Paltrow’s Goop cashes in on wellness market
Lifestyle brand has seen 50 per cent year-over-year growth
Goop Inc., the lifestyle brand helmed by Gwyneth Paltrow, is best known as an online product platform for luxury goods.
Yet, to the surprise of the medical community, the company has become the epicentre of the multitrillion-dollar wellness industry.
The market, which spans mind-body fitness to preventative medicine to spa tourism, was valued at $4.2 trillion (U.S.) in 2017, and grew almost 13 per cent the two years prior, according to the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute.
“Personal care, beauty and anti-aging” represents the most lucrative sector topping more than $1 trillion, while “healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss” takes second place at $702 billion. Paltrow is partially responsible for this growth.
Her company, which launched as a newsletter for recipes and products a decade ago, has dominated the conversation among women seeking alternatives to traditional medicine.
At the March 9 In Goop Health conference in New York, women in expensive athleisurewear signed liability releases absolving the company of responsibility should the “services, products, or equipment involved in the event” require later medical treatment.
Upon entering the event space overlooking the East River, attendees — who paid $1,000 or $4,500 — were given free Keds sneakers and an orange drink called “GOOPGLOW,” which tasted vaguely like Fanta. Unprompted, a male server said the sweet concoction would “revitalize the skin.” The conference, which began in 2017, has expanded in recent years from Los Angeles to London, promoting products ranging from “psychic vampire repellent” to an $85 “goop medicine bag” of gemstones. All are available for sale on the company’s website. Goop now makes 70 per cent of its total revenue through product sales, offering everything from Chanel bags to CB2 pink velvet sofas, according to the company.
Its own line of products, including Paltrow’s G. Label clothing brand and Goop dietary supplements, have become the company’s fastest growing revenue stream, seeing 50 per cent year-over-year growth. Revenue from wellness products and events has nearly tripled in the last two years. “We’re marketing to a very actionable consumer because they’re a shopper,” said chief revenue officer Kimberly Kreuzberger in an interview.
Paltrow herself took the stage in New York with Caroline Myss, a self-proclaimed “medical intuitive” gifted with “biospiritual consciousness.” This condition, she told the 600-person crowd, allows her to sense illness and disease in people before they’ve been diagnosed. “I have friends with chronic issues that western medicine isn’t healing,” Paltrow said.
The pair praised attendees for their open-mindedness to alternative medicine. “You’re here because you’re a part of a new wave of thinking,” Myss said. It’s a movement open to psychedelic medicine, all-natural skin care, superfoods and Reiki energy healing.
Since it began fundraising, Goop has pulled in more than $82 million from venture capital firms and outside investors, and is valued over $250 million, according to PitchBook Data, a market research firm. (The company noted this is a somewhat dated valuation.) And there’s demand for brand partnerships, too. Major players like Lululemon have sponsored integrations during the company’s health conferences.
“Gwyneth was super sophisticated in how she thought about the market opportunity,” said Tony Florence, a general partner in Goop’s first institutional investor, the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. “She saw the trends around self-care early.” Arianna Huffington, the founder of Thrive Global, a wellness and performance company, called Paltrow an ambitious leader in the arena. “Goop has only just barely begun to scratch the surface in terms of demand,” she said.
But the company has faced criticism for promoting health products that lack evidence of medical benefit. Last year, Goop agreed to pay $145,000 to settle allegations it made unverified health claims about $66 jade egg and rose quartz “eggs” meant to be inserted into one’s genitals to enhance sexual energy and balance hormones, and the drinkable “Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend,” which was said to prevent depression.