As consumers across demographics increasingly seek solutions that support holistic health and overall wellness, we are continuing to track the evolution of the natural products landscape and its impact on BigCos. Before we went to Natural Products Expo West, we went through our previous trend findings on CBD, Healthy Fats, and more, and previewed what we were on the lookout for this year – see below.
Update: If you haven’t yet, check out our findings from Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, and if you’d like to download our official report, please enter your information below.
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We’ve discussed the popularity of CBD and Healthy Fats trends in our 2017 and 2018 Natural Products reports—if you haven’t already, be sure to download the reports—but they have continued to garner consumer interest in the past several months:
- New CBD brands and forms continue to emerge. We love what Dram is doing with their CBD sparkling beverages and adaptogenic drops. Their rebrand brought the brand to more mainstream appeal from their heritage apothecary look, denoting the overall move of CBD from niche to more mainstream.
- The science behind endocannabinoids continues to support this trend, which will help it stick because consumers continue to hear about CBD from not just bloggers and social media influencers, but also their doctors. For example, research is uncovering endocannabinoid deficiency as a factor in myalgic encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which impacts 2 million Americans.
- Healthy Fats are also increasing in consumer conversation and traction, especially driven by the popularity of the keto diet. Nut butters are moving from jars to portable, on-the-go formats, with YumButter and Super Fat offering options with added functional ingredients. Split features almond butter and strawberry spread in one on-the-go, side-by-side tear-off pouch and was borne out of the pain point of needing a tasty, portable, and nutritious option while cycling. Other fat-driven formats like coffee creamers are also getting traction.
New things we’re watching include:
- Popped Water Lily Seeds – they’re grain-free and already have a history in Indian cuisine, but could be an evolution of the popularity of popcorn due to protein content
- Kelp and Seaweed – hailed as a key nutrient-dense food in healing dietary recommendations like the Wahls Protocol but until now haven’t been very accessible and consumers lacked understanding of how to bring them into their normal, daily eating. Brands like Barnacle are integrating kelp and seaweed into familiar formats like salsa, pickles and spices.
- Hard Kombucha – consumers are looking for clean or healthy alcohol alternatives. For years, kombucha companies have struggled with keeping alcohol content in kombucha low and stable to keep it out of the alcohol aisle, which makes this embracing of the alcohol content a smart move in understanding consumer needs. Kombrewcha has been around for several years, but other players are coming to market.
Follow us at Expo West 2019
We’ll be continuing to discuss Natural Products emergences and trends in the lead up to Expo West in March. Here’s a preview of more things we’re tracking in our ongoing scan.
Be sure to sign up below to receive our on the floor live updates on Natural Products and notices about podcasts and webinars where we’ll be discussing the latest trends, along with our detailed report after Expo West.
Update as of March 26: Our report has been released! Please enter your information below to receive the report.
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