The health food industry is an important part of the health industry. In recent years, with the enhancement of public health awareness, China’s health food industry has been developing rapidly, with the market size expected to reach 330.7 billion Yuan in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.41%. With the promotion of the national e-commerce policy and the blossoming of major e-commerce platforms, e-commerce has become an important channel for health food sales, and online sales channels have become a new engine for industry growth.

In recent years, for China’s health food sales channels, direct sales channels accounted for the largest proportion of about 44% of total sales; online, pharmacies, and mass merchandise channels accounted for about 30%, 22%, and 3%, respectively. In terms of growth rate, the online sales channels represented by Tik Tok, Xiaohongshu grow at the fastest rate, and the online emerging sales channels maintain a high growth trend. According to the data from Alibaba, the sales of health food online channels was increased dramatically in 2020. In 2019, Alibaba’s online health food sales was 21.41 billion Yuan; In 2020, it was 33.396 billion Yuan, an increase of 55.95% year-on-year.

The top of professional analyses that the growth of online sales of health food channels is mainly reflected in the following aspects, on the one hand, due to the COVID-19, the purchase channels of consumer were gradually turn to online; on the other hand, increased health consciousness and staying at home make people spend more time on using mobile phone. All these factors bring more readership on the e-commerce model.

The trend towards youthfulness accelerates online consumption

The top of professional points out that the trend towards youthfulness has accelerated online consumption. According to such research reports, 90s accounts for 25.01% of consumers who buy nutritional health food, and becomes the main consumer group. In terms of development prospects, segmented population and segmented demands have become the key of health food development. The key words for the health food market can be summarized as “younger users”, “hot products”, “e-commerce channel”. As the 90s and 95s concern about health care, the health food consumer group is gradually shifting to younger consumers. Health food products rich in dietary fiber, grape seed extract and collagen are becoming increasingly popular with young consumers.

The supervision of health food online channel is becoming stricter

E-commerce has accelerated the health food development, and the rise of cross-border e-commerce has also made chance to overseas brands to occupy an undeniable place in China. Because the mainly sales channel for imported health food is online, the regulatory authorities should increase the supervision on e-commerce platforms.

Recently, the Supreme People’s Court has clarified that e-commerce platforms would be held responsible, the judiciary would “stand up” for consumers. This means that the adjudication of problematic food consumption disputes will be tilted toward consumers, and the embarrassment of difficulty in upholding rights will be effectively alleviated. Therefore, the e-commerce platform should recognize the situation, take the initiative to assume social responsibility and management responsibility, carefully inspect and manage online food sales, and guarantee the safety for consumers.