Health and wellness is the only category where plans to increase spending outweigh plans to cut back in 2026, according to December 2025 data from CivicScience.

That’s why retailers are stepping up their investments in wellness-driven products, services, and in-store experiences, trying to capitalize on consumers’ resolutions well into the new year.

Getting clean: Hy-Vee is expanding its private label lineup with the launch of Nothing But The Truth, a “health-forward” brand developed by the grocer’s team of registered dietitians.

• The assortment emphasizes transparency and clean-label standards, an approach brands would be wise to prioritize in light of the newly released Dietary Guidelines.
• The move also taps into the increasing popularity of private label brands: Private label dollar sales in the US rose 3.3% in the 52 weeks ending December 28, 2025, nearly triple the 1.2% growth rate of national brands, according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA).

The new store brand will roll out in phases, spanning pantry staples and on-trend items. Hy-Vee also plans to extend the line into seasonal and limited-time offerings, creating a shopping experience designed to drive repeat visits and sustained engagement throughout the year.

Take care: Ulta Beauty is evolving its existing wellness assortment into a series of in-store boutiques across select locations. The boutiques will feature interactive elements and dedicated wellness advisors built around four pillars: nutrition and supplements, intimate care, rest and reset, and essential routines.

• Ulta’s move reflects a broader shift across the beauty industry, with over a third (36%) of beauty executives worldwide saying expanding into wellness and personal care will shape the beauty industry over the next few years, according to March 2025 data from McKinsey & Company and the Business of Fashion.
• The in-store element remains important, too: 47% of US adults say they prefer to shop in-store for beauty and personal care products, per March 2025 ThinkNow Research data.

Big-box wellness: Mass retailers are already the top destination for personal care and beauty purchases, with 82.0% of US buyers having purchased these items there in the past 12 months, found a June 2025 EMARKETER survey.

That’s why Walmart and Target are expanding their approach, using New Year’s resolutions to highlight a wider mix of food, supplements, skincare, fitness, and services.

• Target has expanded its wellness assortment by 30% as part of a broader effort to reignite sales and traffic, while improving digital discovery tools that allow shoppers to browse by dietary preference.
• Walmart, meanwhile, is pairing assortment growth with services like its AI-driven Nutrition Hub and in-person activations such as its annual Wellness Event, while cutting prices on more than 1,000 wellness-related items.

The bottom line: As one of the few categories where consumers aren’t just maintaining spend but actively planning to increase it, wellness presents brands with a major opportunity to drive growth early in the year.

However, winning in wellness increasingly requires more than expanded assortments as consumers gravitate toward brands that offer credibility, transparency, and guidance, whether through clean-label products, personalized digital tools, or in-store education.

• For retailers, this creates new opportunities to capture share, but also raises the bar for execution.
• Brands that treat wellness as a long-term ecosystem rather than a short-term resolution play will be better positioned to build trust, loyalty, and repeat engagement beyond the New Year bump.

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