A new year, a new you, a clean slate and a chance to make this your best year yet. In ecommerce, January marks the month for health-related products — everything from supplements and health foods to workout equipment, big and small. January is the true peak season for these consumer health products as shoppers ready their engines for a new year with new resolutions. But January 2022 didn’t arrive at the dawn of new hope. Instead, it came barreling in on the tailwinds of 2021, rewinding our lives (and online shopping habits) back to what looks spookily similar to 2020. 
Sure, last year brought us some semblance of normalcy or at least a glimpse of it on the horizon, but this year has given brands what can only be described as deja vu — with a worse case of supply chain issues to top. Our old friend N95 mask, who we thought we were saying goodbye to as it tapered off the top Amazon search list at the end of 2020, resurged to the number one search on Amazon the first two weeks of January 2022. This is a painful contrast from its 295th spot on Amazon just one week before Christmas. Several other face mask-related searches, unsurprisingly, now daunt the top 10 search list on Amazon.
At-home COVID tests also jumped, from the 695th Amazon search term the week prior to Christmas to the 11th-place search term on Amazon the second week of January. That’s a 98–100% jump for both of these pandemic-related products within just a three-week time span.
98–100% jump for these pandemic-related products within a three-week period
So here we all are again, sequestered to our homes, and those new year’s resolutions look anything but inspiring. The result? Not only are pandemic-related products top of mind when shopping, but traditionally peak-performing New Year products just aren’t performing how we expected. In fact, they are down … way down.
Workout equipment searches have fallen 1,763%, from January 2021 to this January. Dumbbells have fallen 177% and treadmills 201%, year-over-year. But who can blame us with the post-holiday whiplash we’re all still recovering from. Working out just hasn’t been top of mind.
With insurance now covering at-home tests and the CDC recommending KN95 and N95 masks to protect against the highly transmissible Omicron, we don’t expect these pandemic-related searches to taper off anytime soon.
And as for your health products: it’s not all bad. While year-over-year searches are down, what we’re seeing is more of a leveling out, trending more closely to pre-pandemic ways. Last year (pre-vaccines), Americans were stuck in their homes with very few options on how to spend their time. Health was also top of mind as the majority strived to lower their risk of severe illness. But now, thanks to vaccines and a potentially less severe variant, some shoppers may be venturing out into the world to exercise … or maybe just not quite as fixated on it as they were in 2021. Perhaps normalcy is in fact just around the corner.
With predictive analytics and decisioning tools directly pulling from Amazon search trends daily, WBX Commerce can assist brands in positioning themselves within their categories for success now and in the future. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.
