WellnessJK, the worldwide wellness equipment manufacturer, knows its striking while the iron is hot. The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) expects the wellness economy to reach $9 trillion by 2028 — but that’s just one of many signs touting the industry as a growing cash cow. 

The largest, however, is arguably wellness real estate. It’s the fastest growing industry sector within the wellness economy since before the pandemic and experienced an +18.1% annual growth between 2019 and 2023. 

“Wellness real estate growth is a great barometer for us to see the health of the industry, the confidence that people are putting into their own wellness journey,” said Andy Dunn, Senior Sales Director, Wellness. “I think that it shows full circle recovery from a tough few years being achieved and now surpassing 2019 growth numbers.” 

By manufacturing equipment and helping brands new and old better understand this side of the industry, WellnessJK is riding the wellness wave rather than paddling against it. 

WellnessJK’s Take on the Surge

WellnessJK points to two main triggers for this wellness real estate boom — the current nature of the real estate market and our increased desire as individuals to connect with one another. 

“The supply and demand of property is in the buyer’s favor right now, with many vacant properties from the last few years, which means that landlords need to promote good pricing and opportunities to get operators to fill vacant space,” said Dunn. 

“Secondly, consumers have a deeper understanding of what in-person, community-driven programs and services can do for their mental wellbeing,” he added. “At our core, we are social, community-driven beings that thrive off interaction and experiences. The last few years, if nothing else, were a huge social experiment on how we function in our communities and thrive off human contact in its various guises, whether talking to neighbors daily, attending a Zumba class, seeing your friends and family or being with your CrossFit crew.”

A Focused Response

In response to this real estate trend and its driving factors, WellnessJK adapted its sales tactics with a more targeted approach over the past few years. The brand today primarily focuses on covering both large growth segments and geographic locations already engulfed by the wellness surge to ensure profit.

“One of my mentors told me that you need to fish where the fish are, so we are trying to ensure we develop a sales and coverage strategy that takes full advantage of these trends in the segments we are working on for future success,” said Dunn. “By doing this, we are trying to leverage and use our brand equity to help those customers and segments to have the best possible product experience from a company that has quality, durability and a 100-year history in light and building the best possible product to help our customers achieve their objectives.”

Virtual Wellness

While WellnessJK is known for its red light therapy and touchless massage, which both represent in-person services, virtual wellness still has a place in all this even amid the rise in brick-and-mortar locations. It has and will continue to operate as a bridge of sorts for new wellness consumers, eventually leading them to physical locations. 

“We do multiple things for our wellness in a virtual or at-home fashion,” Dunn explained. “Meditation can be done anywhere. It seems more people than ever cold plunge or do contrast therapy at home. For a number of new wellness techniques, trying them at home or virtually is a quick way to discover your like for or tolerance of said technique to then try a brick and mortar or community version of that experience.” 

Rather than fall off at the expense of growing in-person wellness opportunities, WellnessJK expects virtual wellness to surge alongside them.

“I think we’ll see the growth of both options as new modalities become more mainstream,” Dunn said. “More and more research on more and more topics is leading wellness seekers to try and experiment with more and more techniques, more experiences and research more modalities that they feel may be a hack to drive better performance, mental health, happiness or all-round wellbeing.”

Future Outlook

WellnessJK also understands that staying on top of industry trends is no singular effort. The brand intends to expand on its findings going forward to remain ahead of the curve, looking at wellness from a more precise lens that breaks down its different sectors and potential new ones. 

“We are strategizing around recovery vs relaxation vs rejuvenation – how they differ, what those protocols look like and how we communicate that to customers,” said Dunn. “Also, how we can support the fitness, hospitality and spa world to connect the dots with their users around the use of GLP-1s, Semaglutides and the critical effects that proper recovery and wellness have on that user’s journey.”

WellnessJK also has its sights on applying an even blend between automatic and in-person services in the new year. Doing so promises to give clients and users a broad arsenal of tools to help accomplish their wellness goals. 

“We are also having conversations with numerous customers around a trend we think will be more prevalent in 2025, and that’s self service or automated solutions, which fits perfectly with our Wellsystem Wave product to either be a precursor to a treatment or activity or as a product to prolong the luxury or an experience like a massage or spa day.” 

The Wellsystem Wave is an automatic dry massage device that uses airless water for a high precision, low maintenance experience. It’s a simple insert to any wellness operation thanks to its convenience, as there’s no staff required to run it, and with the level of comfort it applies. 

“We have to continue to be the right partner for our customers, provide credible solutions and insight that will position us as the leader when it comes to wellness insight, product, relationships, quality of service and true partnership to drive long-term customer outcomes,” Dunn concluded. 

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