Katerina Schneider’s story is familiar to many women. While pregnant with her first child in 2015, Schneider sought to educate herself on a healthy pregnancy, starting with a prenatal vitamin. She discovered a prenatal space full of contradictions, confusion and obfuscation, especially regarding supplements. However, where her story differs is that she sought to do something about it.
In 2016, she launched Ritual, known at first for its Instagram-friendly aesthetic with little spheres suspended in clear capsules, and has now grown it to a business across direct-to-consumer e-commerce, Amazon, Target and Whole Foods Market. In 2024, Ritual made over $250 million in retail sales across all channels. Since its launch, it has had over two million customers and has sold more than 25 million bottles of supplements.
“Rituals succeeds in areas where people are willing to pay a premium for better, higher quality products and ingredients backed by inflection points in their lives,” said Katerina Schneider, founder and CEO of Ritual. “As we kind of think about going forward, our emphasis is doubling down on women’s health,” like menopause, she said.
Ritual has built its reputation on transparency, starting with its supply chain that shows information like the source for ingredients, their supplier and the final place of manufacturing. More recently, the brand has added an environmental footprint and investment in clinical trials of its final formulations to its transparency roster. Ritual has earmarked $5 million for human clinical studies on all its products by 2030. So far, it has conducted four clinical studies.
Ritual first launched with a women’s multivitamin, the brand’s only product for two years. Its roster of supplements now covers prenatal, gut health, sleep and stress, skin and protein powder. More than 1/3 of new customers bundle two or more products. In fact, 62% of Ritual customers have been with the brand for over a year and have purchased from them more than 10 times.
“While Ritual offers high-quality vitamins, it is important to acknowledge that, at this time, there is insufficient evidence to recommend multivitamins for improving overall health in the general population,” said Dr. Elizabeth Sharp, a board-certified internal medicine physician and founder and medical director at Health Meets Wellness, a concierge primary care practice for internal and functional medicines.
However, Dr. Sharp added that Ritual’s approach to clinical testing could push other supplement brands to follow suit and elevate the industry’s credibility. Supplements have historically relied on independent clinical tests of individual ingredients rather than testing final formulations, which has led to skepticism on their efficacy. In the long run, if more companies invest in clinical testing, it could lead to greater integration of supplements into conventional healthcare as evidence-based options alongside pharmaceuticals, she said.
Some companies have started to test their final formulation products in clinical settings. Most recently, David Beckham’s IM8 brand had participants undergo a 12-week randomized and controlled clinical trial. Other brands, like Nutrafol and Love Wellness, have also started to test their final formulations.
In more recent years, Ritual has also taken on an advocacy role. In a letter to Congress in 2023, Schneider asked elected officials to “take meaningful steps to improve the safety and efficacy of supplements on the market today.” Some suggestions or requests include having the FDA establish separate health-protective limits for heavy metals in supplements and protein powders, defining terms like “clinically studied” to reduce misuse in the marketplace, and enforcing ingredient traceability.
“One of the biggest challenges is also our biggest opportunity,” said Lindsay Dahl, Chief Impact Officer at Ritual. “The transparency and the receipts that we have on our website are a proof point for our customers who are skeptical.”
Ritual plans to continue honing its advocacy messaging while focusing on growing sales among existing customers. Future retail growth is also a key factor for its business.
“I feel very optimistic about the future of brick and mortar for Ritual,” said Schneider. “If you look at skincare, so much runway and opportunity has already been claimed in the masstige category, but that’s pretty nascent for supplements, and that’s where Ritual can really dominate.”