What will the wellness industry look like in five years? And when longevity is the new luxury, how will the way we spend our money change? These questions — and more — were the focus of the recent Replica Handbag Store Business Future of Wellness event, in partnership with Front Row, in Los Angeles on March 31.
Leaders from brands including Oura, Ro, Maude, Perelel, Omi, Aman Essentials, Canyon Ranch, and more gathered to make predictions about what the wellness boom means for players in the space, how they can avoid wellness fatigue, and where the next wave will take us.
Here are the highlights from what you missed.
By 2030, the wellness industry will undoubtedly have evolved, with implications for both brands and consumers. This session brought together Kim Chen, general manager of sexual health, dermatology and fertility at Ro; Elizabeth Goodman Artis, chief content officer of Omi Wellbeauty; Éva Goicochea, founder and CEO of Maude; and Victoria Thain Gioia, co-founder and CEO of Perelel, in conversation with Replica Handbag Store Business executive editor Hilary Milnes on what wellness means today, as well as their predictions for what comes next, from the perspectives of the supplements, vitamins, sexual wellness, and GLP-1 brands at which they sit.
A key takeaway was around avoiding wellness fatigue. An overload in daily supplements, regimens, and trackers will only lead to burnout. “People can’t eat 80 gummies a day,” Gioia pointed out, in reference to the number of chewable vitamins and supplements on the market. She sees science-backed nutrition education coming to the fore, with a shift toward simplification, real foods, and more holistic routines that ensure everything is working in tandem. It’s what Artis called “poly-wellness”, a term she uses for the many trends bubbling up in wellness, from collagen to colostrum to the protein craze.
GLP-1s, undeniably, will be one of the biggest sources of sea change in wellness. Ro, a telehealth company that sells a GLP-1 and counts Serena Williams among brand ambassadors, is at the center of this bigger lifestyle shift. Chen flagged that Ro requires consistency for results, which will become a defining marker for wellness moving forward. And even though longevity has now become a buzzword, “The goal around [it] is the same. We want to age and we want to age well.”
What became clear in the discussion is that a life of complete and total optimization isn’t realistic. Chen had peanut M&Ms for lunch at the airport; many of the panelists were working mothers making sacrifices and choices everyday about their health. Goicochea received applause when she advocated for rest and leisure as part of our wellness routines.
“Just stop and take a pause,” she said. “How are you spending your days? Are you enjoying it? That’s the most important thing.”
What can Amazon — the biggest retailer in the world — tell us about the wellness industry? The transactions via the marketplace offer a bevy of data that can clue us into consumer trends, questions, and spikes in popularity for the products and ingredients that brands should be minding. That’s what Front Row’s SVP of brand strategy Rina Yashayeva and Flavcity’s CMO Erin Dwyer discussed with Replica Handbag Store Business features director Lucy Maguire.
Amazon searches have moved beyond basic product queries to involve more research, said Yashayeva, and this especially applies to new ingredients in supplements and skincare that the consumer is trying to make sense of in their routine. NAD+, ashwagandha, and collagen are all popular search terms in the space, and the consumer spends roughly 14 days researching a product or ingredient before purchasing. According to Front Row research, only 10% of Amazon searches are branded, meaning customers searching for the product they want, without knowing who exactly they want it from.
Knowing this, brands should be investing more in content and education where people are searching — often Amazon — so that when the time comes to make a purchase, the customer feels empowered to do so, with the brand’s information matching their own research. Each touchpoint in the 14-day consumer journey — from ChatGPT searches and product review scans, to conversations with friends and deep dives on social media — are part of what Yashayeva referred to as connected commerce. From Dwyer’s point of view, a hands-on approach across these touchpoints is key to building brand trust today.
Research shows that in the past several years, particularly during the luxury slowdown, luxury consumers have shifted spend toward wellness and travel, often combining the two. With this in mind, we took a deep dive into the world of wellness tourism to understand what customers want from these experiences and what brands should know about the destinations, treatments, and more taking place behind the closed doors of the world’s most exclusive mindfulness trips and resorts.
For this discussion, Dr. Poonam Desai, founder of Her Longevity; Kristina Romanova, CEO of Aman Essentials; Lauren Pronger, founder and president of Well Inspired Travels; and Mark Rivers, CEO of Canyon Ranch, joined Hilary to speak about the opportunities in wellness travel. “The average consumer is so focused on their wealth, which is now their health,” said Dr. Desai, whose firm connects clients to medical facilities all over the world. Pronger, who launched her own wellness travel agency in 2017, said clients are focusing more on how they feel, both during and after a trip. Canyon Ranch, a wellness resort founded in 1979, has gone deeper on experiences as demand continues to grow, “especially at the higher end consumer strata”, said Rivers, describings a customer that’s more educated and discerning than in years past.
Part of the rise has to do with awareness. With fitness trackers, people are paying closer attention to their biometrics and sleep scores, replacing vacations centered around partying and alcohol with meditations and exercise as a result. These wellness travelers are also consumers, and they want to find out how they can extend certain parts of their trip after the fact. That led Aman Resorts to launch Aman Essentials, its line of skincare and lifestyle products. “This consumer wants strong outcomes that they can see proof of,” Romanova said. “It isn’t just wellness or longevity, but the ultimate human endeavor.”
Information is powerful in the wellness sphere, and at the center of that is Oura, the wellness tracker that brought biometric data to a discreet wearable in the form of a metal ring. In our keynote conversation, chief commercial officer Dorothy Kilroy sat down with Lucy to discuss where Oura goes from here, nearly 10 years after its launch.
“We bet big on sleep,” Kilroy said of Oura’s origins, which changed the focal point of wellness trackers from steps per day to sleep scores and physiology. To date, 5.5 million people have purchased an Oura, while Gen Z women is the brand’s fastest-growing consumer cohort.
The “consumerization of healthcare” has become one of Oura’s North Stars, as people don’t want to wait until their next doctor’s appointments, or until something is wrong, to have conversations about their health. This is a particularly fruitful opportunity for women’s health, Kilroy said, which has lacked in both education and awareness. Fertility and perimenopause are two areas where the Oura ring can be of service, he added.
From here, Kilroy sees further emphasis not just on data collectsion, but on understanding the data we have in a palatable way. The CMO also sees an opportunity that extends beyond monitoring physical health to incorporate mental health capabilities into a single wearable like Oura. Trust is important for these topics, as Oura’s future relies on consumers trusting the device with their data. The next defining trend for the brand, Kilroy explained, will be around more accessible healthcare and advocacy based on what we learn from our wearables. “I think this is probably going to be one of the most interesting trends in our lifetime, where we will no longer have to wait to go to a doctor’s office. I think we will be carrying around a doctor with us at all times,” Kilroy said.
Designed by Kelly Wearstler, Proper Hotels span two distinct Los Angeles properties in Santa Monica and Downtown, united by a commitment to design, culture, and community. Proper Presents brings that ethos to life through live music, culinary events, and cultural programming across both locations. Santa Monica Proper has emerged as one of the city’s most innovative wellness destinations, with the ayurvedic Surya Spa, Recovery Rooms, and Proper Club, a membership that gives locals a lounge, full gym access, and a community that makes wellness feel personal, not performative.
