Five Post-Covid health & wellness trends
1. Retail Services Mainstream Mental Health
Responding to the ‘second pandemic’ (poor mental health caused by lockdowns), American pharmacy brands and supermarket offshoots including Rite Aid, CVS and Walmart have begun offering affordable mental health support, virtually and in-person. Mental health issues rose by 50% globally during Covid (Nature, 2021), indicating the value of such services across all regions.
2. Evolving Online Service Design
Disruptive medi-retail newcomers are upgrading online service design by streamlining lengthy, often bureaucratic procedures. Delegation, automation and specialisation are key, with noteworthy concepts including Folx’s transgender-supportive prescriptions and clever smartphone diagnostics from American DTC brands Skin + Me (dermatology) and 1800 Contacts (optical).
3. Pre-Emptive Powers Evolve Physical Pharmacies & Clinics
Pharmacies and vitamin and supplement brands are ramping up their efforts to support consumers aiming to avoid seeing a doctor for minor conditions – augmenting retail services with consultations as focused on detecting problems and offering pre-emptive healthcare as treating symptoms. From phygital vitamin kiosks to high-tech health ‘scanners’, the best redefine the 'brand as caregiver' role.
4. Tracking Tools: Retailers Turn Service Provider
Catering to the consumer belief that tracking their behaviour actively improves their habits, smart brands are partnering with digital tracker start-ups, transitioning from retailers to relied-upon service providers. From supermarket-ready personalised nutrition to apps with bespoke supplement prescriptions and food deliveries built-in, real-time tracking is giving consumers a crucial sense of control post-Covid.
5. Vanity Upgrades: Medi-Cosmetic Retail for the Zoom Boom
From orthodontics to skincare, ‘tweakments’ (minor cosmetic procedures) have boomed courtesy of consumers spending hours on video calls. US dental studio and retailer Tend is a key example, thanks to its new app allowing consumers visibility of their treatment plans and capacity to choose in-clinic preferences, while Shiseido’s ‘open urban lab’ S/Park foregrounds its clinical know-how.
