We are spending more on our health and our wellbeing than ever before. In days gone by we measured our wellbeing by the state of our health, indulging ourselves by visiting a spa, a health retreat and taking our daily dose of multi vitamins.
Today the global wellness industry is growing at a phenomenal rate, of 10% per annum, and will continue to do so up until 2025. Globally it is valued at $5.3 trillion in 2023, whilst in the UK the size of the market is £30.6 billion in 2023. There are so many more facets to the industry – from personal care to beauty and ageing, healthy eating and nutrition, wellness tourism, fitness, mind and body, preventative medicine, traditional medicine, and the wellness real estate.
There are a plethora of trends driving growth across each of these sectors. Gym classes have soared in popularity, as have running events like the London Marathon – app Strava saw an 122% increase in users completing marathons last year. Sea moss has been trending on TikTok, menopause and collagen continues to increase in popularity, too, taking the top spot as Holland & Barrett’s most searched term of the year, with sales increasing by 59%.
Trends Driving Growth in 2023
If you are looking to build a brand in the beauty space, wellness is the sector to invest in. Over the coming months we are dipping into the wellness industry to share more; today we explore lifestyle trends.
Leisure Travel for Wellness
Let us start with travel. After pressing intermission on travel commitments, many of us have vowed to take wellness-driven expeditions to recharge our mental, spiritual, and physical well-being. We are pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones and selecting far flung destinations that not only help us to unplug from our work life routines, but also help us to mentally pause and reflect; we are consciously choosing to slow down and value what matters most.
More of us are taking off on journeys that are off-the-beaten-path: Mexico for traditional Mayan ceremonies, Peru to visit Shamans and for those of us travelling solo, Bali, and India to partake in meditation or spiritual life practices like yoga.
Sound Therapy
Is an ancient healing practice that has been used for centuries across different cultures to destress and relax. Playing low-frequency sounds, which have been linked to brain relaxation (higher frequencies are thought to encourage focus).
Now more than ever, Brits are looking for ways to relax and switch off from everyday life, with searches for music therapy gradually on the rise. Studios are taking this into account too, with David Lloyd Clubs recently launching what they’re calling the UK’s first soundwave therapy class, “Binaural Beats.” Taking place in specially designed meditation rooms, participants have the option to choose from several playlists using different frequencies depending on whether they’re feeling anxious, tired, or fatigued.
Mindful Drinking
We’ve already seen a big shift in attitudes towards drinking alcohol over the past few years, with the number of people going teetotal on the rise and 2020 stats revealed that a quarter of the UK doesn’t drink. Trending TikTok hashtags “damp lifestyle” and “sober curious” – both of which have millions of posts detailing how to enjoy alcohol more mindfully – prove that millennials and Gen Zs are moving away from the previous binge drinking norm. Dry January has continued to boom this year, with restaurants, pubs and bars going out of their way to offer alcohol-free alternatives.
Sexual Health
Our longing for connection has meant we readily seek out advice, tools, and resources to embrace intimacy. Sex toys have become more mainstream and are now seen as a wellness product. Smile Makers is a brand that is on a mission to make women’s’ sexuality a daily part of their over wellbeing through introducing new products which are also personalised. Attitudes towards sex are gradually shifting, too, with more embracing sex as a form of wellness and a sure-fire way to increase both your health and mood.
Wellness is a balance between daily habits that have an impact on not only how we look but how we feel, as well as our quality of life. Not only are we as consumers investing in the future of our health by accessing our daily habits, and what makes us happy as well as the state of our sleep and our mental wellbeing, but corporate institutions are investing in the health and wellbeing of their employees, and hotel groups have taken into serious consideration how to build their hotels for the future – from opening up yoga and Pilate studios to introducing meditation and sleep apps into hotel rooms, to recruiting top-notch chefs and dietitians to ensure the best quality and most nutritious foods are a focal point on their menus. It has been fascinating watching how this has changed over the past few years; this is an interesting sector to invest in. We will be sharing more on this over the coming months.
Working with Bespoke Advantage
Bespoke Advantage is a London based international beauty brand consultancy. We are a team of experts, associates and business partners specialising in supporting our clients – award-winning entrepreneurs, well established beauty and wellness businesses, retailers, investors, trade bodies and embassies – in developing and growing their brands across the beauty and wellness marketplace. If you are looking to launch a beauty or wellness brand or you are looking for support in expanding your brand across markets, GET IN TOUCH.
