At present, the whole maternal and infant nutrition market is still in a state of "big but not strong". Although there are many old nutrition brands and many new nutrition brands in the industry, no brand that can play the role of leader has emerged. Among them, the sales of small and medium-sized brands still mainly rely on the sales capacity of the terminal, and "one store, one product" is still the sales characteristics of many regions.
The current market is still "big but not strong"
According to the White Paper on Health care Products Industry 2020, the market size of nutrition and health food in China was 55.1 billion yuan in 2007, and it is expected to reach more than 230 billion yuan by 2022. Nutritional products in our country have been developing steadily and the future market size will be expanded continuously.
With the continuous promotion of national health, consumers' awareness of nutrition and health is also improving. Among them, the market of maternal and infant nutrition products is growing rapidly.
According to ECdataway data, nutrition has become the second category of baby food in the online baby food market in 2019, accounting for 13.44%, with a growth rate of 25.17%. From January to October 2020, nutrition products accounted for 12.4% of the online market of baby food in China, with a year-on-year growth of 36.1%, and the growth rate exceeded that of milk powder.
According to the data of Tmall, in 2021, the total sales of the four subcategories of calcium, iron and zinc, vitamins, probiotics and DHA accounted for more than 80% of the total sales of children's nutrition products through the domestic infant nutrition e-commerce channels, among which the sales contribution of imported products accounted for more than 70%.
The field of maternal and child nutrition products can be rapidly developed, not only with the support of national publicity and policies, but also with the participation and promotion of the leading brands in various fields.
For example, in 2016, a head milk company acquired an Australian high-end nutrition and health products company for about 160 million yuan, officially entering the international nutrition business. By 2021, the brand will launch three categories and four single products to meet the high nutritional needs of maternal and infant populations, achieving full nutrition coverage of the whole life cycle of pregnancy, infant and children.
Then in 2018, another domestic dairy company acquired the third largest nutrition and health supplement company in the United States, officially entering the big health market. The 2019 IPO filing also noted that research and development work has been carried out on a number of children's multivitamin products and children's mineral supplements, such as probiotic drops and calcium drinks.
An infant formula company has launched a nutrition brand, which includes DHA algal oil complex, double probiotic oil complex, mushroom vitamin D complex oil complex and lactoferrin milk powder. It also launched lactoferrin emulsion powder, Fuwell brand zinc soft capsule, Fuwell brand iron soft capsule, probiotic emulsion powder, DHA complex algae oil, cod liver oil soft capsule, milk calcium prebiotic gel candy, etc.
The participation of leading brands in many fields has improved the popularity of the maternal and infant nutrition market to some extent, but no outstanding brands have emerged, and the cross-border layout of pharmaceutical companies and the market share of emerging small and medium-sized brands are also small. Therefore, the concentration of the maternal and infant nutrition market is still in a relatively scattered state.
Small and medium-sized brands mainly rely on the ground push
Branding is still not established in the market
In recent years, a large number of small and medium-sized brands have entered the market of maternal and child nutrition products. In addition to the increasing demand for maternal and child nutrition products and the rapid growth of the market scale, the main reason is that the entry threshold in this field is low. In addition, the brand of maternal and child nutrition market has not been established, and the market concentration is low, which creates opportunities for the development of these small and medium-sized brands.
Most of the emerging small and medium-sized brands are mainly distributed offline, because the offline marketing mainly depends on the ability of channel operators and terminal sales personnel, consumers have low brand loyalty, and their cognition of maternal and child nutrition products is not perfect, so they tend to rely on sales personnel to explain and promote.
It is worth noting that many maternal and child stores also like to promote maternal and child nutrition products, because many small and medium-sized brands to maternal and child stores have a large profit, and sometimes the brand or product sales staff promote may not be suitable for consumers, most of them will sell a relatively high profit product. Therefore, the development of small and medium-sized brands in offline maternal and child stores should ensure the profits of channel operators and maternal and child stores, which will be more conducive to the improvement of product sales.
However, the online sales are still dominated by large brands. Although large brands do not have much advantage in the market share, they have a big advantage in terms of popularity. Most consumers will refer to vertical platforms for maternal and infant products, social platforms and professional doctors when buying online, and brands with high visibility are more likely to gain consumers' trust, which is also one of the obstacles to the online development of many small and medium-sized brands.
Terminal sales will still take
"One store one product" sales model
Before that, "Maternal and Child Times" in the visit to Hangzhou channel market found that in the market here, the phenomenon of single store brand is relatively common. Each store owner sells different nutrition products, and even the brands sold in different stores rarely repeat, and consumers do not show a preference for one brand in particular.
This kind of "one store, one product" sales model is relatively common in the terminal market, especially individual stores, mom-and-pop stores and so on. Part of the reason is because of the layout of some small and medium-sized brands. They choose to cooperate with individual terminal maternal and child stores, which will have higher relative gross profit rate. Terminal maternal and child stores are needed to boost product sales.
In addition, maternal and child nutrition products account for a relatively small proportion in the display of terminal maternal and child stores. Most maternal and child stores mainly sell infant formula milk powder or infant products.
According to the 2018 Consumption Data Report of Zero International Maternal and Child physical Stores, the sales of maternal and child nutrition products accounted for only 2.5% in 2016, increased to 3.9% in 2017, and increased again to 4.5% in 2018. By 2019, the sales of maternal and child nutrition products had exceeded that of supplementary foods and reached 5.6%. After the milk powder, cotton products, supplies, paper products after the fifth category.
Although maternal and infant nutrition has maintained a steady improvement, but in the whole maternal and infant market is still one of the smaller categories. Therefore, most maternal and infant stores such as single maternal and infant stores, husband and wife stores and other small scale, or some low-line cities will not carry out large-scale layout on maternal and infant nutrition products.
At present, there is also a phenomenon worth paying attention to, some channels said that they are still reducing the number of brand agents in their hands. According to the 2021 China Maternal and Child Nutrition Channel Survey Report, by August 2021, half of the nutrition products in the hands of offline agents are within the range of 2-3.
Therefore, it can be seen that according to the current situation of the maternal and infant nutrition market, "one store one product" is not that the brand cannot be deeply distributed, but that the consumption concept is still in the training stage, so the major brands of maternal and infant nutrition are difficult to be deeply distributed.
Professional degree is low, the future is necessary to improve the direction
Compared with the milk powder market, the maternal and infant nutrition market is more dependent on the professional explanation and recommendation of the sales staff. For many consumers, when they go to buy maternal and infant nutrition products, they will be more clear about what nutrition they want to supplement. However, the selection of products and brands may be uncertain or uncertain. Therefore, the professional degree of the shopping guide is more important at this time.
However, the current terminal channels and sales personnel's cognition of maternal and infant nutrition is not perfect, which is a major pain point in the development of the maternal and infant nutrition market. According to the 2021 China Maternal and Child Nutrition Channel Survey Report, among the factors that stores value in choosing nutrition products, professional training support accounts for the majority. It can be seen that everyone has realized that the maternal and child nutrition market needs high professional support.
What's more, now is the era of relatively developed network, and the new generation of consumers have more ways to obtain knowledge about maternal and child nutrition products. According to CBNData's "Report", the post-90s and post-95s account for half of the consumption of imported maternal and child products, and the number of generations continues to increase. Therefore, daigou staff need strong professional knowledge to guide the new generation of consumers to buy.
However, it also brings opportunities for the market of maternal and child nutrition products. As the country attaches more importance to health nutrition, it constantly advocates and guides the health awareness of the whole country, which leads the new generation of consumers to pay special attention to their own health problems.
According to Babytree in its 2019 White Paper on China's Family Breeding Methods, scientific pregnancy preparation has become the norm after the better-educated post-85 to post-95 generation became the main group giving birth, and men's participation in pregnancy preparation has increased significantly: Nearly half of the men will take the initiative to stop smoking and drinking alcohol, exercise fitness and adjust the diet and rest, and more than 30% of the men take nutrition in advance to meet the need for pregnancy.
It can be seen that the maternal and infant nutrition market has strong development potential, and it is worth the major brands and terminal channels to explore the field.
Policy to promote the development of nutrition market
As early as 2003, the state has promulgated the "Health Food Management Measures", "New Food Safety Law", through strict control of the health nutrition market, promote the standardized development of the industry, and regular maternal and child nutrition companies can increase their efforts.
In July 2017, The State Council issued the National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030), which calls for the development of food nutrition and health industry, focusing on the development of health food and nutrition-fortified food, and especially puts forward the action of nutrition and health in the early 1000 days of life, which opens the market door for infant nutrition products.
Among them, the main target is to keep the anemia rate of children under 5 years of age below 10 percent by 2030; The growth retardation rate of children under 5 years of age has decreased to less than 5%; Further narrowing the height difference between urban and rural students; The rising obesity rate among students has been effectively controlled.
On January 9, 2019, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Work Plan for Controlling Counterfeits in Key Areas (2019-2021). According to the plan, a special campaign will be carried out to monitor special food products, focusing on "one old and one young," and increasing spot inspections of health food and infant formula food.
Through policies to improve the maternal and infant nutrition and health level of relevant popularization and publicity, promote the promotion of health awareness of the whole people, thus promoting the development of maternal and infant nutrition market. However, it is important to know that although the maternal and infant nutrition market has entered the 2.0 era, some problems before have not been solved. Enterprises still need to continuously explore the market and guide consumers to understand maternal and infant nutrition products, so as to help increase the market share.
Cognition & Comments: After the maternal and child nutrition products enter the 2.0 era, the characteristics of "big but not strong" still exist, and the market concentration is relatively scattered. Although many old nutrition brands and some pharmaceutical companies have joined, the top position is still vacant, which also creates opportunities for small and medium brands. It is worth expecting which brand can stand out from them.