American consumers are increasingly using personalized subscription services for clothing, beauty products, and meal kits—plus vitamins and nutritional supplements. In a category worth more than $10 billion—with as much as 75% of the population regularly consuming supplements—the sheer number of available products and brands can be confusing. That’s why personalization makes sense, as it helps consumers navigate a somewhat perplexing category.
Companies like Persona Nutrition, Curos, Vitamin Lab, and Care/of offer personalized supplements to consumers, taking health assessments into account. Some will take results of DNA tests that consumers may have previously done for heritage and ancestry services, combined with a health questionnaire on lifestyle, diet, activity levels, health issues, and health goals, to make suggestions on which supplements are best for that person. Some of these companies also review the suggested supplements against prescription drugs the consumer is taking to check for possible interactions. After a consumer signs up for the service, there is ongoing support, sometimes with access to registered dieticians to adjust the supplements being taken as a person’s health changes. Prices vary but tend to run from $30-$80 per month, depending on how many supplements are suggested. The products are delivered directly to the consumer’s home.
Persona Nutrition offers 90 different vitamins and supplements and makes recommendations to interested consumers free of charge. The company notes that there are over 5 trillion possible combinations of supplements that it can make using those 90 supplements. Persona Nutrition also has a database of over 1,000 prescription medications and checks for possible interactions with supplements. The company boasts that its staff is comprised of five physicians, three registered dieticians, eight nutritionists, and a PharmD to offer quality ingredients and customized solutions for consumers that are backed by science.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, nutritional supplement sales have grown at unprecedented levels, largely driven by vitamins, minerals, and herbal products thought to help boost immunity. Personalized vitamin companies are capitalizing on this—the Care/of website notes that its personalized supplements are geared toward caring for immunity. Curos uses patented artificial intelligence technology called Nutri-Therapy to help consumers take control of their health by understanding the data driving it. The service uses existing DNA test results (or sends a saliva swab DNA test to be done at home and mailed back if the consumer doesn’t have an existing DNA test), asks for a health questionnaire, and then runs those results through the Nutri-Therapy AI software, which analyzes over 600,000 genetic markers. This produces a “Biological Health Score,” a full health report, and a “Health GPA” score that suggests which vitamins and supplements a person should take. Care/of promises a commitment to honesty, quality, and sustainability on its website and offers consumers a quiz to personalize its supplement offerings in letter vitamins, minerals, herbs, probiotics, and specialty supplements along with protein, collagen, electrolyte, and superberry powders.
Vitamin Lab offers customized supplements that are gluten-friendly and free of harmful additives. The company partners with genetic insight providers, blood testing labs, wellness report providers, and healthcare professionals for a unique health experience for patients and stable, recurring revenue for health professionals.
Personalized vitamins are one of many trends that are covered in Kline’s new study, Nutritional Supplements Market in the United States, to be published this summer. It includes a full analysis of vitamins, herbals, and specialty supplements, plus expected impacts of COVID-19 and another recession on these categories. For more information, contact us.
