• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 25, 2024

Target says it is stepping up its wellness options, introducing more than 1,000 new products, many of them exclusive. They start at $1.99, ranging from supplements and hydration boosters to functional beverages.

The expansion follows the company’s ever-expanding foray into beauty, including the ongoing rollout of its Ulta Beauty at Target.

"Wellness has been redefined to encompass a more holistic way of living -- and it's also different for every person," says Rick Gomez, Target’s executive vice president and chief food, essentials and beauty officer, in the announcement. "We're making it fun and easy for our guests to discover new products at a great value.”

Some items, such as fitness gear from All in Motion and those infamous Stanley Tumblers, will be in a designated wellness area. Others will be available in different departments throughout the store, including beauty.

Among the exclusive products are the All in Motion workout wear, Bloom nutrition support, Hum supplements, and Liquid IV hydration.

Target is also bringing in the celebrity take on wellness with good.clean.goop, a new line of beauty and wellness products from Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow; Lemme, Kourtney Kardashian Barker's vitamins and supplements; and Being Frenshe, personal care products from founder Ashley Tisdale.

Additionally, the Minneapolis-based company continues to stock its shelves with many digital-first brands, making Target one of the most tried-and-true launching pads for companies trying to transition beyond D2C to national retail distribution. Those include companies like Native personal care, Lume deodorant, Quip toothbrushes and Casper mattresses.

It’s also debuting a wellness destination online so people can browse everything from Ninja juicers to Apple watches to Sechey non-alcoholic wines.

The web hub also includes content with meal inspirations, motivation and fitness ideas.

While the last quarterly report was a rough one, with sales down 4.3% to $25 billion, beauty was a bright spot, with customers increasing frequency. New items, such as the launch of the Fenty Beauty Collection from Rihanna, played a significant role. Comparable sales in beauty rose in the high single digits.

Target hopes wellness can bring it that kind of growth, too. Consumer spending on wellness continues to soar. The Global Wellness Institute, a nonprofit that tracks expenditures on everything from conventional healthcare to medical tourism to fitness and nutrition, says the market hit $4.9 trillion in 2019, then fell 11% to $4.4 trillion in the pandemic year of 2020. Since then, it’s jumped 27% to top $5.6 trillion, with seven of the 11 sectors it tracks now above pre-pandemic values.