Welcome to the first issue of the S&S Healthcare Monitor, our monthly industry newsletter on the healthcare market on Amazon. We start with a topic that affects all of us and shapes our everyday lives: healthy sleep. And with an insight that made us take a deep breath first.
Healthcare on Amazon
Anyone who thinks only of pharmacies and drugstores when it comes to health products underestimates one channel: Amazon. Customers on Amazon.de spent almost 4 billion euros on healthcare products over the past twelve months. In August alone, around 19.5 million products were sold, almost a fifth more than in the same month last year (+19.9 %).
Over the past years we have mapped this market step by step, and from this issue on we share it with you. From the perspective of Amazon’s customers, healthcare on Amazon splits into five main markets: supplements, skin care, over-the-counter health products (OTC), medical supplies, and oral care. Every one of them grew by double digits in August!
Amazon is market research in real time: the data does not show what customers say about themselves in a survey, but what they actually buy.
In this issue we explore OTC together, the market for over-the-counter health products. Measured by revenue, it accounts for around 15 % of the healthcare business on Amazon.de and grows at +17.7 %, almost in step with the overall market. One level down, though, a closer look really pays off.
Not falling asleep, but breathing freely
Within OTC one area stands out: sleep. Customers on Amazon.de spent more than 30 million euros on it over the past twelve months, for 2.7 million products. And the market is on the move: over twelve months it grew by 23 %, in August even by 26.7 %. The obvious explanation: more people are reaching for sleep aids. That is what we thought, too.
But it is not tablets and drops. Sleep aids barely grow (+5.7 %) and have sold less than in the previous year every month since March. At the same time, searches for melatonin gummies from the supplement shelf are growing. The real growth in the sleep market lies elsewhere: in nasal strips and other breathing aids and in sleep masks, both at around +23 %. Amazon.de now sells more than four times as many nasal strips and breathing aids as sleep aids.
Sleep masks and nasal strips in an OTC market? This is where Amazon’s customer view shows: products are not sorted by pharmacy shelf but by need. Anyone who wants to sleep better finds tablets, masks and strips under one roof and chooses between them. For makers of sleep aids, these are therefore not fringe products but competitors for the same budget.
Why? The answer lies in the customer reviews. What buyers of nasal strips praise most is that they can finally breathe freely, especially with a cold or an allergy. Next come better sleep and less snoring, often second-hand: “Finally quiet nights - my partner snores much less.”
So customers are not buying a quick way to fall asleep. They are buying the conditions for restful sleep: free breathing, darkness, quiet - also for the person next to them.
Top dog vs. challenger
Among the best-selling nasal strips on Amazon.de you find the original: Breathe Right, the brand from Jerry Rice’s days. Young direct-to-consumer brands are crowding around it, led by Ellicit.
Breathe Right plays its brand consistently: the logo fills the pack, and behind it stand more than 5,000 reviews and a name people know - that cannot be bought. In its title, however, the brand speaks of “Nasenstreifen” throughout. Ellicit attacks via search and puts first exactly the word customers type in: “Nasenpflaster”. Amazon counts more than two million searches a year around “Nasenpflaster”. Strong brand vs. SEO challenger.
The result is clear. Whoever searches for “nasenpflaster” clicks on Ellicit most often; Breathe Right does not appear among the three most clicked products - and all three carry “Nasenpflaster” in their title. According to Amazon, more than 2,000 packs of this Ellicit item went over the virtual counter last month, and more than 500 of this Breathe Right item. Ellicit shows how far a good listing can go - even against the brand the category started with.
The brand alone is not enough. Your name is capital, but it has to be found in your customers’ language - otherwise someone else wins the click.
At category level, “sleep” is growing. Only one level down does it become clear what customers actually buy: not sleep itself, but better conditions for it - and with that an opportunity for every sleep product that talks about recovery rather than just falling asleep fast.
That was the first issue of the S&S Healthcare Monitor. The next one follows in October, again with the most exciting story we find in the data.
And your own market? What we show here for the sleep market, we can analyse for any healthcare market on Amazon - right down to your products and competitors. If you want to know what your data is telling you: Book a conversation