NEW YORK— Advancements in wearable technologies have lead to growing health care sales opportunities for housewares retailers and vendors.
When it comes to design, wearables accommodate a consumer preference for discrete health monitoring products that can benefit their life and can be worn under clothes, noted Steven Yde, dvp/marketing at Wahl.
Yde added that the wearable health segment is not a fad but a trend. “The important thing is to create products that solve consumer pain points and not just make wearables for the sake of wearables,” he said.
Wahl recently entered the wearable health segment with the launch of its pulsating massage pain therapy patch, which provides the vibration necessary to increase local blood flow to promote healing while breaking up nerve impulses to relieve the pain, according to Yde.
“Pain relief is not just a momentary issue for most people. Wearables are a way to discretely manage pain without having to reapply the remedy whether a cream, ice pack or massager,” Yde said. “We were unable to find a product like our pulsating massage patch, and we were surprised to find nobody had done it before. It just made sense.”
Personal care vendors asserted that with growing acceptance across the health care and housewares industries, opportunities will continue to grow.
“We’ve reached a point in the wearables lifecycle where consumers aren’t just looking for another accessory. Early step counters shifted from clunky pedometers to attractive wristbands or jewelry. Expectations for wearables we actually want to wear, or even forget we’re wearing, will only continue to rise,” said Guive Balooch, vp/global for L’Oréal’s technology incubator.
This year, L’Oreal entered the wearable health market with the launch of its My UV Patch, a stretchable, peel-and-stick electronic wearable patch that tracks the user’s UV exposure.
According to Balooch, the wearable UV patch was born from the idea that connected technologies have the potential to disrupt how the skin’s exposure to a number of external factors is monitored.
“We chose to tackle UV first as it’s a big concern for many customers, and because previous technologies could only tell users the amount of potential sun exposure they were receiving per hour while wearing a rigid, non-stretchable device. Our goal was to design a sensor that was thin, comfortable and virtually weightless so people would actually want to wear it,” he said.
Another growing segment in wearable health is the fitness tracker. Companies like FitBit have launched trackers that speak to the growing consumer awareness of at-home health tracking.
According to the NPD Group, dollar and unit sales of fitness tracking devices grew 40% and 27% respectively, in the first quarter of 2016 versus the previous first quarter.
“Devices have added new capabilities and there is a wide selection of products at different prices and form factors for consumers to choose from. Because of this, we’ve seen digital fitness device sales rapidly grow and become a mainstream technology product,” said Ben Arnold, executive director, industry analyst for NPD Group.
Health care vendors have noted increased retail distribution and acceptance. Earlier this year, Target began a digital health initiative, testing out connected home health devices in the over-the-counter pharmacy section of over 500 stores nationwide. The retailer said that the goal was to meet increasing consumer demand for connected devices.
Yde noted, “I think that wearables are a natural extension to many categories, not just health and fitness. I think if we understand the incremental opportunity versus down selling aspect, we will see some nice growth for years to come.”
As far as what’s next, Balooch said wearables that simply add to the data deluge aren’t providing value and need to address one specific problem and have a clear connection to solving it.
“In order to take more steps, consumers need to first understand the problem with their current behavior and how that is impacting their health,” he said. “The next generation must prove they are ready to become an easy part of the consumer’s life. Wearables that blend seamlessly with the day-to-day, including shirts woven with micro-sensors, stretchable second-skin patches like ours will usher in a new era of the quantified self.”
As technology continues to progress, vendors noted that the next step could involve connected suites with a range of devices designed to put health care back in consumer control.
For example, A&D Medical, a manufacturer of home and commercial health monitoring devices, recently launched its UltraConnect blood pressure monitors.
According to Terry Duesterhoeft, president and CEO of A&D Medical, users are able to operate the health monitors with their mobile device using a companion app.
The company also developed a WellnessConnected platform, allowing the user data to be transmitted to a personal account and then shared with physicians, other care givers and loved ones via email or social media.
“Based on the uptick we have seen throughout the health IT space around the move to more consumer-centric devices, wearables and health apps, the ability to have a personal, mobile health ecosystem as the central management of an individual’s health, driven by and around the consumer, will become the industry’s modus operandi,” said Duesterhoeft.