and supplements or tailored nutrition plans would appeal to them. The clear message was that people are looking for brands to help them build their own unique stack of products and services: offerings that are hyper-personal to their own bodies and DNA, able to merge data across services and integrate seamlessly with their real-world, daily routines.
Companies like 23andMe, InsideTracker, Whoop, Zoe, NIX Biosensors, Apple Fitness and Habit are already leading the charge in this area by offering hyper-personalised HealthTech solutions. They are leveraging consumer data to create affordable, trusted platforms. But the big hurdle in gaining consumer trust is in the handling of personal biomedical data. While the majority (57%) of those surveyed said they were willing to share their personal fitness and health data with brands, scepticism remains and there’s a trust gap to overcome – particularly around more medical-grade products.
Users of wearable tech / fitness trackers and health tracking apps had the highest trust levels in the use of their data. However, only half of consumers said they trusted at-home fertility tests and wellness patches or biosensors – and there have been well-documented concerns around data trust related to period tracking apps and health insurance companies accessing sensitive biodata.
It is vital for companies developing products in this area to invest in data privacy and communicate effectively to their customers. That should include giving users control over where their data is shared and providing assurances about the ownership of that data. New technology such as blockchain, end-to-end encryption, and personal data management platforms also offer ways to protect customer data and strengthen their confidence in how their information is being shared and used.
Brands both need to convince consumers that they are a safe pair of hands and that they will benefit from sharing their data by getting a better, more personalised product. Giving up sensitive data for a standard set of graphs is less likely to appeal to the user than a product that uses individual information to provide genuinely useful and surprising insights.
Interestingly, the desire for hyper-personalised products is most evident in sleep management. Sleep is increasingly recognised as the cornerstone of wellness: it is the foundational ‘stackable’ habit that supports emotional and physical health. Once limited to products such as mattresses and sleeping pills, the approach to improving sleep now connects in with sports recovery, mental health, and nutrition. Consumers are investing in temperature-regulating mattresses and lighting that adapts to their routines. Apps now track sleep alongside diet, exercise, menstrual cycles and mental health data.
However, many brands have yet to tap into this market by offering truly personal sleep offerings. Those that lean into the stackable wellness economy today will be well-positioned to capitalise on consumers’ growing interest in sleep. This could take the form of partnerships with other brands to help users manage their sleep more holistically, rethinking the ‘rest and regeneration’ aspects of a product portfolio, or even looking at how to innovate sleep-centric technologies and formulations, such as harnessing sensory design and biofeedback.
The future of HealthTech increasingly lies in hyper-personalisation. Companies that address consumer needs, integrate key areas of wellness, and leverage data to create bespoke solutions will lead the next era of HealthTech. The market is primed for offerings as unique as individuals’ DNA, with trusted brands poised to capture their share of this expanding frontier.
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