Speaking at the Nutra Healthspan Summit in London recently, Jack Gayton, VP and general merchandise manager at The Vitamin Shoppe, said because there’s been such a concentrated focus on longevity and healthspan, the retailer decided to pull some of those products out and showcase them in a bigger way.
“Our healthy aging category has always been a big category for us at The Vitamin Shoppe and we’ve really seen it evolve over the last couple of years, where for a while, we saw it more in different retail placements throughout the store, these categories came to life in that regard,” he said.
“Last year, we started with a smaller retail placement, which we’ve expanded and the results have been really strong. Customers really seem to be gravitating towards more solution-based formulations, ingredients and brands.”
Gayton added that he also believes it’s important to tell the story of what the products do, noting that while consumers understand longevity at a high-level, digging into the science of it all can be confusing.
“Things like NAD complexes and precursors can go over people’s heads. So we thought it was important to really pull it out and showcase those products and allow our health enthusiasts to walk the customers through what each of them can do based on their own individual needs,” he said.
Consumers are willing to pay premium prices for products backed by real science, especially when they’re dodging expensive pharmaceutical alternatives, Gayton said. The bigger challenge isn’t getting someone to try a longevity product—it’s turning that first purchase into a habit, which means helping customers build routines and understand that supplements work best alongside lifestyle changes, he said.
Gayton sees longevity as a lasting category, not just another wellness fad passing through. He’s watching how classic ingredients like creatine are getting repositioned for cognitive benefits rather than just gym gains, proving that sometimes the next big thing is actually just something old wearing new clothes.
“The nice thing about longevity is I don’t think it’s a trend that’s going to quickly pan out,” he said. “I think it’s something that’s going to be around for a while because who doesn’t want to live better for a longer period of time?”
