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It’s the new year and of course that means we need to take out our crystal ball and share our insights into what will be hot or not in 2019. Our list includes 17 hot/not items (though we thought about going for 19 in ’19—anything we missed that you think should be on this list?). Today, we’re just providing a brief overview of what we see coming; we’ll be doing a deep dive on these topics throughout the year and end the year with a reflection piece on how we did with our predictions.

So, without further ado…The ITC 2019 Hot/Not List:

Some highlights from the list:

You can’t walk 5 feet at an industry tradeshow these days without hearing people discussing transparency. Gone by the wayside are the days of proprietary hidden ingredients and non-disclosure. On that note, consumers are demanding this and want to know the when, where and what behind their products. Transparency is not going away.

Collagen is hot, hot, hot across food, beverage and supplements and that’s no surprise as it provides benefits consumers can feel and has the science to back it up. Also, on the “on fire list” are CBD-containing extracts, especially after the farm bill legislation at the end of the year. Companies that had been sitting on the category fence are now taking a closer look, with a few applying decades of botanical expertise to get it right. Beware of releasing products in this category with substandard ingredients or egregious and unsubstantiated claims.

The “flavor of the month” trend of a few years ago is fading due to the rise of ancient wisdom for new audiences. This includes ingredients with thousand-year histories, finally targeted to dovetail into current consumers and lifestyles. Americans (and really people across the globe) have never been more stressed and are seeking ways to naturally reduce that stress and boost their focus and brain power, but with all the bad press and lack of effectiveness, weight management supplements are seeing a decline.

On the technology side, blockchain is going to have a significant impact on how businesses run from supply chain to contracts, and that’s a good thing for our sector. Amazon entered the blockchain game late last year and we’ll be watching that closely as we do with all Amazon initiatives. Speaking of Amazon, they’re definitely hot on supplements right now with five in-house brands and a handful of others that are exclusively sold on Amazon (we actually have an article about this that will appear in the February issue of WholeFoods Magazine and will be producing regular content for them on this topic).

Brands like Ritual are using novel customer compliance strategies and making supplements “fun”—very refreshing compared to the old days of unsolicited reorders that are near impossible to get out of.

The sun may be setting on probiotics, even as it’s shining brightly on the microbiome, prebiotics and synbiotics.

What does all this mean? Well, these are trends we believe you should watch. Some may be obvious and intuitive, others less so. They may be categories you want to enter or avoid and industry influences that can impact how you do your business. As we take a deep dive into these topics, we’ll certainly include an analysis of how it could impact you. Any requests for what we tackle first?

And again, if you have further predictions, we’d love to finalize our list as the top 19 trends in ’19 so feel free to send thoughts our way at info@trusttransparency.com.

Cheers,

Len, Scott & Traci