The wellness market is booming, currently valued at £1.3 trillion, with a 5-10% annual growth rate. Since 2020’s remote working lifestyle, mental wellbeing has been pushed up the agenda. Now it seems everyone is talking about mental health and people intend to keep spending on products that improve their health, appearance, fitness, nutrition, sleep and mindfulness. There’s also a renewed focus on mental health and wellbeing in the workplace as a priority for businesses.
But what’s next for the £1.3 trillion industry?
At Magnetic, we’ve been working with industry leaders in the health and wellbeing sector. We recently helped an exciting startup to better understand its audience and identify opportunity areas for developing a new digital product. Through these collaborations, we’ve been keeping a close eye on emerging trends and areas of interest in the mental health and wellbeing space. Here are three trends you should know about.
Trend 1: personalisation over data privacy
Consumers are willing to trade a bit of privacy and data for a more personalised approach to their health. Data-driven personalisation has already taken over nearly every part of our lives, from how we make decisions on what to have for dinner to the latest beauty must-haves and what to read.
Data-driven decision-making is already common in the wellness industries, and brands are evolving products and services to cater to the health-conscious consumer. In the food sector we’re seeing more awareness of ingredients, with brands cutting harmful ingredients like salt and sugar from their products. The use of tracking and wearable technology has increased year on year. Products like Apple Watch, Fitbit, Strava, Moodflow and similar apps allow people to track nutrition, physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
FemTech, a sub-sector of health tracking, has been a growing area of interest and has grown alongside the broader health tech space. FemTech apps include:
- Mood and hormone cycle trackers, such as Moody Month
- Breastfeeding tool Elvie
- Virtual fertility clinic Apricity
- Ovulation and fertility tracker Glow
- Mindset app Clementine
- Digital health product for menopause and perimenopause, Balance
- A product and community app, educating users on environmental impact of tampon and pad usage, The Period Company
We are proud to have worked with the team behind Balance, which has just turned two years old. In that time the app has reached more than a million people across 216 countries. We worked with the Balance team to envision, design and deliver a digital health product for hundreds of thousands of women and non-binary people around the world, helping them to make the right decisions about what’s right for their bodies during perimenopause and menopause.
These new wellness businesses are fast creating a huge sub-sector of the tech industry, with personalised and tailored product and services at the centre.
This sub-sector is particularly progressive, going beyond traditional in-app experiences, and proactively encouraging conversations between people of similar experiences, helping to eradicate stigma and taboo topics. They are directly serving women and non-binary people’s traditionally neglected needs. The global FemTech market is expected to reach $10.1 billion by 2028, so they're increasingly grabbing the attention of investors.
Trend 2: wellness and make it alternative
Health and wellness is highly individual. We’re noticing diversity of needs, and a curiosity for new solutions becoming a dominant force in the self-care space. This is driving people to look for alternative or non-traditional treatments, as part of what is being called a post-pandemic mental health tsunami.
So what have we noticed?
- Micro-dosing psychedelic drugs. Europe’s first psychedelic drug trials centre is due to open in London soon.
- Apps (such as Minderful) encouraging people to take up new hobbies and experiences such as wild swimming, with a proactive, holistic approach to wellbeing.
- Consumers turning to alternative remedies including CBD drinks to manage anxiety and depression and reduce alcohol dependence (a proven causative factor for poor mental health).
- Personalised vitamin brands such as Nourished or Everly, which claim to directly impact wellness by improving brain and bodily health through tailored supplementation. Nootropics such as Heights (endorsed by Stephen Fry) are designed to increase wellbeing through enhancing cognitive function.
There’s a preference for alternative natural and clean products, not just in the food we eat but also the products we consume.There’s more of a consumer focus on ingredients, sourcing and ethical practices than ever before.
It’s clear there’s space for individual product and service offerings that provide alternative support that consumers are craving. Whether developing a new wellbeing product or service, filling a gap that meets the end customer’s needs (and actually understanding those needs) is always a good idea.
Trend 3: augmented reality by prescription
Gamification is the latest example of how new technology can be applied to remedy consumer curiosity and enable mental wellness management. Videogaming, augmented and virtual reality experiences are at the forefront of medical trials and academic research. Last week The Times reported how doctors are using virtual reality to separate twins joined at the brain.
What if you could step inside a virtual world and feel instantly calmer? A guided meditation by a virtual ocean or a dream-like setting, with games and tasks focused on enhancing your emotional wellbeing? Labelled ‘tech-ceuticals’, these virtual experiences are being used to combat mental health challenges and treat anxiety and stress. Gaming is being prescribed to combat chronic health conditions.
This all sounds incredibly exciting but there's also a counter-trend to consider. Rising concerns about technology use amplifying human disconnection, as well as challenges around industry regulations and data, could threaten or counteract the benefits technology can have on mental wellbeing.
What’s our biggest takeaway?
Knowing your audience and catering to their needs and wants matters most. With the wellness market valued at >£1.3 trillion (70% products and 30% services) and the majority of consumers saying they're looking to spend more on their wellbeing, it's a great time for companies to hone in on understanding their customers.
Mental health and wellbeing needs are personal and subjective, so knowing and catering to your audience is crucial. To better understand customer needs and create hyper relevant and innovative products and services, we always recommend beginning with a focus on gathering direct insights through consumer research.
Magnetic is a design and innovation company that helps design better futures. We’ve worked with global businesses to build capabilities, products, services and transform organisations. If you’d like to find out more about our work, contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
