Supplements and Wellness Become Christmas Gifts

Santa might bring you some extras this year.

Besides typical holiday wish list items like clothing, fragrance, and gadgets, the wellness category is poised to gain popularity this shopping season and beyond, especially as retailers like Ulta Beauty And Target give it more storage space well before the New Year’s resolutions start.

Beauty continues to be a high-performing vacation category. According to Circana, a market research group, November and December together account for about 25% of annual spending on prestige beauty items, which includes brands typically sold by specialty beauty retailers and department stores. Holiday shoppers said they plan to spend an average of $247 on beauty products when purchasing gifts this year, the fourth highest holiday spending category, according to Circana’s annual survey.

Yet the beauty category’s assortment has expanded with the addition of items more focused on health and wellness, such as products that promise to improve nutrition, hydration and sleep.

Larissa Jensen, global beauty industry advisor at Circana, said wellness has gained attention since the Covid pandemic as consumers prioritize self-care and wellbeing “from the inside out”.

She said health-related products typically relegated to drugstore shelves, such as teeth whitening kits, vitamins, whole-body deodorants and eye drops, have grown in popularity. Some now come in more attractive packaging, have received endorsements from influencers and celebrities or have been moved to the beauty section as retailers seize the opportunity to blend beauty and wellness and become a one-stop shop.

Ulta Beauty, in particular, has dedicated more space to wellness in its stores. The specialty retailer, which has more than 1,450 stores across the country, has always offered individual items related to wellness and “beauty from the inside out,” said Laura Beres, the retailer’s vice president of wellness.

Yet as demand grew post-pandemic, Ulta began opening wellness boutiques inside its stores in 2021 and dedicated about four to eight feet of shelf space to items such as probiotic gummies, sleep masks and aromatherapy oils. In August, the company announced it would increase the size of these wellness stores to 45 feet in about a third of its stores. It added nearly 30 new wellness brands to its stores, bringing its total to about 100, Beres said.

She said customers shopping for wellness are of all ages, but Ulta has seen growth, particularly among millennial shoppers and consumers with household incomes above $100,000. She said there has been more interest in innovation, particularly as customers seek solutions for key life stages that brands have neglected in the past, such as pre- and post-pregnancy and menopause needs.

This year, she said Ulta is offering gift sets of wellness items, including an Advent calendar featuring essential oils from Saje Natural Wellness and a restful sleep gift set from Kourtney Kardashian’s vitamin brand, Lemme. Still, she said she expects wellness to become a more important part of vacations in the future, as the category grows.

“It’s the perfect combination of being able to give someone else the gift of relaxation during the holiday season in a really refined way that, frankly, didn’t exist in the market before,” she said.

One of Ulta’s wellness boutique brands is Neom Wellbeing, a UK-based company that sells room fragrances and body care items. Neom sells online through Amazon and its website, with many bestsellers focused on improving sleep.

Amanda Kahn, general manager for the United States at Neom, said the company’s first sellers this holiday season are stocking Christmas items costing less than $20. As shoppers look for value due to inflation, wellness items are attractive because they are also practical, she said.

“It’s a very interesting gift while still providing a benefit that everyone can use,” she said.

Bath and body workbest known for its scented soaps, candles and lotions, has also launched more wellness-focused items. Earlier this month, for example, the company began selling a new wellness fragrance collection called “Water Winter Mint” with scents of peppermint and alpine waters and ingredients including hyaluronic acid and shea butter.

Kristie Lewis, the company’s senior vice president of merchandising, said more customers are turning to mall staples for body care products or gifts that improve mood and address health-related issues, such as dry skin or difficulty falling asleep.

Bath & Body Works plans to continue expanding its aromatherapy line and ingredient-based products, she said. It offers aromatherapy body products with natural essential oils and launched a holiday collection with scents of eucalyptus, pine and vanilla and nutmeg.

“We’re finding that consumers are really buying them for themselves, but also for holiday gifts, because who doesn’t want stress relief or sleep, especially around November and December?” she said.

Nutrition and health is also a trending category at Target, Chief Commercial Officer Rick Gomez said during a tour of Minneapolis-area stores in October. He said wellness intersects with many categories Target sells, such as Joylab, a private label that offers bright colors and floral prints of workout gear, Khloe Kardashian’s Khloud protein popcorn, and beauty kits and skin masks.

He said some of these items could also be given as gifts. Gomez said he bought his nephew protein powder as a gift.

Wellness could gain more square footage at Target next year, he added. It’s one of the ideas Target is considering as its deal with Ulta Beauty ends in August and branded beauty stores located in hundreds of its stores close, Gomez said.

Grüns is one of the wellness items on Target’s shelves. Gummy green superfoods are a healthier version of a fruit snack for adults, but with a nutritional punch similar to a greens powder, said founder and CEO Chad Janis. Its name is inspired by “grün”, the word for green in German.

Retailers including Walmart, Sprouts Producers Market and Sam’s Club sell the gummies, which have expanded into other lines for children and for immune support since the company’s inception in 2023.

While sales of vitamins and supplements tend to increase toward the new year, Janis said the company hopes its candies will be a stocking stuffer or Christmas present. It sells holiday-inspired items, including a Grinch-inspired sour punch flavor and a holiday-themed Target pack.

Walmart also offers wellness items for the holidays, as millennial and Gen Z shoppers seek personal care and wellness items year-round, such as gift sets of body washes from vitamin maker Olly and vitamin patches from Barrière that look like stickers or temporary tattoos.

Even outside of beauty departments, retailers have turned to wellness as a gifting category, as Best buywhich sells Oura rings and offers demos for wearable health tracking devices, and Kohl’swhich carries items such as massage guns and portable ice baths.

During this holiday season, wellness may also attract more attention from shoppers who purchase items for themselves while purchasing gifts for friends and family, Circana’s Jensen said.

“Here’s a little ornament with lip gloss for you and teeth whitening products for me,” she said.

Still, in the coming years, Jensen said she expects wellness to rise in prominence on holiday wish lists because of its high price point and greater acceptance. She compared it to anti-aging skin care products and gift sets.

She said they once seemed taboo and now it’s an item people ask for.