Dive Brief:
- DTC vitamin and supplement brand Care/of has launched an exclusive offering of its products within 308 Sam’s Club stores across the U.S., according to details emailed to Retail Dive. Sam’s Club currently has about 600 stores in the U.S.
- The two specially designed three-packs of products, one for men and one for women, are also available for purchase on the Sam’s Club website, according to a company press release. Consumers who purchase will gain access to Care/of’s digital tools.
- The Care/of products, selling for $35 per pack, are available to Sam’s Club members in store and are also available to anyone online for an additional 10% fee for non-members.
Dive Insight:
Care/of, which was founded in 2016 by Craig Elbert and Akash Shah, is steadily expanding its presence in brick-and-mortar retailers.
At Sam’s Club, Care/of’s three-pack for women is comprised of a multivitamin, energy blend and a probiotic blend, while the men’s pack includes a multivitamin, focus blend and probiotic blend.
The launch of Care/of at Sam’s Club follows the brand’s initial foray into wholesale through its partnership with Target announced in 2021. Consumers shopping the product at Target are able to purchase single bottle SKUs.
The Sam’s Club launch also comes as more DTC brands seek out wholesale partners to expand their reach. Personalized nutrition brand Gainful recently announced a partnership with Target to sell its products via the mass merchant’s stores and website.
“Historically, DTC brands have viewed retail as an entirely different beast, one where they can reach a wider audience but give up on the closer relationships with consumers that they can develop when they buy directly from the brand,” Care/of CEO Elbert said in an email to Retail Dive.
“We value that closeness too much to give it up in retail. We want to do things differently by breaking down the DTC retail binary and creating direct-to-consumer relationships even when consumers buy in retail,” Elbert added. “For us, that begins with our app, which allows us to begin a two-way, personalized conversation with customers once they buy a product off the shelf.”
Health-focused DTC brands are gaining attention from traditional retailers. In addition to adding Care/of and Gainful to its assortment in recent years, the retailer last week added select products from vitamin and supplement brand Ritual to its stores and website.
The vitamin and mineral supplements market in 2019 was $21.4 billion in the U.S., according to Statista. The market is projected to grow to $30.5 billion by 2025.
