What are wellness trends, and why do they matter in 2025?
The concept of wellness dates back to ancient India and China. Think Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine are just a trend now? Guess again. Humans have been practicing wellness since 3000 BCE.
Today’s wellness trends involve more advanced tools and products, but still reflect the same consumer desire.
Younger generations are driving wellness trends in 2026. McKinsey reports that nearly 30% of Gen Z and millennial consumers in the US prioritize wellness “a lot more” than one year ago, compared to up to 23% among older generations.
For these consumers, wellness means more than just going to the gym and eating green juice. They look for products that provide measurable outcomes, like better sleep scores, clinical-grade claims, and longevity markers. This shift in available technology prompts brands to pair products with proof, such as testing and third-party certifications, to build trust in a trillion-dollar market.
The $2 trillion wellness market is expanding at a 10% annual rate
The global consumer wellness market is valued at roughly $2 trillion and continues to rise. Recent McKinsey research confirms this scale, noting about 10% yearly growth in major markets.
By contrast, beauty’s overall market growth cooled to roughly 4.5% in 2024, according to L’Oréal’s annual report, meaning wellness is growing at more than twice the rate of broader health and beauty.
82% of Consumers Prioritize Wellness: What This Means for Businesses
A 2024 McKinsey survey found that 82% of US consumers consider wellness a “top priority” in their lives. This percentage gradually increased to 84% in 2025. China and the United Kingdom also saw notable increases, rising by six and five percentage points, respectively, over the same period.
Consumers consider wellness essential, not optional, and demonstrate this with their spending. Studies show they reward brands that offer reliable advice and transparent information about their products, and many are willing to invest more in wellness each month and pay higher prices for responsible products.
12 wellness trends shaping the health industry in 2025
1. Preventive wellness and optimized healthspan
Preventive wellness is breaking out, with healthcare technology and related services projected to grow 12% through 2030. Consumers’ mindset is moving from living longer to living better for longer, fueling the shift.
Research on healthy longevity shows a growing desire to add years in good health (healthspan), not just years of life, and consumers express strong intent to buy longevity-oriented products. Younger cohorts are adopting more proactive routines like epigenetic testing, cellular health supplements, and recovery tools, rather than waiting for symptoms.
Biotechnology makes these products possible. L’Oréal’s recent longevity push and biotech partnerships with Abolis and Evonik show a move toward bio-identical, lab-engineered actives and diagnostic-driven care. This is spilling over from big companies to breakout labels like OneSkin and Mother Science.
2. Self-care evolution: From routine to indulgence
Multiple studies reveal one key insight—consumers are more stressed and overwhelmed than ever before. Self-care has become an antidote to support better moods, recovery, and resilience.
A recent study from Kenvue, maker of brands like Aveeno and Neutrogena, found that 88% of global consumers believe their personal care routines positively impact their health. Most spend less than 30 minutes daily on these routines, but consistency matters. Those who invest at least 15 minutes experience better health than those who don’t.
This reframing of personal care results in premium formats for wellness products, like richer textures and elevated scents. Challenger brands are meeting these desires. Evolvetogether, for example, frames everyday items—body washes, deodorants, even hand sanitizer sets—as everyday luxury, pairing fine fragrances with minimalist design and refill formats.
3. Personalized wellness that mirrors consumer identity
For many, wellness is a mirror—an extension of who they are, not how they look. It’s a daily, personalized practice that attracts consumers to brands aligned with their holistic health profiles and tastes.
Research shows the next-generation customized beauty market will increase from $43 billion in 2024 to $84 billion in 2029. In short, personalized formulations and tailored experiences now command significant wallet share.
Brands leading with these product experiences include:
- Function of Beauty lets shoppers choose hair goals, fragrance, and bottle color.
- Curology prescribes dermatology-grade actives blended to an individual’s skin profile.
- Nike By You extends customization into fitness gear, allowing athletes to choose their colorways and monograms.
4. The shift from “clean” to “clinical” products
Wellness shoppers demand stronger evidence supporting product claims. A Harris Williams 2024 survey shows that professional validation and effectiveness are key factors for a wellness product’s success:
- 91% of consumers rank product efficacy as necessary.
- 64% look for clinical/scientific studies.
- When asked about creator-founded brands, 75% of respondents said dermatologists are the most trusted authorities. The same study found that 94% of respondents expect to spend the same or more on personal care products in 2025.
- Consumers are also more ingredient-literate, regularly searching for actives like retinol, niacinamide, peptides, hyaluronic acid, and salicylic acid. They expect labels to translate percentages, pH, and study outcomes into plain language.
This has clear implications for product development:
- Formulate to endpoints. Build around standardized, study-backed actives like retinaldehyde and peptides at effective concentrations. Adopt dermocosmetic testing norms and publish protocols on your website.
- Prove it, then claim it. Prioritize clinical and consumer testing and third-party verification. Avoid “science-washing” with vague lab language and use clear terms on your PDPs.
- Use expert credibility responsibly. Where compliant, incorporate input from advisory boards or accredited practitioners, and disclose relationships. Remember, terms like “medical-grade” aren’t regulated, so explain what makes your testing meaningful.
5. Mental wellness and stress-management solutions
Kava stress-relief tea was once the go-to for anyone seeking a mental break. You could light a candle, breathe deeply, turn on your essential oil diffuser, and be ready to relax.
Mental wellness is far more sophisticated today as we learn how the body responds to stress. As a $321 billion subset of the wellness industry, the market is rapidly evolving for real life.
One product category on the rise is prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs). FDA-cleared apps like Daylight Rx and Rejoyn deliver cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) modules that showed clinically meaningful symptom drops and saved health plans up to $8.7 million per million members, according to a 2025 Peterson Health Technology Institute review.
The wearables market is also incorporating evidence-based claims. Health wearable brand WHOOP didn’t even have to conduct the research itself. When the Australian Institute of Sport funded a study that showed WHOOP to be the most accurate in measuring heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), WHOOP posted the findings on its company blog.
As it stands, consumers don’t just want to buy calm. They want stress relief that’s measurable and repeatable so they can actively practice throughout the day—between meetings, while commuting, or at bedtime.
6. Functional nutrition and personalized diets
There’s growing awareness of bioindividuality and a “no one-size-fits-all” approach to nutrition. Studies have shown that factors like genetics, metabolism, and gut health all contribute to the ideal diet.
Shoppers who once compared organic and conventional options are now seeking foods that align with their personal needs, such as metabolic health or gut harmony. That’s why the functional foods market ($315 billion) and personalized diets ($17 billion) are merging into a broader category.
This trend aligns closely with other developments in healthspan. Considerable cohort research in Nature Medicine and Harvard analyses connect midlife dietary patterns rich in plants, whole grains, nuts/legumes, and healthy fats to markedly higher odds of healthy aging.
So, what does this look like on the digital shelf?
InsideTracker blends blood chemistries, DNA variants, and wearable metrics into a single InnerAge score and prescribes nutrition tweaks designed to extend health span rather than simply shave calories.
Rootine combines DNA and micronutrient blood panels to dose vitamins down to the microbead.
Gainful lets gym-goers build protein powder around training goals and switch tastes on the fly with flavor sticks.
7. Digital wellness and technology detox
Digital wellness moves from “unplugging for a few hours” to intentional self-care. People are setting boundaries with their devices and creating habits that improve sleep and mood. Studies show that reducing smartphone screen time for three weeks significantly improved depressive symptoms, stress, and overall well-being.
Consumers want brands to respect their attention as a finite resource. They are questioning how much time they spend online and the value of the content they consume. Randy Ginsburg, founder of Kanso, calls it “depth over dopamine,” emphasizing healthier relationships with technology through intentional experiences, trainings, and media.
- “Our tech habits seep into everything, from what we believe to how we eat. People are craving ways to reclaim their attention and reinvest time in meaningful experiences,” says Randy.
- “For brands, specifically D2C brands whose businesses are geared around omnichannel marketing, this is a fundamental shift and will define who earns long-term trust, especially with younger consumers,” he explains.
“Brands should also create IRL experiences to get people offline and build relationships in the real world. This is a unique opportunity to create amazing customer experiences where they can natively integrate the brand and mission, leaving consumers with a deep emotional connection to the brand, higher unaided recall, and post-event action.”
8. At-home fitness and recovery technology
If you’ve considered renaming a space in your home “the Living Room of Longevity,” you’re not alone. Thanks to the rise of people exercising at home, the global home fitness equipment market is set to reach $20 billion by 2032 and grow by 6% every year.
Dumbbells, recovery tools, smart bikes, supervised coaching—these products deliver measurable change for consumers. Brands are now shipping programs along with their products to enable ease of use and help consumers develop healthy habits.
Peloton is the textbook case. They connected Bike+ ships with structured Power Zone programs that build on an FTP test and then adapt weekly, so the hardware arrives hand in hand with the habit-forming curriculum.
9. Tools to Optimize Sleep and Recovery
Quality, measurable sleep is the new status symbol. Emerging evidence indicates that sleep regularity has a stronger relationship with mortality risk than total sleep duration. Reviews continue to link poor sleep with cardiometabolic disease, placing better nighttime recovery on par with nutrition and exercise for long-term health.
- Wellness-conscious shoppers seek high-tech mattresses, rings, and saunas that promise deeper slow-wave sleep cycles and faster recovery. This trend is driving the $30 billion sleep tech market, which is projected to quadruple by 2034.
- However, many consumers are still overwhelmed by vague “restorative” claims. Without concrete data, it isn’t easy to know whether a device improves HRV or provides a sense of well-being.
Biotechnology tools integrated with clinical evidence are cutting through the noise. Consider the Oura Ring’s polysomnography-validated sleep staging, or Eight Sleep’s Temperature Autopilot mattress, which increased deep sleep by 16% in a 2025 user study.
10. Cold therapy and contrast therapy
Global wellness brands, from Life Time’s 70-club rollout of ice-bath zones to Hyperice’s Game Ready cryocompression rigs, are jumping on this biohacking trend popularized on TikTok and Instagram. The data support it. Related products, like the cold plunge tub, are estimated to reach a $426 million market size by 2030.
Recent analyses show that cold-water immersion (CWI) reduces post-exercise muscle soreness and can speed the return of function more than passive or active recovery. A 2024 review of 57 studies also found that contrast water therapy (CWT) was best for reducing creatine kinase, a muscle damage marker, and inflammation.
11. Forest bathing and nature-based wellness
If plunging into an ice-cold bath doesn’t sound all that great, there is always forest bathing. It is not a quick walk in the park but a guided experience that can involve breathwork, tea ceremonies, mineral bath plunges, or peaceful dips.
This trend fits within wellness tourism, where nature-focused retreats thrive in a market nearing $1 trillion. Also known by its Japanese name shinrin-yoku, forest bathing has been linked to reduced physiological stress and lower rumination and self-criticism, a common source of stress.
12. Sound therapy and wellness acoustics
Sound is becoming the next wellness frontier. If you’re tired of AI-generated “lo-fi” beats for relaxation, you’ll enjoy sound therapy. A small but growing market, sound therapy was valued at $2.26 billion in 2024 and is projected to double by 2034.
The big push is coming from consumers actively choosing their acoustic profiles. Maybe they require binaural beats for productivity or white noise for sleeping. Perhaps they want to clean their aura and work with a sound therapist—the sky is the limit. Recent evidence shows that individualized or personally chosen music reduces anxiety and improves perioperative experience.
A brand focusing on sound therapy can use personalization tactics in its products. For example, Endel uses real-time inputs like weather, time of day, and even heart rate to generate adaptive soundscapes. A peer-reviewed study found that their Focus mode delivered a sevenfold improvement in sustained concentration versus playlists or silence.
Building your wellness ecommerce experience
Wellness brands need speed and scale to keep up with the changing market. Shopify brings all your sales channels, from retail to B2B, into one commerce operating system built for high conversion and performance.
Unify everything onto one platform. Centralize catalogs, inventory, and orders so teams can launch faster and operate with fewer moving parts. Boost conversions with Shop Pay, the world’s best checkout, which can increase them by up to 50% compared to guest checkout and outpace other accelerated options by 10%.
If you want to customize your stack further, you can extend Shopify with APIs and vetted third-party apps, or go headless with Hydrogen. You can even sell cross-order by localizing language, currency, and pricing from one admin with Managed Markets.
Wellness trends FAQ
What is the wellness trend in 2025?
Preventive health and longevity are the main wellness trends in 2025. Consumers are buying products like at-home diagnostics, cellular-health supplements, and recovery tech that promise a better healthspan. Analysts also highlight functional nutrition, healthy aging, and mental health tools as fast-growing subcategories of the broader wellness market.
What’s the new health trend?
The latest health trend is products and services rooted in science. Consumers want to see scientific proof that they are improving or that the products they are ingesting are tailored to them. For example, DNA-based vitamins and wearables that support better sleep are massive hits in the market.
What are the seven types of wellness?
- Physical: Exercise, sleep, and nutrition that keep the body functioning optimally
- Emotional: Strategies for managing feelings, stress, and resilience
- Social: Healthy relationships and supportive community ties
- Spiritual: Meaning, values, or beliefs that provide purpose and connection
- Environmental: Living and working in spaces that support well-being and sustainability
- Occupational (Vocational): Engaging, satisfying work or purposeful hobbies
- Intellectual: Continual learning and mental stimulation to maintain cognitive health
How does Gen Z define wellness?
For Gen Z, wellness is part of life. It’s an everyday, personalized practice that involves sleep, mindfulness, nutrition, appearance, and tech-enabled tracking. Wellness is far more encompassing than heading to the spa after a stressful week.
Nearly 30% of US Gen Zers and millennials now prioritize wellness “a lot more” than a year ago and drive a disproportionate share of category spend.