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Online dietary supplement sales are quickly outpacing supplement sales in other retail channels. In February, e-commerce and analytics firm Slice Intelligence reported that online vitamin and dietary supplement sales are growing 12% faster than the average e-commerce category. Unsurprisingly, Amazon.com accounts for a vast percentage of those online sales: up to 77% of all online supplement sales, Slice estimates. With so much third-party reseller activity over dietary supplements happening on Amazon.com, it’s almost expected that some of that activity will be at the hands of bad actors, such as those selling counterfeit products.

And indeed, counterfeiting is happening. In July, Wired magazine was the first to report that Amazon had warned customers via e-mail that they might have purchased counterfeit products passed off as Procter Gamble’s Align probiotic supplement. (According to an attorney I spoke to for this piece—CJ Rosenbaum, a founding partner of law firm Rosenbaum Famularo PC, which also runs the website AmazonSellersLawyer.com—Amazon does not often warn customers about counterfeit products.) Another supplement counterfeit case was reported this year when Nutramax Laboratories issued a warning that consumers purchasing its Avmacol supplement from a reseller on Amazon had likely been sold counterfeit product.

But just how often are counterfeit dietary supplements being sold on Amazon?

Surprisingly, not as often as one might think, according to Rosenbaum. Whatever the reason may be, he says, “We don’t see anywhere near as much counterfeiting—or the accusation of counterfeiting—in supplements as we do in other areas.” Compare this, he says, to other hot categories like electronics, or even beauty products. Rosenbaum should know. His company is dedicated to helping companies fight counterfeiting—particularly, counterfeiting on Amazon. “We help third-party sellers all over the world deal with the bumps in the road of doing business on Amazon. We also help a lot of small-to-medium-size brands protect themselves and protect their brands against counterfeit sales,” he says.

It’s good news that supplement counterfeiting isn’t rampant. The bad news? When supplement counterfeiting does happen, there can be dangerous consequences for human health. “If you buy a counterfeit lightning cable…you know, who cares? No one is getting hurt from a counterfeit lightning cable. But if you’re taking a counterfeit Garcinia cambogia supplement, for example, someone could get really sick. So I think the problem [of dietary supplement counterfeiting] is relatively small, but when it craps out, the damages are big,” says Rosenbaum. Those damages, of course, also include the sales lost by a legitimate company to a counterfeit—not to mention degradation of the company’s good name and consumers’ brand loyalty.

In some respects, a behemoth like Amazon will never be able to control the behaviors of all that use its platform. It’s the same problem that another giant platform, Facebook, faces, because bad actors will always be part of the landscape. But these platforms could be doing a better job. Like Facebook, Amazon has used the defense that it is simply providing a marketplace where third parties and customers can do business and that it is not responsible for the behaviors of those parties, including counterfeiting. (For a deeper understanding of Amazon’s history and defense, I encourage you to read the series of articles that the author Louise Matsakis has written for Wired.) It also should be pointed out that Amazon itself also participates in reselling—in fact, this represents a good chunk of Amazon’s business—and can itself fall prey to selling counterfeit products, Rosenbaum says. (He says that in these cases, Amazon often does not issue warnings to consumers. “I tend to trust a third-party seller myself more than Amazon based on what I’ve learned,” he says. “Some I can share with you, some I can’t.”)

What could Amazon be doing better? Plenty, according to Rosenbaum. To start, he says, Amazon could attempt to do a cursory inspection of products to ensure they are authentic before they are passed on to consumers. Wouldn’t the resources to do that be prohibitive, I asked him, considering the sheer volume of product Amazon.com sells? No, he says, because 80% of the counterfeits on the market are very apparent and detectable because those counterfeiters do such a poor job. (Think: misspellings on the label or other obvious callouts.) “The vast majority of counterfeits you see in two seconds,” he says. “So by just having some review system in place, Amazon would protect legitimate sellers who are not sending in counterfeit products, and protect consumers.”

Unfortunately, he says, a review process like this is “nonexistent” at Amazon. “It would cost Amazon some time and some money, and Amazon likes to pass the buck on to everybody else and onto the sellers rather than take responsibility itself, which I guess is good business but it doesn’t really protect the consumers,” he says. (In the past, Amazon has tried to establish initiatives such as Project Zero to enable brands to take action themselves on counterfeit listings, but according to Rosenbaum, those programs “haven’t really taken off.”)

Short of any changes made on Amazon’s end, what can responsible sellers and customers do to protect themselves? Be aware, Rosenbaum says, and inspect the product you are buying more closely. And take some comfort in knowing that, at least when it comes to dietary supplements, the problem with Amazon is—one hopes—not as vast as one might imagine.

Jennifer Grebow
Editor-in-Chief

As per the latest study by Persistence Market Research (PMR), the global weight loss dietary supplements market is anticipated to witness healthy growth. The market is likely to register 6.0% CAGR throughout the forecast period 2017-2026. The global weight loss dietary supplements market is also estimated to bring in US$ 37,177.6 million revenue by 2026 end.

With obesity becoming a global health concern, weight loss continues to be one of the most focused areas. Hence, increasing number of companies are coming up with the new products in weight loss supplements. The increasing consumption and demand for weight loss dietary supplements, regulations on the production of these supplements along with ingredients used are also gaining traction in various countries. The government in various countries are also focusing on the quality and quantity of ingredients used and if any of these ingredients can have severe side-effects, affecting the health of the consumers negatively.

Increasing use of Natural and Organic Ingredients in the Weight Loss Dietary Supplements

The negative effects of being obese and overweight are resulting in the increasing use of weight management products. Consumers are also adopting weight loss supplements in forms of pill, liquid, and powder. Hence, with the increase in the use of these supplements, manufacturers are also trying to produce safer products, thereby using organic and natural ingredients and plant-based ingredients. Among various ingredients, green tea extract is considered as one of the most popular and safest ingredients in the weight loss dietary supplements. Similarly, Garcinia cambogia is also being considered as an ingredient in the weight loss supplements. However, these ingredients have been reported to have adverse effects like a headache, constipation, UTI. Hence, there has been an increase in the investment in the research on other organic ingredients that can be used to produce weight loss supplements.

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Global Weight Loss Dietary Supplements Market: Segmental Insights

The global weight loss dietary supplements market includes various segments such as end-user, form, ingredients, distribution channel, and region. Based on the form, the market is categorized into powder, liquid, and soft gell/pills. Soft gell/pills are expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. By the end of 2026, soft gell/pills are expected to exceed US$ 18,500 million revenue.

Based on the end-user, the segment consists of men, women and senior citizen. Among these, women are expected to be the largest users of weight loss dietary supplements. Women segment as the end-user is estimated to create an incremental opportunity of more than US$ 7,900 million between 2017 and 2026.

By Distribution Channel, pharmacies drug store is expected to emerge as the largest distribution channel for the weight loss dietary supplements. Pharmacies drug store is estimated to account for more than one-third of the revenue share by the end of 2017.

View Report Table of Contents, Figures, and Tables

Based on the ingredients, the segment consists of amino acids, vitamins minerals, botanical supplements, and others. Vitamins minerals are expected to emerge as one of the largest used ingredients in the weight loss dietary supplements. By the end of 2026, vitamins minerals are estimated to exceed US$ 16,900 million revenue.

Region-wise, the market is categorized into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Latin America, Japan, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Among the given regions, North America is expected to dominate the global weight loss dietary supplements market throughout the forecast period 2017-2026.

Global Weight Loss Dietary Supplements Market: Competitive Assessment

Key players in the global weight loss dietary supplements market are Amway (Nutrilite), Abott Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Glanbia, Herbalife International, Pfizer, American Health, Stepan, Nature’s Sunshine Products, and FANCL.