Luxury retailer Saks brings more than 1,000 products to The Wellness Shop, a curated e-commerce platform focused on clean living and natural wellness products.
As the world enters its third year of the coronavirus pandemic, luxury retail giant Saks Fifth Avenue has launched The Wellness Shop through its e-commerce platform, Saks. The launch aims to support the growing wellness trend; it’s centered around four key areas including fitness, health and nutrition, sexual wellness, and rest and relaxation.
“Saks is thrilled to expand our array of wellness offerings, solidifying our position as the ultimate luxury retailer,” Tracy Margolies, Chief Merchandising Officer at Saks, said in a statement. “A holistic, all-encompassing approach to health is essential. With the addition of this new shop and products, we are now able to serve multiple aspects of the luxury customers’ lifestyle, from fashion to wellbeing.”
The Wellness Shop
The new Saks Wellness Shop will feature 100 brands, half of which are new to the platform. The launch includes live events running from January 11th through the 18th featuring top wellness insiders, the brand says.
“Over the last two years, with more people working from home and changing their lifestyles, we’re seeing a larger demand for health-related items across all categories,” Margolies said to Forbes. “Customers are living a more casual lifestyle, pushing their fashion purchases toward athleisure. They’re also focusing on their wellbeing through nutrition and looking for ways to live a healthy lifestyle at home.”
Some of the items will find permanent homes inside the Saks Fifth Avenue stores, but most products will be available exclusively online.
“We meet our customers where they are, and launching the shop online allows us to provide quick and easy access to elevated wellness items,” Margolies said. “With the launch of the Wellness Shop, we also have a virtual event series on Saks Live that will address different topics from workouts and plant-based beauty to lifestyle tips. It’s important that Saks offers a fully-integrated shopping experience and Saks Live will allow us to do just that.”
According to Margolies, the new shop will support Saks’ beauty customers who already favor clean, sustainable, and wellness-focused products. The retailer says it’s seen an uptick in rest and relaxation purchases, with customers embracing natural wellness products like aromatherapy, bath salts, and body scrubs.
The Wellness Shop launches with more than 1,000 products including fitness equipment, supplements, and athletic apparel.
“The goal of the Saks Wellness Shop is to bring a holistic, seamless luxury shopping experience to our customers,” Margolies said. “With expanded products and an increase in the brands we offer, we see this as an opportunity to serve any and all needs our customers have. We definitely expect them to shop multiple categories within the Wellness Shop.”
Sustainable wellness trend
A 2021 McKinsey survey found that more than 79 percent of worldwide consumers said they believe wellness is important, and 42 percent consider it a top priority.
“A rise in both consumer interest and purchasing power presents tremendous opportunities for companies, particularly as spending on personal wellness rebounds after stagnating or even declining during the COVID-19 crisis,” McKinsey wrote in the study. “At the same time, the wellness market is getting increasingly crowded, creating the need to be strategic about where and how companies compete.”
Natural wellness topped the survey as a priority, with 41 percent of respondents saying that they would choose a natural supplement over a more effective one if its ingredients were less clean. It’s a trend showing no sign of slowing down. Sales of herbal dietary supplements in the U.S. surpassed $10 billion for the first time in 2020. Sales of elderberry, the super immune-supporting natural supplement favored for speeding recovery of colds and the flu, grew more than 17 percent in 2020, hitting nearly $320 million in sales.
“At Saks, we set the bar for luxury retail,” Margolies said. “With this incredible expansion of top-tier wellness brands and product offerings, we’re ensuring that our customers can get everything they need for a healthy lifestyle in one seamless shopping experience. Whether it’s fitness, rest and relaxation, health and nutrition or sexual wellness, the Saks customer can find it at once.”
