The protein powder category on Amazon only saw decent growth over the past couple of years, despite a significant spike in sales during the early days of the pandemic.

Dan Harari, Vice President of Business Development

May 12, 2021

2 Min Read
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The protein powder category on Amazon only saw decent growth over the past couple of years, despite a significant spike in sales during the early days of the pandemic in Q2 2020.

As a whole, the category grew 25% year over year from 2019 and 2020; however, most of this growth can be attributed to the pandemic spike. In fact, when comparing Q1 2019 to Q1 2020, the category’s revenue actually declined 5%. Additionally, the category saw four consecutive months of revenue decline from September to December 2020.

Chocolate and vanilla were the two best-selling flavors in 2019 and 2020, with a dominating combined market share of 70% in 2020. The chocolate-flavored products slightly underperformed the category with year-over-year growth of 22%, while the vanilla-flavored ones outperformed the category by a relatively larger margin with year-over-year growth of 36%. Unflavored products collectively accounted for 9% of the total revenue in 2020, underperforming the category with a year-over-year growth rate of 18%. Next up came the chocolate peanut butter flavor, taking 3% of market share and outperforming the category. Cookies & cream and strawberry were the other two flavors with market shares above 2%, but both underperformed the category in terms of revenue growth.

The top four best-selling sources of the protein powder products remained the same from 2019 to 2020, collectively accounting for 89% of the total revenue in 2020. Plant blend, ranked as the second best-selling protein source with a market share of 22%, outperformed the category by a comparatively large margin with year-over-year growth of 45%. Meanwhile, whey and blend (of any protein sources), ranking as the first and the third with market shares of 38% and 15%, both slightly underperformed the category; while whey isolate, the fourth best-selling protein source, slightly outperformed the category with a year-over-year rate of 26%.

This article was excerpted from the Expanding demographics in sports nutrition” digital magazine. Click the link to access the full version, as well as a range of articles on the niche.

Dan Harari is vice president of business development for ClearCut Analytics, a retail analytics company and eCommerce services provider based in Chicago.

About the Author(s)

Dan Harari

Vice President of Business Development, ClearCut Analytics

Dan Harari is vice president of business development for ClearCut Analytics, an eCommerce and retail analytics company based in Chicago.

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