Dropshipping and the wellness niche. Crisis shopping

The wellness market will continue to grow in 2025, despite inflation and crises. Today, it is one of the few areas that is not losing momentum.

• Health = value. Most consumers are not cutting back on spending on sports and nutrition, and continue to use gadgets to monitor and track their health. Health is directly linked to energy, productivity and even confidence in the future.
• Practicality over status. Habits have already been formed and many products that really help have been tried and tested. Therefore, it is easier to decide to buy the next model or something to replace the old, but already proven one.
• Emotions + benefits. This lifestyle combines not only logic (‘it's good for me’) but also emotion (‘I am taking a step towards a better version of myself, I am investing in my health, which means I am doing good’).

The main idea in marketing is to sell not a product, but an ‘investment in health.’ The basis of the wellness market is everything that helps maintain health and healthy habits. And most of this can be found among dropshipping products! By adding challenges, instructions, and guides to their advertising, sellers get a kind of ‘investment package.’

Demand is driven by three groups:
Firstly, digital health monitoring. Smart watches, scales and calorie-counting apps allow you to track your progress and keep fit even at home.

Second, habits and daily support for them. Simple things like water bottles with reminders, sports headphones, or home equipment help to build health into your daily routine.

Third, clothing and footwear for sports and an active lifestyle. We're not talking about fashion collections, but practical items: sportswear and footwear (running trainers, fitness leggings, compression socks), clothing for home and yoga, comfort and activity (cosy tracksuits, sports tops), footwear for walking and active leisure (walking, hiking, jogging).

And finally, social motivation. Cameras to record progress, subscriptions to online training, challenges and marathons engage and help to popularise and showcase achievements.

There is no need to start a separate shop from scratch — you can start with a block test in your main project and see if the audience is interested. If you are just thinking about selling health products, don't rush to start a separate shop.

The specialists at TON OP Bulgaria give an example. You add one or two ‘lures’ to your shop: a bottle with smart reminders to drink water or simple smart scales. Then you launch an ad, focusing not on the product, but on solving the problem — ‘don't forget to drink,’ ‘monitor your body composition even at home.’ Collect feedback and metrics. If the response is good, expand the direction and create a ‘Wellness Investments’ section within the site. Add related products (watches, headphones, mats), create content: a mini challenge ‘30 days + your equipment’ or a package ‘smart scales + PDF guide + calorie tracker’.

This way, you minimise risk while testing the niche in real time — without a separate website or large investments.

It is important not just to add wellness products to your range, but to present them correctly.

Real-life case studies are important for B2B. One American sports accessories brand managed to increase sales of regular fitness bands by 47% after combining them with access to an online training platform. Another example is a start-up selling ‘smart water bottles’: the company almost doubled the average price of the product without changing the cost price by integrating it with an app for tracking hydration and subscriptions to personalised nutrition plans.

For the end consumer (B2C), TikTok and Instagram Reels have become virtual shop windows where a single impressive video can sweep goods off the shelves. Short content is now a key factor in impulse purchases. Offer bundles: watch + scales + app; bottle + mat + PDF guide. Such sets are perceived as a ready-made solution and increase the average cheque.

When everything becomes more expensive, people save on entertainment and status purchases, but not on health. On the contrary, there is a growing demand for products that help people stay in shape, sleep better, exercise more, or eat more consciously. For online stores, the wellness niche remains one of the most stable and promising. To take full advantage of this trend, you need to look broader and analyse which other areas are likely to be profitable tomorrow. The TONOP programme allows companies to model the sales process, register transactions and conduct marketing research. TON OP analyses products by category, finds products with real potential and compares suppliers and manufacturers.