Expo West is the nation’s top trade show in the natural, organic, and healthy products industry. Each year retailers, investors, influencers, and entrepreneurs from near and far gather to see the hottest products in organic & natural foods, clean beauty, organic home products, and supplements and ingredients.
This year the show is bigger than ever, with almost 3,000 businesses converging in Anaheim, CA to showcase their products. We decided to run these businesses through our Helio platform to answer attendees’ most burning questions. Here’s what we found.
What categories will be represented at the show?
Over the years, Expo West has had exhibitors showcase in nearly every food, beverage, beauty, and wellness category imaginable. This year, attendees should expect to see many brands with inventory in ‘Vitamins & Supplements,’ ‘Packaged & Prepared Food,’ and ‘Bars’ product categories.
What are the most interesting categories at Expo West 2022?
What themes are trending among brands exhibiting at Expo West?
Each product has many attributes that define its ingredients and marketing position. Examples of these attributes are Non-GMO, Collagen, and Dye Free. Helio recognizes 16 million attributes and then aggregates them into 255 broader themes.
This year, attendees should expect to see ‘Functional Ingredients’ as the top trending theme in products across categories. ‘Functional Ingredients’ landed on top due to its High Sales Growth, strong social following, and many brands with products associated with this theme.
Other top trending themes include ‘Plant Based,’ ‘Organic,’ and ‘Vitamin Deficiencies.’
Within the ‘Functional Ingredients’ theme, the most represented attributes are ‘Energy,’ ‘Keto,’ ‘Antioxidant,’ ‘Performance,’ and ‘Heart Health.’ The top ingredients include ‘Calcium,’ ‘Turmeric,’ ‘Potassium,’ ‘Cranberry,’ and ‘Sunflower.’
What are the top ingredient attributes of brands exhibiting at Expo West?
When looking at ingredients represented at the show, we decided to group them into two groups: Mainstream and Unique ingredients.
Mainstream ingredients are those with growth between 5% to 20%, more than 15K brand reviews, and over 25M social media followers. Unique ingredients have exhibited sales growth above 20% year over year but are small in comparison, with less than 2K reviews, and under 2M social media followers.
Mainstream Ingredients
While sugar is a controversial ingredient, it is being used by a large number of brands at the show and is seeing sales growth (%) and distribution gains. Ingredients such as coconut and soy have also seen a rise in popularity.
Unique Ingredients
Brands exhibiting at Expo show a strong preference for tropical ingredients like mango, strawberry, and lime. Organic ingredients are seeing a lot of traction as well.
What attending brands have the best potential for future growth?
Helio identifies polarity in HGP scores of attending brands. While there’s a large number of brands with high growth potential (HGP score >.9 = 375), there’s also a large brand count at the opposite end of the spectrum (HGP score <.05 = 178).
*As of February 2022
We answered all of these questions and more at our recent Expo West WarmUp webinar! Click here to watch the recording to learn:
- The top expo brands sourcing list
- Helio profiles for the top three brands attending in the ‘Vitamins & Supplements,’ ‘Baby & Kid Food,’ ‘Carbonated Drinks,’ ‘Sports & Energy Drinks,’ and ‘Ice Cream & Novelty Brands’
- Deep insights from Helio Experts Stef Caldwell and Anthony Raymond
Want to learn how Helio Insights can support your brand? Reach out to us today!
