Trend tracker: Bestsellers on JD, vitamins sales in Indo, and more
Quality, ingredient list and assurance seal most important to Chinese consumers - USP
The top three purchase criteria for dietary supplements among Chinese consumers RE product quality (79%), ingredient list (60%) and quality assurance seal (53%), according to data from the United States Pharmacopeia (USP).
China’s increasing middle-class and health-conscious population coupled with its rising ageing population have led to a growing demand for dietary supplements. Daxue Consulting projects the vitamins and dietary supplement market in China to reach RMB168bn (US$22bn) this year.
However, in a country that has experienced significant food adulteration issues, it is not surprising that the safety and effectiveness of supplements were important to Chinese consumers.
WATCH: E-commerce in China: FSMPs, probiotics and infant nutrition fastest-growing categories - JD.com
Foods for Special Medical Purposes (FSMPs), probiotics and infant nutrition are among the fast-rising categories in China’s e-commerce space, according to two sector specialists featured in our latest Nutrition Asia video series.
These products are rapidly gaining sales alongside more established supplements for bone health and general vitamins, minerals supplements, China’s e-commerce giant JD.com and Onion Global, a budding player from Guangzhou which runs the e-commerce platform Omall, have revealed.
Yang Ye, general manager of health supplements at JD Health said probiotics, infant nutrition, and even FSMPs were seeing quick growth.
Sales triple: Indonesia's start-up YOU says consumer understanding of vitamins’ benefits surging
Indonesia’s gummy supplement start-up, YOU, said sales of its adults’ and kids’ multivitamins have nearly tripled amid the COVID-19 outbreak, as more recognise vitamins as a means of preventive healthcare.
The five-year-old firm sells its supplements branded YOUVIT across 17,000 stores, including Guardian, Watsons, supermarkets, and convenience stores across six major Indonesian cities.
Backed by venture capital DSG Consumer Partners, the firm specialises in gummy supplements, and it has developed multivitamins, omega 3, and nutricosmetics with a US research lab.
Breaking barriers: Firms say more consumers outside China willing to try TCM amid COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a greater willingness to try out traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in regions outside of China, some of the sector’s major players have told us.
For China direct-selling firm Infinitus, queries relating to TCM supplements in Canada have increased by 50%.
“We have been in Canada for the past three years and we used to have a lot of difficulties explaining the concept of ‘qi’, the ‘yin’ and the ‘yang’,” Felix Young, the firm’s senior manager of new market development (II) told NutraIngredients-Asia.
New market potential: Huge growth opportunities for infant formula in China’s lower tier cities
A combination of a focus on lower-tier markets and innovative marketing strategies can substantially grow sales of maternal and infant nutrition products, according to Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com.
JD highlighted its thinking during its annual strategy conference, where market research firm Nielsen presented the latest trends in the category.
It said the growth of online channels was outpacing that of offline channels. From 2018 to 2019, the penetration rate of online channels rose 12%, followed by supermarkets and department stores which grew 5% and 4% respectively.
