Many of us make some sort of a new year goal, some may call it a new year resolution. Whether we stick to these resolutions or not is a different story. But we do decide on doing something different, better in the upcoming year.
One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to stay healthy. A significant majority of people resolve to adopt a healthier lifestyle as they move into the new year, all motivated to be in a better state of health by the end.
Knowing this, a question popped into our minds.
If a higher group of relevant consumers create a goal to stay healthy, how can simplifying the shopping journey impact the brand and consumers?
Intrigued by this question, Team Accrue decided to dive into data. And the information we have come up with is something you don’t want to miss.
New Years and Opportunities for Health and Wellness Brands
The plan to live healthier is usually one of the top New Year’s resolutions. Besides exercising, one key area customers are now looking towards is self health.
The pandemic has taught people the importance of immunity. We will talk more about this in a bit. But for now, know that consumers are more driven towards purchasing immunity-boosting supplements, including Vitamin B, Vitamin C, and Zinc.
So, are brands selling these supplements more likely to bag big sales during the first few weeks of the year ? Yes.
And we’re not just saying that. We have data to back it up.
Below is the search volume graph for keywords related to Vitamins B&C and Zinc from the last year, 2022.
If you look closely, you can see how the graph peaks during the first few weeks of January before declining steadily, rising again only occasionally throughout the Year.
The graphs make it clear. Consumers were actively searching for immunity supplements at the start of the new year 2022. This supplements included segments like Vitamin D Drops, Vitamin D Gummies, Vitamin D3, Zinc, Zinc Supplements, Vitamin C, etc.
But these results are from 2022 when people. How do we know the trend will continue through 2023?
We dove deeper into data to see if we could find a trend from the last few years that could help us predict where things might go in 2023. And the results we found helped us reach only one conclusion: customers’ interest in immunity-boosting supplements is expected to go higher.
Check out the search volume for the same supplements in 2019. We can see how keywords related to Vitamin B, C, and Zinc got very few searches, even in the first few weeks of January.
This was before the coronavirus when we rarely thought about immunity.
In March 2020, the coronavirus became an official pandemic and changed everything we were accustomed to.
People rushed towards buying products that no one ever imagined would see such high demand. Among these products were immunity-boosting supplements.
Check out how the search volumes surged in March 2020 for the exact keywords that barely had any searches in 2019:
Searches for Vitamin C – an essential immunity-boosting supplement – went from a few hundred thousand in 2019 to over a million in March 2020.
Just as the pandemic introduced a new normal in almost all aspects of our lives, it changed how consumers perceived immunity, health, and wellness.
The supplements industry has been thriving since the pandemic. The reason being consumers’ newfound immunity concern and their resolve to stay in good health.
A global survey conducted in August 2021 reported that consumer interest in immune health support has increased since the start of the pandemic. We came across similar results as we analyzed the search volume for immunity-boosting supplements at the start of 2021, less than a year after the pandemic.
We can see how the searches for Vitamins B&C and Zinc peaked in January – a clear indication that immune health had now become a part of consumers’ New Year’s resolutions.
This shows how even after the pandemic had waned, consumers were still keen on investing in immune health. Interestingly, the rise in searches for immunity-boosting supplements remained concentrated in the first few weeks of January 2022.
Our data implies that almost 20-30% of a health and wellness brand’s yearly sales and engagements may be concentrated within January and the first few weeks of February.
If your brand thrives on selling these supplements, optimizing your store and tailoring your advertising campaigns to appear for these search terms could promise immense traffic and sales during the first few weeks of the new year.
How Can Brands Leverage This Opportunity?
Given that most of their engagement opportunities appear in January and February, we think it is an excellent opportunity for health and wellness brands to go out of their way to drive brand and product visibility this time of the year.
Here’s how you can do that:
Make Your Brand More Discoverable
While investing in Amazon SEO would be a great idea, you must keep in mind the seasonality of demand.
Searches peak in January, mostly. So, you have to develop strategies to ensure your brand is visible during this time.
SEO is more of a long-term approach. Advertising can be your best bet to drive brand and product visibility on Amazon.
Amazon offers a wide range of advertising products. You can run Sponsored Product ads to reach people who are already actively searching to make a purchase in the category, invest in Sponsored Brand ads to build brand consideration, and go for Sponsored Display to reach an interested audience through creative banner ads on and off Amazon.
Sponsored Products
A Sponsored Brand Ad.
Ideally, you should consider investing in diverse ad products. An intelligent mix of these ad types may help drive the best results.
Drive More Engagement with Attractive Ad Creatives
Visibility is only half the battle as you aim to win some of those new year’s sales. The other half is getting some clicks on your ads. And clicks come through exceptional ad creatives.
While you may be limited in your creative capacity when building a Sponsored Products campaign, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display may help you unleash your creative side and build eye-catching ads that can generate some helpful clicks.
Amazon allows advertisers to create Sponsored Brand video ads, and those who used this ad type saw a 108% increase in CTR compared to those who only used Sponsored Brand product collection format.
So, consider creating attractive, descriptive, engaging videos for your brand. You can use Amazon’s new video creative builder to create these video ads easily.
Optimize Your Listing
Attractive ad creatives will help you generate clicks. But these clicks will only convert into sales when your product listings are optimized.
Due to the seasonal nature of your products, ensure the product listing is optimized to the nines as you run ads for those supplements during New Year.
Besides ensuring the product description is formatted well and includes all the critical details, consider including A+ content within your listing. This content type is said to maximize conversions. In fact, Amazon claims that using A+ content on your detail page while advertising with Sponsored Products can help generate up to 93x more unit sales.
Create More Touch Points
The purpose of marketing is not to make instant sales. The goal is to make sure your brand comes to the customer’s mind when they are ready to purchase.
As an advertiser, you can make sure this happens by creating more touch points through their shopping journey.
On Amazon, this can be done by running Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display campaigns simultaneously so you can target your audience on and off Amazon and maximize your interactions.
Conclusion
Most people resolve to developing a healthier lifestyle as they get closer to the new year. Since the pandemic, this trend has shifted slightly as consumers are now interested in immune health-related products and search for them during new years. This is reflected in a sharp, consolidated rise in the search for immunity-boosting supplements during January and February.
The demand for immunity-boosting supplements like Vitamin B, C, and Zinc may rise in the first few weeks of the New Year. Therefore, brands selling these products may have to prepare accordingly if they wish to capitalize on these seasonal opportunities.
Need to discuss your Amazon strategy? Talk to our ecommerce strategist today.