By Rich Kaminski
Earlier this year, WSL Strategic Retail published “How America Shops: The Wellness Breakdown,” discussing the current ways people are managing their health and wellness, and where they’re falling through the cracks.
One detail that we dove into was around prescription weight loss drug usage, including GLP-1s and both injectables and pill forms. We saw the numbers jump over 50% from our 2024 health and wellness survey, from 4% to 7% of total shoppers. And this increase “trickles out” so that shoppers who use prescription weight loss medication say they are better able to resist unhealthy food and have less interest in alcohol and smoking/vaping. And, as a result of their shifting habits, some are redirecting their energy elsewhere to reflect their changing lifestyle, shopping for more beauty products, new clothes and finding new hobbies and interests.
Further research by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in their recently published article “The Unexpected Ways GLP-1s Are Transforming Consumer Behavior” has us thinking that these early trends are growing and likely to stick around. This deeper dive into GLP-1 users is based on a survey of more than 1,500 GLP-1 users in nine markets and illuminates how GLP-1 user habits are more like a “lifestyle reset” beyond simple reallocation of funds. These lifestyle resets vary based on what different audiences prioritize, but there’s a trickle out effect as shoppers’ habits change the habits of their partners, family and friends. From there, the influence of these drugs on individual habits is potentially huge.
One potential shift we see is how GLP-1s are changing the “body positivity” movements and conversations. For a long time, there were steps towards acceptance of a wide range of body types, shapes and sizes. But as more and more people adopt GLP-1s for more and more reasons and then shift their shopping habits based on these drivers and implications, are we seeing a movement back to “thin is in — as long as you can afford the drugs and habits to support it?” For those who can afford it, there’s a cache in using Ozempic even if it might not be needed. It’s a signifier of wealth and status and you can’t be too thin or too rich, they seem to say. But everyday shoppers are also expressing a range of emotions from disappointment to concern when they see celebrities losing “too much” weight, so in other circles, there may be a limit.
As GLP-1 usage becomes embedded in people’s lives and individuals try to make sense of their personal feelings and public perceptions of its use, their shopping habits will no doubt move outside of the pharmacy aisle and into all sorts of other areas. The BCG report already notes that everyday users will lapse and cycle GLP-1 usage and, while some shopping changes seem robust, it might be too early to tell. We know that there are financial drivers behind GLP-1 usage, but as conversations around “skinniness” and body positivity grow, will health concerns grow with them? And will backlashes grow as well, shifting not just GLP-1s usage, but also having impact on retail as a whole? Retailers and brands should pay attention not just to how users are shopping today, but who are driving GLP-1 perceptions and conversations and the potential impacts radiating from these changing POVs in order to provide assistance for users both now and in the future.
Rich Kaminski is the research director at WSL Strategic Retail, a global retail strategy and shopper insights consultancy, and publisher of How America Shops, Shopping Life and the Future Shop podcast.
