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Vitamin Business is Booming, But Could Supplements Do More Harm Than Good?

Heart Matters

Social media has made lots of things fashionable, and many people are making a killing from conducting business on various online platforms. Thanks to Instagram, the vitamin business has become the in-thing, with companies such as SugarBearHair, Care/of, and Ritual being the biggest beneficiaries.

By reinventing vitamin pills, said organizations have made them appealing to millions of customers, and the more the consumers, the larger the profit margin for them. Everyone knows that Instagram is primarily a photo-sharing app, right? These companies have turned this into an advantage for them, packaging their products in sleek, attractive, and eye-catching material, making them difficult to ignore.

A Multi-billion Market

In just a few years, the vitamin supplements business has grown into a market worth billions of dollars, attracting even the likes of Walmart and other major retailers. Why wouldn’t they be interested, considering that on average, each American spends more than $400 annually on vitamins and other supplements?

While this may be good news for entrepreneurs, medical experts have questioned how the boom in vitamin and supplement consumption affects our health. They are also particularly concerned over the fact that there’s no government oversight on the online sale of these products.

According to Dr. Erin Michos, a professor at Johns Hopkins, vitamin supplements are unnecessary. As he puts it, a healthy, balanced diet does the trick. A Harvard study goes on to paint multivitamins negatively, saying that since they contain vitamins in high doses, taking them regularly can have adverse effects on the body.

Rakuten Intelligence, a market-research company, reports that over the past 12 months, the sale of vitamins via online platforms has shown an increase of more than 40%. This is quite the growth margin, and the firm reports that investors are starting to take note of this seemingly viable business.

Ritual, one of the companies at the heart of this sale has managed to raise at least $41 million in funding since Katerina Schneider established it in 2015. Care/of, a similar company, was founded by Akash Shah and Craig Elbert in 2016. Since then, they’ve received $42 million in funding.

They use Instagram influencers to push their products

SugarBearHair came into being in 2015, thanks to Dan Morris and Nicole Nightly, a Florida couple. The two sell gummies meant to improve sleep, hair growth, and general health. Schneider’s Ritual sells its multivitamins in sparkly, attractive capsules, claiming that given their design, it is impossible to feel nauseated while swallowing them.

Care/of, on the other hand, offers multiple pills to its customers, but they first have to take an already prepared quiz to determine the exact regimen that will be prescribed. With this company, consumers get pills to last them for a month.

$30 Per Month

On average, a monthly supply of pills from most of these companies will have you parting with $30 at the very least. This is quite expensive, especially since you can get vitamins to last you for over two months on Amazon for just $9.

Brooke Lark/unsplash
Dr. Michos says that a balanced diet is enough

This gets you thinking – why do consumers choose the more expensive option? It all comes down to the effectiveness of social media as an advertising platform. These companies have perfected the art of online advertisements, using Instagram models and influencers to push their products.

With most young adults keeping up with these social media celebrities, they deem it fashionable to use products that these individuals endorse. SugaBearHair has the Kardashian-Jenner family as its ambassador, and we all know just how influential these individuals are.

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