BEAUTY & WELLNESS OUTLOOK 2026: WHERE CONSUMER DEMAND IS REALLY HEADING

Demand Is Shifting Quietly, Then All At Once

Amazon is where real intent shows up first. It’s not the highlight reel of what consumers want to talk about: it’s the record of what they actually buy. The real shifts, those defining the next wave of winners, are happening quietly in search behavior, category crossover, and early purchase patterns.

For our 2026 Amazon Trend Report, our team analyzed early demand signals: how search behavior is evolving, where categories are converging, and which claims are driving conversion.

The Aisle Has Collapsed: Beauty, Wellness, and Health Are Now One System

The old aisles are gone. Consumers no longer see clear boundaries between beauty, wellness, and health. To them, these categories are all part of one demand system.

On Amazon, this convergence shows up clearly:

• In cross-category searches, like “electrolytes for glowing skin” or “collagen hydration mix.”
• Through functional claims (think “hydration” or “energy” or “calm”) driving discovery more than brand names.
• And with do-it-all products outperforming single-purpose SKUs across categories.

Electrolyte powders with beauty claims. Biotech devices positioned as wellness tools. Ingestibles and topicals designed to be used together. The winning brands in 2026 will be those thinking beyond category lines, instead designing relevance where consumers already blend their decisions.

Search Signals Intent

Social media makes trends visible and Amazon makes demand measurable.

When consumers start searching differently (pairing performance or wellness language with beauty terms) Amazon’s data captures that intent in real time. These search shifts tell us what consumers need now and what they’re willing to switch between brands to get.

With Catapult, we analyze this intent data to spot inflection points before they hit the headlines. That means our partners can move faster on building product positioning, retail strategy, and creative around demand that’s already forming.

What Front Row Is Seeing in Market

Across the beauty and wellness brands we partner with, growth in late 2025 and early 2026 came from one shared marker: early alignment with Amazon intent signals.

Take our Prime Day Power Play for OUAI as an example: our demand planning team accurately predicted sales based on historical data and Prime Day trends, allowing the brand to have sufficient inventory to align with their aggressive discounting. With our team’s forecasting guiding their strategy, the brand experienced a substantial increase in sales, traffic, and conversions during the event.

Brands that recognized new search behaviors, like rising “daily performance” or “functional beauty” language, grew share well before their categories shifted.

When content and catalog strategy coalesce with live consumer intent, paid media efficiency, conversion, and velocity follow.