Immune health supplements on Amazon: Tracking elderberry, zinc, vitamins C and D

The “Immunity Supplement” category saw tremendous growth on Amazon over the last two years, posting an astonishing 165% growth rate from 2019 to 2020 to reach US$623 million in 2020 revenue. This was in large part due to the pandemic.

Immune support supplements saw a very sharp increase during the initial months of the pandemic, followed by a sharp correction, and then leveling off in the summer months. This is in line with the usual performance of immune-related products—which are quite seasonal, declining in the summer months. However, since the correction, the category as a whole bounced back, and after a low point in August 2020, has seen month-over-month increases every month since. The category revenue for December 2020 was more than 2.5 times that of December 2019.

The supplement with the highest market share among immune health supplements was vitamin C, which saw 155% growth in the same period. Zinc, on the other hand, had the lowest market share at 11.5%, but this was more than double its market share in 2019, which was only 5.6%. This represents an incredible 442% growth year over year.

As the category with the most growth by far among immune-related supplements, zinc offered some interesting analytics. The top 30 brands in the category accounted for 75% of the category’s revenue. Of these 30, nine of them had no sales in the zinc category in 2019. When it came to delivery methods within zinc, tablets overtook capsules as the top delivery method based on 2020 revenue. The third-ranked delivery method in 2020 was liquid, which saw growth of seven times year over year from 2019 to 2020.

Amazon top 5 immune supplements

Looking at delivery methods among immune-boosting supplements as a whole, capsules remained the top-selling delivery method; however, their growth was overshadowed by that of gummies and tablets, which saw 206% and 212% growth year over year, respectively.

In 2020, the top 10 brands saw their market share diminish slightly within the immune supplements category. The top 10 brands went from over 42% market share to just below 41% market share. The distribution of revenue within the category stayed relatively steady, with 38 brands having more than half a percent in market share (compared to 40 in 2019).

In terms of top products, a marked increase occurred in the number of high-selling products from 2019 to 2020. In 2019, only 36 products had more than $1 million in annual sales—in 2020, that number spiked to 132.

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This article was originally shared in Natural Products Insider’s January 2021 Digital Magazine. Download the complete magazine here.

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