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The trillion-dollar wellness industry has shifted from ice baths, green juices and meditation to wellness tracking and biometric monitoring. Now, consumers require their wellness routines to be supported by science and data. What does that mean for the future of beauty?
As biomonitoring technology evolves and consumers take greater control of their health and beauty needs, skincare brands — as well as wellness and supplement specialists — could use the data to hyper-personalise their ranges to better answer individual customer needs and strengthen existing algorithms. However, experts warn that wellness tracking is still a nascent field, and there are some concerns about the implications of creating a culture of obsessive health monitoring — as well as how to keep customers’ data safe.
The obsession with all things wellness gained speed during the Covid pandemic, as people in lockdown turned to home remedies and exercise regimes. Today, 82 per cent of US consumers and 73 per cent of UK consumers consider wellness a top or important priority in their everyday lives, according to McKinsey’s Future of Wellness survey (rising to 87 per cent in China). Shifts in attitudes to wellness are also behind the swift rise in popularity of products that promise to improve your sleep.
In a relatively short space of time, wellness tracking devices have evolved from tracking steps and calories to capturing anything from sleep quality, glucose levels, blood and oxygen saturation, to heart monitoring, stress, exercise, menstrual health and fertility. Brands in the space — such as Apple, Oura, Whoop, Garmin, Zoe and Flo — can provide consumers with real-time data tracking and analysis. Thanks in large part to social media, wearables like the Oura ring (and recently launched Samsung Galaxy smart ring), which tracks sleep and physical activity, have become status symbols.
“Trackable technology empowers individuals to take control of their wellbeing like never before, providing individuals with personalised, real-time feedback on their health insights. While you typically see your doctor once per year, the around-the-clock tracking provides valuable patterns in health, aiding individuals in developing their long-term wellness,” says Holly Shelton, Oura’s chief product officer.
Increasingly, wellness trackers also offer help with translating the results into action. “Brands are pushing wearables beyond their association with sport and fitness trackers and positioning them as essential health companions,” says Emilia Morano-Williams, senior trends editor, consumer attitudes and technology at trend forecasting agency Stylus. “Whoop now offers a generative AI coach to help people make sense of their health data, and Google’s Pixel Watch will even provide breathing exercises if it notices signs of stress through an increase in skin temperature and heart rate.”
The beauty opportunity
Wellness tracking has the potential to overhaul the beauty landscape as consumers adapt their behaviours to optimise their health and by extension their appearance. Skincare, wellness and supplement brands have found it difficult to scale this level of personalisation successfully, the Vogue Business Beauty Index shows. Many brands currently rely on online quizzes and algorithms to offer a semi-personalised marketing experience for the consumer — wellness tracking could take this to another level.
“Skincare and beauty are bound to change with tracking. Skincare will be based on findings from the menstrual cycle, the gut and skin microbiome and sleeping habits,” explains Dr Neil Paulvin, who specialises in longevity and regenerative medicine. “If people have a poor night’s sleep they may choose a specialised skincare product formulated with anti-inflammatory properties to treat and soothe the inflammation,” he adds as an example.
Dr Alex Box, a beauty tech expert, futurist and CEO of virtual cosmetics software company V-Metics, expects that, within the next five years, bioanalysis will be taken from the gut microbiome (a complex network of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other particles that impact how our skin looks and feels) to create personalised skincare and supplement products. “It will be essential to live-track your microbiome, and wearable devices will end up being the connection between the internal and external biomes,” she predicts. “What is coming will be interdisciplinary tracking — as opposed to isolated data — that provides a holistic understanding of our bodies as a complete organism.” Box believes this will unify the skincare and wellness market. “Skincare will join the dots between sleep, immunity and ageing, and many new trackers supporting circadian rhythms and neurostimulation will enter the market.”
A few brands have already experimented in this area — for example, buzzy Swedish skincare brand Foreo partnered with Apple Watch in 2023, offering product recommendations and skincare advice in line with its data. But it is still a largely untapped opportunity.
Why brands should take a holistic approach
As wellness tracking technology advances, concerns are emerging about the impact on people’s mental health or the risk that people will lose touch with their natural intuition. “With the growing need for consumers to showcase their health statistics on social media, a burgeoning health ‘value’ system is emerging,” says Box. She warns that, as publishing health and wellness statistics becomes a social norm, it could promote a culture of obsessive monitoring, which could in turn lead to over-exercising or people taking their health into their own hands, rather than consulting medical professionals. “Brands must take a more holistic approach to what evolves from the health data. [They] have to create aftercare and supportive ecosystems to help shape positive behaviours,” Box adds.
Apple recently announced that select smartwatch models will allow users to amend their daily activity goals to account for rest days, illness and injury. “Letting consumers better control how they engage with their wearables will make it easier for new users to integrate the devices into their lives without becoming obsessed,” explains Stylus’s Morano-Williams.
Data privacy and misinformation are other tension points. McKinsey reported that 30 per cent of the consumers it surveyed across China, the UK and US are open to using a wearable device, but only if the data is not shared with third parties. Brands need to put robust data protection laws in place to maintain customer relations; without protection practices, brands risk consumer distrust and declining sales. Meanwhile, McKinsey warns that requiring too much manual data input or sharing overly complicated insights could negatively impact the user experience.
Wellness-tracking brands argue that any risks are outweighed by the control these insights give individuals over their health and fitness. “Trackable technology allows people to truly understand their own body, in real-time in a way we never thought was possible,” says Laura Mahy, VP of product at Zoe. “It allows people to feel empowered to take control of their own health and set themselves up for a long and healthy life.”
What does that mean for beauty’s future? “The industry will continue to become a more personalised experience for consumers. Everyone’s health is personal, so we will see technology evolve as we experiment with how products can provide the most tailored experience possible,” concludes Shelton.
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