The global dietary supplements market is ever-growing. It's estimated that this market will generate around $308 billion by 2028 – that's a 50.24% increase compared to 2021.
With online and offline stores, as well as pharmacy shelves stocked with all kinds of dietary supplements and people willing to spend money on them, it's important to understand that not all supplements are made the same. The difference in quality and effectiveness can be enormous, to say the least.
At Supliful, we pride ourselves on having and upholding one of the strongest product sourcing processes in the industry. Can this stringent process limit our bottom line? It oftentimes does. But it's still worth it – it allows us to maintain and deliver the highest-quality products with confidence.
The turmeric tale – or Supliful's approach to product sourcing
Turmeric is one of the on-trend ingredients at the moment. The yellow-colored spice that's so popular in Indian cuisine is famed for its many health benefits – from being anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich to reducing muscle soreness and muscle damage, and more.
Increasingly more people include turmeric in their daily menu. However, very few are aware that the active ingredient in turmeric – or the ingredient that offers all the mentioned health benefits – is curcumin. The higher the curcumin concentration, the more effective the turmeric is.
The curcumin content of turmeric ranges from 0.58% to 3.14%. To obtain any meaningful health benefits from curcumin, the suggested dose is 1000–5000 mg a day. It means that you should consume 3-5 heaped teaspoons of turmeric a day, depending on the percentage of curcumin it contains, to experience the health benefits promised.
There's more:
The bioavailability of curcumin is incredibly poor. Studies show that large doses of curcumin are pointless because as much as 90% is never absorbed. This makes us question the efficacy and validity of the majority of the turmeric and curcumin products that you can find on the market – shots, capsules, powders, and whatnot. Most of them are nothing more than extravagantly colored powders, with no meaningful health benefits.
At the same time, there is a small percentage of turmeric dietary products that do work. And the nutrition nerds at Supliful were there to find them.
Here's how:
We knew that by simply adding piperine to curcumin, you can increase its bioavailability by 2000%. Another way to increase its bioavailability is to combine it with a source of fatty acids. That's because curcumin is fat-soluble, meaning the body absorbs it the same way as dietary fats.
After doing thorough research, we found BCM-95. It's a novel form of curcumin that combines fresh curcumin with fatty acids and piperine and is proven to increase bioavailability by 700% beyond other forms of curcumin.
This is how the BCM-95 supplement made its way to the Supliful catalog. And this is the process we follow every time we add a new product. As a result, on the Supliful catalog, you'll only find products that actually do what they're supposed to.
A step-by-step look at how Supliful implements new products
Let's take a closer look at the process of adding new products to the Supliful catalog. Generally, it starts with an in-depth understanding of the chemical characteristics of each ingredient, then there's the research to find a product that ticks all the boxes.
To be more precise, new product implementation is a process that involves four steps:
- Critical analysis
- Needs analysis and market research
- Scientific background
- Sourcing of the product
Let's dive into each of those!
Step 1: Critical analysis
Our new product implementation process always begins with a critical analysis of our existing product catalog. This is when we determine what in-demand products should be added, as well as discover the opportunities to enhance the existing products we stock.
The critical analysis involves a thorough assessment of each product we stock to make sure that the active ingredients are delivered:
- In the most effective yet practical format – be it powder, capsule, gum, or other
- In the most bioavailable form and at an efficacious dosage
- In a product that contains effective ingredients only and nothing that can be harmful to health
We have strict processes and threshold levels of ingredients that are deemed acceptable. After all, even common ingredients such as caffeine and green tea extract can be fatal at certain dosages.
Step 2: Needs analysis and market research
The next step is needs analysis when we analyze the needs and wants of Supliful brand holders.
What products do brand holders want to sell? What products are their customers requesting? Which ingredients are important to them? As we gather answers to these questions, we make a list of products that could be added to our catalog.
The needs analysis is closely related to market research. This is where we're looking for the latest trends in the health industry to understand what products/ingredients are in demand and could be added to our catalog.
Step 3: Scientific background
Throughout the needs analysis and market research, our team of trained nutritionists scours the available evidence that what brand holders are requesting and what's trending actually makes sense from the health perspective. Meaning, whether there's enough scientific evidence that what people want actually has any positive health benefits.
For example, many people mistakenly believe that if small amounts of vitamins are good for your health, then large amounts must be even better. On the contrary, overconsumption of vitamins can be harmful to you. So, the market might request supplements that contain large doses of some on-trend vitamins, but adding such products to our catalog wouldn't make any sense.
Step 4: Sourcing the product
When our team of nutritionists has done their job, the required product specifications are drafted up and passed on to the merchandising team. They then do the business sourcing, vetting, quality-assuring, and onboarding the industry's finest manufacturers.
What happens after the product is added to the catalog?
With the product added to the catalog, the process is not closed. We continually analyze and assess the available technology and we follow the latest scientific research to ensure that every product in our catalog is the best available version of itself.
Otherwise, we aren't afraid to pull it, adjust, adapt, or even completely reformulate it. As a result, our catalog is ever-evolving, ever-improving to enhance the health and performance of everyone using the products we offer.
Rest assured that behind the scenes, we have a team of industry experts and nutrition nerds that are continuously analyzing and assessing the market to introduce new products. And not just any products – only the best products.
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