Findings from our report “Beyond Injectables: How the Aesthetics Market is embracing Medical Wellness and Longevity” have been featured in Mays edition of the Aesthetics Journal.
34% of 3,500 UK aesthetic clinics now offer medical wellness and longevity treatments, with functional medicine assessments leading the category at 51% adoption among MWL-active clinics, according to Rare.Monitor research featured in May 2024 issue of Aesthetics Journal. The findings landed alongside a sharp drop in UK consumer interest for traditional injectables, which provides the demand-side context for why aesthetic clinics are diversifying into wellness.
What is the wellness mix inside UK aesthetic clinics?
The treatment shape inside the 34% adopting medical wellness and longevity is led by functional medicine assessments at 51%. Weight management programmes and bioidentical HRT prescriptions sit at 35% each. Stress management techniques and regenerative medicine both at 34%. Immunotherapy at 32%. Vitamin treatments are growing at 33% year-on-year.
The cluster between 32% and 35% is striking: six categories within three percentage points of one another. UK aesthetic clinics offering wellness are not specialising into one wellness vertical, they are running broad wellness portfolios. That has implications for how manufacturers and distributors approach the market: portfolio-based commercial offers will land better than single-category propositions.
How fast is consumer interest shifting away from injectables?
UK consumer consideration for traditional injectables has dropped sharply year-on-year. Dermal filler interest fell 31% between November 2022 and November 2023. Botulinum toxin interest fell 16% over the same period.
That is not a small fluctuation in a stable market. It is a measurable category shift, and it is the demand-side reason 93% of UK clinics offering medical wellness and longevity also offer aesthetic treatments. The wellness expansion is not happening alongside a stable injectable market. It is happening because the injectable market is contracting in consumer consideration, and clinics with multi-category service mixes are better insulated against that decline than clinics that are injectable-only.
Quoting Ben Pask, the Rare. founder, on the wider context: "If you take a step back, the results from this research reflect a much broader societal shift. The concepts of wellness and longevity are now becoming more accessible and measurable to people on the high street. There may even be a component of the times we are in. It is tough out there for lots of people, and the need to look and feel good is important. Companies should embrace this trend as it reflects an opportunity to understand patient needs more broadly, and increase customer lifetime value."
The article was published in the May 2024 issue of Aesthetics Journal. The Rare.Monitor analysis behind it tracked 3,500 UK aesthetic clinics over the November 2022 to November 2023 period.
Source: Rare.Monitor, 3,500 UK aesthetic clinics, November 2022 to November 2023.
