The next stage of the health industry: When deterministic business operations replace traffic competition

During the Double 11 shopping festival in 2025, the health industry emerged as one of the hottest sectors.

From medical masks to emotional nutrition, from anti - acne skincare to light health - preserving beverages, the boundaries of health products are expanding at an unprecedented pace. Consumers' demand for "professional efficacy" no longer stops at treatment but extends to every detail of daily life. The product logic of medical - grade efficacy is beginning to penetrate the consumer market in a "dominant" manner.

Correspondingly, the health industry has been on a continuous upward trajectory. Take Tmall as an example. According to preliminary statistics from the platform, the overall growth rate of the health sector ranks among the top, and new brands have become the main driving force for growth.

Jiang Xia, the person - in - charge of Tmall Health's Marketing Center, told 36Kr, "Health is no longer just about 'taking medicine or curing diseases'; it has integrated into the lifestyle of 'eating, drinking, playing, and having fun'. Products such as probiotics, bird's nests, medical facial masks, hair removal devices, and colored contact lenses are all making health penetrate into more daily scenarios."

Health is becoming the prerequisite and foundation for "eating, drinking, playing, and having fun".

01. The Refinement of Health Consumption: A New Proposition for Emerging Brands

The growth logic of the health industry has undergone internal changes.

In the past few years, "health preservation" was once a hot topic on social media: there were endless trends such as soaking wolfberries in thermos flasks and taking liver - tonifying tablets after staying up late. However, now, pure experience sharing and product recommendations can no longer fully convince consumers.

Ao Ding, the person - in - charge of Tmall Health's non - pharmaceutical industry, believes that "in the past, health consumption was more driven by concepts, and the market was filled with slogans of 'new ingredients' and 'new efficacy'. But now, consumers make more rational judgments. They will look for empirical data, real experiences, and long - term effects."

The "2025 China Consumer Active Health Insight Report" shows that with the implementation of the "Healthy China 2030" strategy, the public's health awareness is shifting from "passive response" to "active management". This is reflected in consumer behavior as a significant increase in active health expenditure. As a result, the competition in the health industry has shifted from "who can tell a better story" to "who can deliver more certain results".

Or rather, health consumption is entering a stage of "integration of professionalism and popularity". From the platform's perspective, Ao Ding believes that there are still growth opportunities. "When health becomes a lifestyle, the real growth opportunities come from brands that can serve daily needs in a scientific way."

Under this logic, two major trends have emerged in the health industry:

Firstly, from broad - spectrum to precision.

The traditional "mass health preservation" is being replaced by "precision health". Brands are focusing on high - frequency niche scenarios such as anti - acne, sleep - aid, blood sugar control, and emotional management, and building trust barriers through professional ingredients and efficacy verification.

Secondly, from efficacy to experience.

Consumers are no longer satisfied with just "usefulness"; they expect a "perceptible" experience. They hope that health products can provide emotional satisfaction in terms of appearance, smell, touch, taste, and even the sense of ritual in use. In other words, users are not only pursuing effectiveness but also a "perceptible" effect and scenario.

In terms of the consumer group, young women have become the core driving force for the growth of the health industry. Jiang Xia summarized this as "investing in one's own health has become the driving force for consumption". The general characteristics of this group of consumers are that they not only value functional effects but also care about brand tone and lifestyle.

From the perspective of supply - demand relationship, the upgrading of demand calls for innovation in supply. More and more emerging brands are entering the market with a "science + scenario" approach, using scientific research capabilities, experience design, and content expression to meet the "professional daily" needs of this generation.

That's why during this year's Double 11, Tmall Health became a sector where new brands emerged in large numbers. From functional foods and emotional nutrition to medical - grade skincare and light - equipment care, a group of new brands quickly stood out with their differentiated innovation and professional capabilities, forming the internal growth force of Tmall's health industry.

02. Those Who See Opportunities Need More Support

More and more brands are seeing the opportunities in the health industry, but it's not easy to truly seize the growth curve.

The categories in the big health field are complex. The niche markets such as precision health, functional foods, and medical beauty and care have high thresholds, fast - paced competition, and short update cycles. Brands need to have R & D capabilities, understand user communication, and be able to withstand the pressure of short - term conversion. For new brands that have just completed the "0→1" verification, the more difficult proposition is how to transform from a single hit product to a well - established brand and from a short - term explosion to long - term operation.

Bu Bu, the person - in - charge of Tmall's new consumption, believes that the explosion of health consumption is not accidental but the result of the joint maturity of both supply and demand. He told 36Kr, "In the past, new brands only focused on launching new products and creating blockbusters; now, they pay more attention to repurchase and brand awareness. What the platform does is to enable new brands to have the ability for long - term operation from the starting stage."

This is also one of the original intentions of the cooperation between Tmall's "Treasure New Brands" IP and Tmall's health industry.

For new brands in the 1 - 10 stage, during this year's Double 11, Tmall's Treasure New Brands brought systematic measures in multiple aspects such as new member acquisition, follow - up product recommendations, co - creation of products, and star marketing to help brands make a leap forward.

The results are obvious. Some new brands have indeed stood out in the health field.

• Swisse Me: Making Light Health Preservation a Lifestyle

The functional food sector is not short of players, but it has long been troubled by a problem: health products are too "serious", and young people are reluctant to stick with them. The image of nutritional products has always been associated with the stereotypes of "swallowing capsules" and "drinking bitter liquids". When Swisse Me was founded, the team aimed to break this industry consensus.

The team of Swisse Me realized this early on. As a young sub - brand under Swisse, they found that the post - 90s and post - 00s generations are not averse to health itself but rather dislike the preaching - style health promotion. "What young people want is not 'what to supplement' but 'how to make themselves feel more comfortable'," the brand team summarized.

So, they decided to revolutionize the way of taking probiotics. In April this year, Swisse Me collaborated with Tmall's Treasure New Brands IP to launch "Chewable Probiotic Effervescent Tablets", which for the first time presented probiotics in a form that can be "chewed, played with, and shared" in social scenarios. On the day of its launch, this new product topped the probiotic category, with over 100 million exposures across the board during the entire event period, and the brand's sales achieved three - digit growth.

During Double 11, the team launched a new flavor, "Bubble Lemon Tea", and participated in the Taobao customer commission inflation plan and Taobao coin subsidy, as well as the "Super New Product Growth Plan". With the help of the star spokesperson, this flavor contributed more than 50% of the series' sales.

"The support from the platform has enabled us to move from increasing traffic to accumulating user assets. Young people are now actively searching for Swisse Me on Tmall, which is more valuable for a new brand than single - event sales," the brand team said.

In this innovation driven by "pain points", Swisse Me redefined the nature of health with a tiny probiotic: it is no longer about obedience but a lifestyle that young people are willing to participate in.

• Fuqing: "Medical - Research Co - creation" from Clinical Practice to Daily Life

For many brands starting from the medical field, the real challenge is not R & D but communication.

Fuqing has long been deeply involved in the field of medical acne treatment and has cooperated with more than 300 top - tier hospitals across the country. Its core ingredient, "antimicrobial peptide", has a large amount of clinical data and is a "standard option" in doctors' toolkits.

However, when it tried to enter the daily consumer market, professional language became a hindrance. Terms like "repairing the skin barrier" and "clinically verified" are too abstract for users to understand and empathize with.

"Our biggest challenge was how to tell the hospital stories to end - consumers," the brand team recalled.

The involvement of Tmall's Treasure New Brands IP opened up a path for Fuqing to translate. The platform helped the brand reorganize "medical language" into "user language": changing "treatment" to "stage - by - stage management of acne - prone skin" and transforming "data" into "visible improvements". Tmall also collaborated with influencers to create a "Four - stage Acne Management + Scenario Therapy" system, making the content closer to real experiences.

During this year's Double 11, the pre - event customer - accumulation efficiency of Fuqing's flagship store reached a record high. The conversion amount of the member - accumulation gameplay during the event period increased by nearly 30% compared to last year.

"The Treasure New Brands helped us find a way to be understood between 'professionalism' and 'popularity'," the brand team said.

From the hospital to the family, Fuqing has learned to tell "human" stories and made professionalism more approachable.

• Zhen Bu Er: Making "Giving Health" a New Consumption Concept

In the niche sectors of health consumption, Zhen Bu Er has taken a different path.

While most brands are still emphasizing efficacy, it chose to start from "sentiment". The team found that more and more young people are buying health products for their elders, partners, and friends. "Health" is changing from personal care to an emotional expression. "We observed that 'giving health' is becoming a new consumption trend," the brand team said.

Based on this insight, Zhen Bu Er proposed the concept of "gift - giving awareness": transforming health from self - care into an emotional language that can be shared and expressed.

The brand has completely redesigned its products into gift - box form, making traditional Chinese health - preservation products lighter and more beautiful. For example, the health - preservation cushion gift box and the medicinal pillow gift box, priced at around 200 yuan, are no longer just traditional functional products but have become nice gifts for daily use. The result was surprising: even though the prices are much higher than those of similar unbranded products, the repurchase rate is twice as high.

This "counter - intuitive" success is inseparable from Tmall's co - creation mechanism.

With the support of the Treasure New Brands IP, Zhen Bu Er obtained key resources in gift - giving scenarios and exposure through influencer networks. It also collaborated with artist Chang Yu to launch a co - branded series, giving "health gifts" a design and aesthetic expression. As a result, the sales of the brand's gift - giving category doubled year - on - year, and the proportion of 88VIP users increased significantly.

"Users are willing to pay for certain value. For example, buying a pillow is an investment in the sense of peace for eight hours every night," the brand team summarized. Zhen Bu Er has transformed health from a rational choice into an expression of warmth and given new meaning to "gifts".

It's not hard to find that the common point of these brands is that they all have differentiated products and thinking, but they need the systematic boost provided by the platform at the critical point of brand leap - forward.

"Tmall's role is not just that of a platform but a partner in brand growth. We hope that brands can not only grow fast but also sustain their growth in the long run," Jiang Xia said.

For emerging brands, after achieving the 0 - to - 1 breakthrough, if they want to achieve the accumulation in the 1 - to - 10 stage, they must think about how to leverage resources and collaborate with the platform to achieve a qualitative change in the brand dimension. One of the links between new brands and the platform is the Treasure New Brands IP. Bu Bu said, "Tmall's Treasure New Brands helps brands find their rhythm, choose the right language, and form a stable foundation. Brands can grow fast on their own, and we help them grow far."

In the Tmall ecosystem, the growth of new brands is shifting from "explosive" to "structured": professionalism is the starting point, and operation is the moat.

03. The More Niche, the More Opportunities

The more niche the demand, the more structural opportunities are hidden.

As health scenarios continue to diversify, more and more brands are exploring "big markets" in small niches: combining sun protection with medicine, probiotics with emotional management, and extending the sleep scenario to include aromatherapy and smart hardware... This represents the evolution of the industry from "single - product competition" to "systematic symbiosis".

"The growth of the health industry no longer comes from a single blockbuster product but is driven by the resonance of the brand ecosystem. Only when research institutions, the supply chain, influencer content, and platform data form a closed - loop can growth be certain," Jiang Xia said.

This certainty is also the meaning of the Treasure New Brands mechanism. It enables emerging and niche brands to grow from "single - point breakthrough" to industry variables with long - term competitiveness.

In the Tmall ecosystem, health brands are not just participants but co - builders. The platform uses consumer insight reports, trend data, and scenario co - creation to drive brand R & D in reverse, helping them to make early arrangements in new sectors such as women's health, emotional health, and family health.

For example, during this year's major promotion, the sales of emotional - health - related products (sleep - aid, stress - relief, and weight management) increased significantly year - on - year; the trend of turning tonics into food was obvious, with traditional Chinese tonics like Yuling Paste and instant Ejiao Huangqi Oral Liquid emerging as dark horses; products such as medical dressings, hair removal devices, and colored contact lenses entered a new stage of "beauty - health integration".

The wave of health consumption continues.

As Ao Ding, the person - in - charge of Tmall Health's non - pharmaceutical industry, said in an interview, "The essence of health is continuous care. What the platform can do is to make this care more scientific, certain, and long - lasting."

The objects of care are not only consumers but also merchants. When the industry returns to rational