China's Health Supplements Year in Review - Important E-commerce Trends for 2023

China's health food e-commerce market continued to grow strongly in 2022, with sales reaching 83.5 billion, up 34% year-on-year. Probiotics had the largest market share and the highest year-on-year growth rate; the market share of calcium was the second largest, and the largest growth rate following probiotics was vitamin C. The domestic channels accounted for 58%, with the largest proportions coming from JD.com and Tmall, and the largest growth rate coming from Pinduoduo. Local health care brands had significantly outperformed overseas brands and stood firm in the market. 

Up-and-coming brands in the top 10 in 2022 included Nutrend, WonderLab, Lifespace and Esmond Natural. Mainland China was the largest source of sales with 35% of the market share, followed by the US with 19% of the market share. Competition in the market had intensified, with six brands falling out of the Top 20. Domestic hot stores were Ali Health Pharmacy and cross-border stores were Tmall International Import Supermarket. 

In terms of demographics, sales were highest for general and adult orientated products; Gastrointestinal health was the best-selling category; and eye health had the fastest growth. Among the different forms of health products, capsules were the top seller, with pressed candy growing the fastest and the sales of plant capsules coming in second. Slimming and anti-aging were among the top consumer concerns. Overall, competition in China's healthcare e-commerce market intensified in 2022, consumers were less loyal to brands and paid more attention to product quality and effectiveness, and brands should invest more in R&D.

Since 2022, the analyst has been generating monthly reports on the healthcare industry through data analysis from self-developed e-commerce data analysis product DSA every month. This annual report integrates, analyzes and summarizes the data of the past 6 years, aiming to provide a more comprehensive data report to help get a clearer picture of the health care industry dynamics.

• Platform coverage: Taobao, Tmall, JD, Pinduoduo, Douyin, Suning, Kaola, Xiaohongshu etc. 
• Numbering rules: in accordance with the analyst's health care product hierarchy, the first category is nutrition and health care; the second category consists of 24 sub-categories 
• Time Period: Jan. 2018-Dec. 2022