In 2022, Douyin platform witnessed an increase in the sales value of nutraceuticals owing to the rising health consciousness among consumers. The nutraceuticals market on Douyin were categorised as health food, nutritious food, and imported dietary supplements, among which nutritious food dominated, contributing to nearly 84% of the total sales value, as per Feigua statistics.

Notes: Feigua is an e-commerce data provider, which analyze data from multiple dimensions, including brand, live streaming and short video analysis, etc.

Nutritious food

Regarding nutritious food, protein powder, amino acid, and collagen products held the largest market share by sales value. In terms of sales volume, vitamin and mineral products had the largest market share. Probiotic products were also popular in China, with the second and third largest sales value and sales volume, respectively. This category primarily emphasized ingredients as the top selling point. Female and people aged 31 to 40 are the leading purchasing group.

In May 2023, Nutrend and Five Doctors emerged as the top two brands in the nutritious food category. Nutrend focuses on sports nutrition, whose product range specifically cover female and children nutrition in addition to general sports nutrition products, with the goal of establishing a comprehensive and scientific product system tailored to different age groups. Priced at the low end, products under this brand had tremendous sales volume on Douyin, which mainly leading to its top 1 position on the platform.

Five Doctors primarily focuses on collagen peptide products, with fewer varieties but relatively higher unit prices. Nutrend's average unit price was RMB 92, while Five Doctors' was RMB 604. It can be said that the numerous sales volume contributed to the first position of Nutrend on Douyin, while the success of Five Doctors was fueled by both volume and price.

How can they reach the top position? Taking Nutrend as an example, Nutrend's success was first attributed to its extensive product layout. It had 2,000 products on the platform, which constructed a strong value chain with a daily production capacity of 2 million bottles, ensuring high product exposure towards consumers and sufficient product supply.

Second, Nutrend had an overwhelming advantage in the number of live streaming and short videos compared to other top brands on Douyin. Currently, the daily number of short videos released by celebrities, top influencers, waist influencers, and potential influencers who collaborate with the brand is able to reach over 7,000. The daily number of live streaming rooms is over 5,000. Third, Nutrend also had high requirements for customised content of live streaming and short videos. Based on viewer preferences, the brand and influencers tailored the content jointly, integrating product promotion into live streaming and videos while taking care of viewer acceptance.

Imported Dietary Supplements

In the imported dietary supplements category on the Douyin platform, protein powder, amino acid, and collagen products held the biggest market share by sales value. Plant essence and extract had the largest market share by sales volume. This category primarily emphasizes ingredients as the top selling point as well. Female and people aged 31 to 40 are the leading purchasing group.

However, compared with nutritious food, the sales value and volume of the top 3 brands of imported dietary supplements shrank dramatically in May 2023. This was partly due to the sharp decrease in their product promotion efforts, such as the number of live streaming and short videos made for product promotion. These three overseas brands were initially unfamiliar to Chinese consumers, so brand and product exposure were crucial for them. The primary method for marketing products on Douyin was through live streaming and releasing short videos. Therefore,  in comparison to nutritious food, the decreasing product promotion of imported dietary supplements, is likely to result in a decline in sales.

The top three brands in the imported dietary supplements category were Hech, Synext, and Enervite. Hech is a German collagen brand that focused on researching and developing dietary supplements. The brand's success is closely linked to the popularity of collagen products on the Chinese market which have the biggest market share in both nutritious food and imported dietary supplements categories due to their anti-aging effects. According to Frost Sullivan's estimation, the market size of collagen products in China grew from 9.7 billion yuan to 28.7 billion yuan from 2017 to 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 31.15%.

Synext is well-known for its hero product, whose multiple functions are favoured by consumers, including inflammation relief, energy support, etc. Enervite has a wide range of product series, such as weight management, bio-beauty, etc. Similar to Nutrend, Enervite has a robust value chain that enabled the brand to develop competitive products rapidly based on market trends. Besides, it has the most extensive product range and the most intense product promotion among the top three brands in the imported dietary supplements category.

Health Food

In May 2023, the top three brands in the health food category on the Douyin platform were Nutrend, Jiangzhong, and By-health. Nutrend secured the first place due to its extensive product layout and promotion, leading to enormous sales value. Although Jiangzhong, a well-known Chinese brand engaged in the research and development of Chinese patent medicines and health food, had relatively less product promotion activities, it ranked second. With two national engineering research centers, the brand has strong scientific research capabilities, in addition to its reputation accumulated by hero products and TV promotions in previous years. As for By-health, it focuses more on the research and development of nutritious food. About 69% of its products sold on the Douyin were categorized as nutritious food, while only 19% were health food. It ranked seventh in the nutritious food category.

Influencer Promotion

On Douyin, influencer promotion is currently an essential method for selling products. Many brands collaborate with influencers to market their products by holding live streaming and releasing short videos. For example, in recent months, about 60% and 72% of Five Doctors and By-health's sales value was generated by live streaming, respectively.

Influencers on Douyin can be categorized into different levels based on their number of followers. According to Feigua's statistics in 2022, mid-tier influencers contributed the most sales value to all three categories of health food, nutritious food, and imported dietary supplements. Macro influencers had a comparatively noticeable impact on imported dietary supplements and health food, while the brand's self-hosted live streaming brought influence on nutritious food more efficiently.

Different influencers have their own marketing styles and follower groups. Brands need to carefully select suitable partners and customize appropriate promotion plans based on individual product’s characteristics and target consumers. In this regard, REACH24H is pleased to provide professional Douyin operation services to assist brands in their marketing efforts on the platform.

REACH24H, the creator of ChemLinked, has extensive expertise in managing Douyin (TikTok) and has formed strong collaborations with more than a thousand KOLs. The comprehensive services of REACH24H, such as flagship store management, short video promotion, self-livestreaming of stores, and KOL-invited livestreaming, assist brands in gaining wider recognition and boosting sales simultaneously.  

We are delighted to share with you one of our successful cases, where we effectively utilized Douyin to lead a UK health brand to achieve remarkable success in the Chinese market. For further information, please email contact@chemlinked.com.