50 Shades of Grey hit theatres last weekend, and while the film has been all but drawn and quartered by critics, the S&M-centric story is obviously hitting a sweet spot with fans, and has grossed over US$300 million worldwide.
But while whips and chains may excite fans of E.L. James’ kinky trilogy, global tastes overall are a bit more vanilla. In 2014, bondage gear only made up 1.88 percent of the total sex toy market, whereas run-of-the-mill vibrators accounted for 19 percent of the market.
(Can we just point out for a second that ‘furry handcuffs’ were popular enough to warrant their own segmentation? Apparently the popularity of bondage gear increases if you make it fluffy.)
But thanks to more open dialogues surrounding sex, and increased exploration into sexual fantasies (we’ll throw 50 Shades a bone for this one), the Global Sexual Wellness Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.03 percent.
A new report from TechNavio takes a seriously in-depth look at the growth of the sexual wellness market, and what factors are expected to help the market reach US$32,039 million by 2019.
Shift to Mainstream
Unlike a lot of global markets, the Sexual Wellness Market got a boost during the 2008 recession, as disposable incomes plunged and people started to spend more time uh…entertaining themselves.
But it’s not just poverty and boredom that are keeping market projections on an upwards trajectory. Sex, pleasure and sexual wellbeing used to be fairly taboo, but these topics are increasingly being discussed in mainstream culture, which has created a paradigm shift and boosted the availability of products in the market.
Condoms and lube have been available at big-box stores like Wal-Mart for ages, but now items with more of a focus on fun, rather than function are being sold by big retailers, and not just in specialty stores.
This wider acceptance has also had a knock-on effect and encouraged way more acceptance and exploration of sexual fantasies. The number of toys, lingerie and lubes, not to mention acceptance of alternative preferences isn’t just benefitting the boudoir behaviour of consumers, it’s all good news for the market too.
Anonymous Availability of Products
On the flip side of acceptance, there’s also the issue of discretion. Openness and conversation surrounding sex for pleasure is great, but this doesn’t change the fact that not everyone is comfortable with the world knowing about their more intimate interests.
Vendors of products in this market are picking up on this, and are starting to offer products that are a bit more subtle. Packaging is a key part of this— referring to vibrators as ‘personal massagers’ (for example) and replacing explicit images on packages with tamer graphical designs is going a long way towards making curious consumers more comfortable with shopping for these items, which is expected to drive the demand in the Global Sexual Wellness Market during the forecast period.
