Why Wellness is a Winning Retail Strategy & How to Build One | Mintel

4 main retailers are betting huge on wellness this yr: Ulta, Goal, Amazon and Boots have all made important forays into wellness in 2026. These strikes align intently with alerts we’ve recognized throughout client habits, class convergence and wellness-led spending.  

Customers are dedicating extra of their time, vitality and {dollars} to their very own wellness routines. Mintel has been monitoring this shift for a number of years, figuring out wellness as one of the vital sturdy, cross-category development drivers in client markets, and investing to assist manufacturers navigate it. We predict (client-access solely) the US wellness market will develop 7.5% into 2030. Wellness is transferring away from being an adjoining class in direction of a central development technique.  

In every case, retailers are leaning on cross-category advertising and marketing and merchandising, reflecting an understanding that in shoppers’ minds, wellness isn’t one word. Manufacturers set up their merchandise by class, however shoppers suppose in stacks, or the mixtures of merchandise and behaviors that allow their desired wellness outcomes. For instance, a sleep stack may embrace a tech product like Brick to chop down on display time, a melatonin complement, and a perfume product like a lavender room spray. Growing engagement with and funding in wellness options means shoppers’ stacks are increasing. For manufacturers, client centricity requires maintaining with out-of-category improvements.  

It’s additionally an efficient cross-selling tactic, and yet one more multi-brand retailers ought to faucet into. Mintel’s Wellness Personas (client-access solely) spotlight how totally different shoppers interact with wellness. Thrivers, essentially the most spendy and trend-oriented phase, are actively buying throughout magnificence and private care, meals and beverage, well being tech, nutritional vitamins and dietary supplements, and residential merchandise. Retailers that may break down silos and successfully cross-merchandise in brick and mortar in addition to on-line will allow more practical product discovery as they assist customers in increasing their wellness stacks. 

Ulta Magnificence is piloting wellness shop-in-shops, or outlined zones inside current shops, with a important sq. footage growth for his or her wellness assortment and hiring devoted wellness specialists to employees them. This cross-category merchandising encourages customers to experiment throughout product strains and introduces them to a wider vary of wellness options.  

Ulta is assembly shoppers the place they’re. The retailer acknowledges that some customers are coming in for magnificence purchases with an informal curiosity in wellness, whereas others are buying wellness-first. Ulta is poised to capitalize on each, with a rise in basket measurement from the previous and development as a vacation spot for the latter.

The transfer comes alongside Ulta Magnificence’s TikTok Store launch. A full 70% of Thrivers (the most spendy and trend-oriented phase) are on TikTok at the very least as soon as a day, and the TikTok Store presence affords a extra seamless connection from inspiration and discovery to checkout.  

Subsequent up is Goal. The mass retailer is increasing their wellness assortment by 30% and leveraging each digital and brick-and-mortar channels to seize discretionary {dollars} in an space shoppers more and more prioritize. It’s no secret that Goal has been struggling to recapture the “Tar-zhay” picture that’s dwindled over the previous few years, and tapping into shoppers’ present priorities is crucial for a return to kind. Their new CEO Michael Fiddelke mentioned that customers can count on to see “extra change to what we promote and the way we promote it than you’ve seen in a decade.” 

For that to be profitable, clients should see worth. The place Ulta has room to play with premium manufacturers, Goal has an crucial to maintain costs reasonably priced and is providing many wellness gadgets for below $10. Whereas wellness is largely discretionary, it shouldn’t be out of attain for many shoppers. Goal’s extra accessible pricing will attract customers who beforehand thought wellness wasn’t for them. 

My very own goal retailer is displaying stylish VMS manufacturers alongside skincare merchandise, illustrating an understanding {that a} buyer’s resolution might be in a gummy vitamin or a serum (or, ideally for Goal, each).  

Amazon is a high wellness buying vacation spot, with 54% of US shoppers indicating that the e-commerce behemoth is a go-to for wellness merchandise (client-access solely). To faucet into that exercise, they lately launched a cross-promotional effort with OLLY nutritional vitamins that’s all about higher sleep. The manufacturers collaborated to supply a sweepstakes prize for a keep in a sleep-themed residence in Joshua Tree, California. The Sleep Home expertise guarantees immersive, multisensory relaxation and rest for the winners. 

As most clients received’t be so fortunate, the remainder of us can expertise the activation by way of an influencer sponsorship, or with Alexa. Amazon and OLLY are providing a sleep theme by way of Alexa+. The theme affords sleep suggestions, a quiz and can assist customers craft a sleep-enhancing nighttime routine.  

Customers’ wellness experiences are multimodal. Pairing VMS merchandise with an auditory interplay exhibits an understanding that wellness doesn’t dwell in a single field.  

Throughout the pond, Boots is introducing Wellness Zones to their shops, in an identical effort to Ulta’s stateside experiment. The model is encouraging choose and combine type samplings to introduce customers to new manufacturers, so customers don’t should decide to full measurement merchandise and worth factors with out testing flavors and efficacy first.  

Mintel information exhibits that UK Thrivers demand myriad advantages from their diets – together with strengthening immunity (49%), enhancing temper (44%) and sustaining wholesome mind operate (43%). Boots is increasing their wellness assortment and coaching employees to assist customers discover the appropriate product for his or her desired wellness outcomes.   

Taken collectively, these examples present how retailers are utilizing cross-category merchandising and experience-led advertising and marketing to faucet into shoppers’ rising demand for services that improve their well being and wellbeing. Profitable on this house requires beginning with shoppers’ wellness outcomes and understanding how your model can allow or increase their routines.  

These examples illustrate among the key success levers Mintel expects to see from main wellness retailers: 

As wellness turns into a core retail development technique, manufacturers want a clearer view of how shoppers construct routines throughout classes. Discover Mintel’s Wellness Platform, serving to manufacturers to identify development alternatives and form smarter retail methods.