When you walk into a store that sells mainly supplements, you’ll see in the sports nutrition corner a large bodybuilder grimacing as he bends and stretches, and a toned athlete who looks like he’s warming up for his second marathon this week. It catches my eye.
But when nutrition business journal When we researched what consumers think about when approaching the sports nutrition category, sports performance was low on the list of health goals.
The findings are included below NBJ’new Sports nutrition and weight management report.
In a survey of 1,074 people who said they purchase sports nutrition products, only 36% said they use sports nutrition products “to improve performance in sports or other physical activities.” . This goal is well below the 56% who cited “general health and nutritional benefits.”
Importantly for natural retailers, all sports-focused marketing and imagery may not be what customers are looking for. N.B.J. tracks natural grocery and supplement stand-alone stores as one combined channel, although these two types of brick-and-mortar stores are often very different. Together, the two are growing significantly slower than e-commerce and mass-market retail, as the stand-alone supplement concept continues to struggle. N.B.J. We expect e-commerce to surpass the market size of natural and specialty retail for the first time this year.
“General health and nutritional benefits” at the top of the list of consumers’ health goals seems particularly appropriate for natural food retailers, and stores that offer educational programs can improve their general health and nutritional benefits. It is better to emphasize the concept of health. That transition already occurs in proteins, but there are other viable crossover candidates. According to SPINS data, creatine has increased by 90% in mass retailers over the last year, suggesting there may be a place for creatine in natural retail as well.
See sports nutrition sales data and insights in our new report. NBJ Sports Nutrition/Weight Management Report.
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