Unlocking the Supplement Boom: The Fastest-Growing Categories and Benefits You Need to Know

Hello Forecasters,

Welcome back to the Inflection Point.

This week, we’re giving you the lay of the land on supplements.

What categories are growing the fastest?
What benefits are driving consumer purchases?
Where will the innovations in the space come from?

TLDR;

‘Men’s Health’ is the fastest-growing supplement benefit category.
‘Magnesium Supplements’ are being used to address a wide range of health concerns, but why?
‘Chia Seeds,’ ‘Riboflavin,’ Whey Protein,’ and ‘Creatine’ are some of the fastest-growing supplement ingredients.

Ready for a data deep dive?

Let's get into it.

NWO.ai clients have one thing in common: they want to make data-driven decisions.

Here’s a look at how we help them narrow down their focus for R&D and marketing. While this article explores supplements, it's worth noting that the same data methodology can be used across industries.

1) Macro Categories

‘Supplements’ is a big category, so first we break it down.

The guiding question: Which supplement category has the highest consumer interest?*

*Remember that NWO.ai calculates consumer interest by seeing how much a signal has grown over time and across data sources (science, patents, news, social, and more…)

In order, these are the top-ranking supplement categories:

Mineral
Fiber
Fatty Acids
Prebiotic
Amino Acids
Probiotics
Multivitamin
Botanical
Hormone
Herb

Over the past three years, the ‘Mineral Supplements’ category has grown by 3459%

Consumer interest in ‘Fiber’ and ‘Fatty Acid Supplements’ has been on a similar upward trajectory since 2021.

2) Microtrends

Next, we double-click into the what and why.

The guiding question: what types of mineral supplements are people interested in, and why?*

*Remember, one of NWO.ai’s key features is our microtrends section, which compiles lists of associated conversations consumers are having in connection to any topic.

NWO.ai offers custom classifications to hyper-target microtrends to filter for categories like ‘benefits’ and ‘ingredients.’

Using a portfolio, you can rank microtrends by:

News Coverage
3 YR Growth Rate
Scientific Literature
1 YR Future Forecast
Social Conversations

The top 3 fastest growing ‘mineral supplements’ are:

Magnesium
Molybdenum
Copper

The most talked about ‘mineral supplements’ on social channels are:

Magnesium
Zinc
Iron

The ‘mineral supplements’ driving scientific conversations are:

Selenium
Iodine
Manganese

The microtrend benefits areas that ranked highest for ‘mineral supplements’ are:

Bone Health
Thyroid Function
Cell Metabolism
Hair Grown
Immune Function
Vitality
Inflammation
Antioxidants
Heart Heart
Energy Production
Joints
Digestion

3) Subcategories

Any microtrend can be double-clicked into a full signal report.

Guiding question: why are consumers taking ‘magnesium supplements’?

The benefits areas that have the largest volume of conversation are:

Sleep
Stress
Inflammation
Constipation
Anxiety
PMS
Endurance

The NWO.ai narrative breakdown offers a snapshot of where people discover and discuss their use.

Using a portfolio, we can track the fastest-growing magnesium supplement brands:

Pure
Thorne
Nature Made
Trace Minerals
Natures Bounty
BioOptimizers

Using different data filters, we can see that Nature Made is projected to grow the most within the following year. At the same time, the Natural Vitality brand is the magnesium supplement most discussed across social channels.

Diving deeper, you could create a portfolio ranking the types of magnesium supplements consumers take, such as pills, powders, and gummies.

4) Summarizing Data Insights

Each circle on a signal report represents an ‘Inflection Point’ – a point in time when consumer conversation rapidly increases.

NWO.ai summarizes data sources to provide a high-level understanding of each Inflection Point.

Remember that you can repeat this process for any of the categories we started with; ‘mineral supplements’ was just the highest-ranking macro category, and ‘magnesium’ was the highest subcategory.

5) Different Lenses

NWO.ai allows you to categorize and rank in whichever way supports your goals.

For example, rather than supplement categories based on type, we could have broken them down by benefits.

In order of 3-year growth rate, the supplement categories consumers are most interested in globally are:

Men’s Health
Mood
Bone
Women’s Health
Eye
Menopause
Joint
Detox
Weight
Prenatal
Inflammation
Hair
Skin
Anti Aging
Allergy
Sleep
Fertility
Brain
Workout
Digestive
Energy
Heart Health

The top 3 categories most discussed on social channels:

Weight
Digestive
Detox

The highest-ranking categories within scientific conversations:

Digestive
Prenatal
Heart Health

The categories most broadcast on news:

Energy
Joint
Sports

Double-clicking into ‘Men’s Health’ as the top-ranking supplement benefit category, we can use the microtrends section to uncover the why and what.

The highest-ranking microtrend benefits for ‘Men’s Health Supplements’ are:

Strength
Cognitive Mood
Sexual Health
Workout
Immunity
Testosterone Booster
Probiotic
Lung Health
Digestion
Joints

The highest ranking ‘Men’s Health Supplements’ ingredients are:

Creatine
Collagen
Saw Palmetto
Magnesium
Arginine
Probiotics
Terrestris
Goat Weed
Maca
Fiber

6) Horizon Scouting & Opportunity Zones

Now that we understand what’s trending in supplements globally, we can reverse-engineer consumer concerns to illuminate potential R&D.

Over the past three years, the health concerns consumers are most discussing are:

Gut Issues
Joint Pain
Hair Loss
Hormonal Imbalances
Insulin Resistance
Weight Gain
PCOS
Constipation
Irritable Bowel

Interestingly, magnesium supplements are being studied to support gut issues, joint pain, and hair loss.

When toggling on the list view for 1-year forecast, the top 3 concern areas are:

Diabetes
Stress
Joint Pain

Magnesium supplementation supports all of these, making it a safe bet for R&D exploration and horizon scouting.

All right, that’s all we have today.

Thanks for spending time with us on this week’s Inflection Point.

We’ll see you next time.