Numbers first

Let’s kick off from the stats, shall well?

The global Vitamin Supplement Market size is growing at an annual growth rate of 7.5% from 2024 to 2034.

75% of Americans use dietary supplements at least occasionally, according to CRN and more than 50% are regular users.

A third of vitamin users, including nearly half of Millennials, have increased their usage since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In short, the market is huge and it’s growing every day.

Ritual is a vitamin brand that offers a variety of multivitamins, protein powders, and other supplements. Ritual has sold over 10M vitamin bottles!

For brands struggling to differentiate in a crowded market, their story is a great class in trust-building.

Let’s dive in!

The story

In a world of rainbow-colored gummies and celebrity-endorsed supplements, Ritual chose a more nerdy path. They put their beadlet-in-oil technology front and center and mapped out where every ingredient comes from (down to the specific farm in Norway).

Ritual has surpassed 1 million customers and sold over 10 million multivitamin bottles, according to the company. In 2021, it made more than $100 million in annual net sales.

They’re converting casual browsers into clients spending 30–100 USD on a monthly vitamin subscription.

How exactly does a vitamin company convince people to commit to a subscription that costs more than Netflix? I found these clever tactics that any healthcare brand can learn from.

Image from Wired

Backstory of Ritual

The vitamin aisle used to be pretty predictable. Row after row of plastic bottles, each promising miraculous results with ingredient lists that read like a chemistry exam. And let’s be honest — most of us just grabbed whatever Costco had in bulk or whatever our moms recommended.

Ritual showed up in 2016. Their founder, Kat Schneider, was pregnant and was looking for vitamins. The “prenatal vitamin” industry was more of a black box of mystery ingredients. So she built a company from scratch to fix it.

Ritual went nerd. They started posting their supply chain on Instagram, made their bottles clear (literally), and let you trace your specific vitamin batch back to its source.

Product Differentiator

Trust by transparency

When users show people exactly where their fish oil comes from (down to the actual fishing boat), they’re more likely to trust your brand.

Across the website and marketing materials, we can trace the same message: “We are science-backed. We are clean.”

By openly sharing their ingredient sourcing, they alleviate doubts that arise from vague labels and build credibility.

By making scientific credibility their main character (instead of burying it in footnotes), they’ve turned their biggest skeptics — the ‘I’ll research it first’ crowd — into their best customers. These research-first “power” customers probably have a higher lifetime value and will be more likely to recommend the brand.

Vitamin personalization

Let’s take a step back and look at the vitamin market as a whole and its innovations.

Walk into any pharmacy and you’ll see shelves packed with multivitamins. Generic. One-size-fits-all.

There are studies that have shown that mass-market vitamins don’t work. Every body processes nutrients differently, and every body has unique nutrional needs that change over time.

The personalized vitamin market isn’t just growing. Some companies like Rootine and Viome are treating supplements like precision medicine.

The global personalized nutrition market is growing at a 15.5% compound annual growth rate.

How exactly do they do this?

Persona website

Most brands suggest you take a 5-minute quiz so they can suggest the best vitamin selection based on your preferences and needs.

Vitable quiz

A more serious approach includes doing a blood or stool sample at home, further analysis by the company, and a personalized supplement shipped to you.

Rootine is a company creating personalized supplement products based on DNA tests costing $224.

Rootine DNA test

Flore offers a $299 kit including a microbiome test, analysis, and formulation process. After that, clients pay $99 monthly for supplements.

Cost is still a hurdle. DNA testing and advanced nutritional analysis can run $200-$500 upfront. Monthly subscriptions hover between $50-$150. Not exactly cheap.

However, there is a generational shift happening. Young people are more likely to spend more on health-related products.

Gen Z and Millennials have shown the largest increase in supplement use, with 53% of Gen Z reporting weekly consumption in 2023 compared to 42% in 2019.

The study found that 80% of millennials consider health benefits when selecting foods, compared to 64% of baby boomers.

Also a 2019 survey by the American Heart Association found that millennials are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors, such as regular exercise and maintaining a healthy diet, than in previous generations.

Ritual’s offer

Going back to Ritual, they don’t offer any personalization yet they still thrive on the market. In fact, most top brands are still selling “standard” supplements:

• Centrum (Pfizer), annual revenue: $400–500 million

• Nature Made, annual revenue: $600–700 million

• One A Day (Bayer), annual revenue: $350–450 million

• Garden of Life (Nestlé), annual revenue: $250–350 million

• Ritual, annual revenue: $100M+

For how long will it stay one-size-fits-all? We will see yet certainly the costs of personalization must be lowered for this to happen.

A few interesting strategies Ritual uses on the website to stand out and increase conversions:

Design that supports their concept

Traditional vitamins squish everything into one hard pill. Ritual decided to keep nutrients separate inside the capsule.

Why? Some nutrients are so fragile that stomach acid would completely destroy them within minutes. Fat-soluble vitamins like D, E, K, and A need special protection to survive the stomach’s aggressive breakdown process.

Traditional vitamins often break down too quickly or get degraded by stomach acid. Ritual’s design lets fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins stay apart. This approach allows each nutrient to be delivered in its most bioavailable form, increasing the body’s ability to absorb and utilize the vitamins.

Ritual’s approach allows vitamins to reach the small intestine more intact and ready for optimal absorption.

Instead of the traditional opaque pill that felt like swallowing a mysterious chemical cocktail, Ritual created a see-through capsule. Each capsule communicates brand philosophy.

Consumers could literally see what they were putting into their bodies. It islike the difference between buying a takeout dish and watching a chef prepare your meal from scratch.

Each capsule became a small piece of personal branding.

Structurally, the capsule design transforms the act of taking a vitamin from a routine task to a momentary interactive experience. The visual engagement — seeing the ingredients, and thinking about what they might present— turns a simple action into a micro-moment of joy.

The design became a form of non-verbal communication.

Narrative transportation

Their website is really clean. Most supplement sites look like they were designed in a medical basement. Ritual? It looks like something Apple would create if they decided to make vitamins.

Transparency is their entire marketing strategy. Every ingredient has a story. Literally. Click on any vitamin, and you’ll see exactly where it came from. Norwegian kelp? They’ll tell you the specific fishing boat. Vitamin D? Here’s the farm in Iceland.

Stories are more memorable and emotionally impactful than facts alone. Ritual builds an emotional connection with the audience.

Vitamins to manage stress

Ritual’s product range includes multivitamins for women 18+, men 18+ prenatal vitamins for expecting mothers, and postnatal supplements for new mothers. They’ve also recently expanded into teenage multivitamins and specific supplements focused on areas like mental health, metabolism, and immune support.

Younger generations are more likely to use supplements for specific needs (e.g., beauty, cognitive function, digestion) rather than multivitamins.

Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to look for personalized health solutions, and that might be one of the reasons why this shift toward precise medicine vs general support is happening.

Interestingly, millennials prioritize supplements for mental well-being more than consumers overall (43% vs. 34%).

18.1% of Gen Z and Millennials are turning to supplements for stress management, compared to 7.4% of Baby Boomers.

Pricing model

Subscription pricing is simple. Thirty to ninety dollars a month might sound steep for vitamins, but they made it feel like an investment in yourself. Easy cancellation. Low barrier to entry.

Ritual targets Millennials and Gen Z who are more health-focused.

While supplement costs can be high, younger generations are more willing to invest in their health. Millennials are more proactive and health-conscious than their parents and grandparents. They’re more willing to spend money on fitness, healthy food, and self-care.

Even more, Gen Z and Millennial consumers are prepared to scale back on non-essentials such as Netflix in favor of spending their dollars on healthy food.

Summary

Despite not offering personalized products, Ritual’s science-backed messaging and emotional storytelling have driven $100M+ annual revenue.

Ritual’s focus on transparency and storytelling translates into healthcare design. For example, creating clear navigation in healthcare apps, visualizing supply chain data for transparency, and incorporating user-friendly quiz flows for personalization are key trends. These approaches build trust and drive user engagement, especially in industries like telemedicine and digital health solutions.

Ritual’s clean, modern aesthetics appeal more to younger, design-savvy demographics. Clear capsules and ingredient sourcing (e.g., Iceland for fish oil) build credibility.

If you’re designing healthcare products, consider how to incorporate transparency into user experiences — think supply chain visuals or lab-test integrations.