Top-Selling Supplement Retailers in 2016

Photo © iStockphoto.com/ilyast

Earlier this week, Nutritional Outlook posted an article exploring the top-selling nutritional brands of 2016. Now it’s time for a companion piece on the top-selling retailers of nutritional products in the past year, also courtesy of data shared by Robert Sanders, executive vice president and practice leader for market researcher Information Resources Inc. (IRI), at the Council for Responsible Nutrition’s (CRN; Washington, DC) The Conference.

Overall, growth of nutritional supplements well outpaced total store growth in the last year¹, with 5.8% year-over-year growth to reach a market total of $16 billion. Total store growth, meanwhile, sat at just 1.2% and amounted to a total market size of $757 billion-indicating nutritional supplement sales grew at about 5 times the rate of total store sales in the last year, Sanders noted.

A closer look at retail channels reveals the biggest year-over-year dollar growth for club stores (10.3%), Walmart (7.3%), grocery stores (6.9%), and drug stores (5.5%), according to IRI. Walmart and grocery stores each had about 21% of the total supplements market, followed by club stores with 19% and drug stores with 17%. Less promising growth figures for supplement sales fell to specialty stores, Target, and dollar stores, which saw sales fall in the last year by -1.4%, -1.3%, and -8%, respectively.

Here are the five highest-selling retailers over the past year:

1.     Walmart ($3.7 billion in total sales)

2.     Costco ($1.8 billion in total sales)

3.     Walgreens ($1.2 billion in total sales)

4.     Sam’s Club ($1.1 billion in total sales)

5.     CVS ($1.1 billion in total sales)

Aside from overall market share, the retailers that saw the greatest percent increases to their supplement sales in the past year were H-E-B (17.7%), Sam’s Club (13%), Meijer (13%), Costco (9.3%), and Kroger (8.6%).

Sanders pointed out that while Walmart still leads the pack in terms of supplement sales, the new IRI sales figures speak to the especially strong performance of the club category in general right now.

Read more:

Top-Selling Nutritional Brands of 2016

SPINS, IRI Dive Deeper into Consumer Behavior in Natural Channel

Energy Is Number-Two Priority Among Supplement Users, 2016 CRN Survey Suggests

Michael Crane
Associate Editor
Nutritional Outlook Magazine
michael.crane@ubm.com