The Event

Natural Products Expo West 2026 Anaheim · Mar 3–6 2026

Expo West 2026 brought 60,000+ attendees and 3,000+ exhibiting brands to the Anaheim Convention Center, confirming its position as the world's largest natural products trade show. Supplement, food and beverage, and personal care brands used the floor to connect with the major US retail buyers who decide what reaches shelves nationwide.

This show draws more health & wellness and beauty brands than any other US event on the calendar: a large base of US supplement, food/beverage and natural beauty brands here already have, or aspire to, European demand, which makes tax/compliance and marketplace-listing questions come up constantly on the floor.

View event site → What this means for EU expansion

The Room

Who was in the room at Expo West

Expo West draws the full natural products ecosystem: supplement, food and personal care brand founders exhibiting alongside major US retail buyers, distributors and investors. The scale makes it as much a category trend-map as a single sourcing event, useful for reading where health and wellness demand is heading next.

Supplement & wellness founders Food & beverage brands Personal care brands Major retail buyers Distributors & investors Early-stage brands (Launch Pad / Pitch Slam)

Is Natural Products Expo West worth attending for a growing brand?

It draws more Health & Wellness and Beauty brands than any other US event, and tax/compliance and marketplace-listing questions come up constantly as these brands look to formalise EU/UK entry.

Health & Wellness Brand Founders

Supplement and natural product brands showing new lines to major buyers.

Major US Retail Buyers

Category buyers from national chains deciding what earns shelf space.

Distributors & Investors

Tracking which natural product categories are gaining traction and funding.

Programme

What Expo West told us

Three signals stood out from the show floor and sessions this year.

Category scale keeps growing across natural and wellness products

With 3,000+ exhibiting brands, Expo West confirmed the category's continued expansion, making it harder for any single brand to stand out on the US floor alone.

Major retail buyers remain the gatekeepers

Buyer relationships built at Expo West continue to determine which brands reach national shelf space, reinforcing the show's role as the primary US retail sourcing event for the category.

Brands are looking past the US market for the next growth phase

With the domestic category increasingly crowded, conversations on the floor increasingly turned toward international markets as the next lever for brands that have already won US shelf space.

Live Intelligence

What's being said about Expo West 2026

Coverage of Expo West pointed to a maturing US category looking for its next growth phase beyond domestic retail.

The US natural products category is reaching saturation in places

EXPO WEST PROGRAM · MAR 2026

With 3,000+ brands competing for the same major retail buyers, exhibitor commentary pointed to shelf space getting harder to win domestically. For an established brand, that's exactly the signal to look at markets where the category is less crowded.

European demand for natural and supplement products is rising

EXPO WEST PROGRAM · MAR 2026

Brands with existing European customer interest, whether through organic traffic or marketplace sales, described that demand as a reason to formalize a European presence rather than continue serving it ad hoc.

The strongest Health & Wellness and Beauty crowd on the US calendar

ECOMMERCE EVENTS CALENDAR · JUL 2026

Expo West draws more Health & Wellness and Beauty brands than any other single US event. Tax/compliance and marketplace-listing questions come up constantly here as US supplement and natural beauty brands look to formalise EU/UK market entry.

Expandly perspective

What Expo West 2026 means for your expansion

Expo West confirmed the US natural products category is crowded at the top, and Europe is the natural next market for brands that have already won domestic shelf space. Health and wellness products carry some of the strictest EU rules of any category, which is exactly why getting the compliance sequencing right matters most here.

Supplements classed as such in the US can be classified as medicines in parts of the EU, changing what claims and ingredients are allowed.
Health claim rules differ by EU country, and getting labeling wrong is one of the most common and costly mistakes for US supplement brands.
VAT (value-added tax) and product registration both need to be sorted before a supplement product can legally reach a European customer.
Local fulfillment matters for this category too, since perishable and time-sensitive wellness products need reliable, fast delivery.
This is the highest-density Health & Wellness and Beauty event on the US calendar, making it worth returning to year after year if you're in this category and eyeing EU expansion.

Health and wellness compliance in the EU is genuinely more complex than most categories, which is why brands that get it wrong often get it wrong expensively. Expandly maps the full applicable ruleset per market before a single unit ships.

EU customs rules keep shifting

Recent changes to how low-value parcels are taxed at the EU border mean US brands shipping direct to European customers now face a per-order customs charge that didn't exist before.

A per-order customs charge now applies to direct-to-EU parcels

Supplement classification varies by EU country

A product sold as a supplement in the US can be classed as a medicine in parts of Europe, which changes the entire regulatory pathway for launch.

Varies by market supplement vs. medicine classification across the EU

One partner, not a stack of vendors

Health and wellness brands juggling a VAT agent, a regulatory advisor and a fulfillment provider separately lose time to coordination. GEP™ runs it as one sequenced operation instead.

GEP™ one method, compliance to fulfillment

Good to Know

Questions about Expo West 2026

What did Natural Products Expo West 2026 actually cover?

Expo West 2026 brought 60,000+ attendees and 3,000+ exhibiting brands to Anaheim, confirming its role as the world's largest natural products trade show, with growing conversation around international expansion as the US category matures.

Is Expo West worth attending for a US health or wellness brand?

Expo West remains the single best US event for connecting with major retail buyers and reading category trends, making it valuable regardless of expansion plans, though it's a US sourcing event rather than a route into Europe.

Who attends Expo West?

Expo West draws supplement, food and personal care brand founders, major US retail buyers, distributors and investors, spanning the full natural products ecosystem in one of the largest trade shows in the category.

Can I sell US supplements and wellness products in the EU?

Supplements and health products are tightly regulated and rules differ by country. Permitted ingredients, dosages, and health claims vary across the EU, and some products classed as supplements in the US are treated as medicines in parts of Europe. Check classification and claims per market before listing, as this is a common and costly trip-up.

What are the main compliance requirements for selling in the EU?

Every product needs a plan covering VAT (value-added tax), product safety and labeling rules, and any category-specific registration such as EPR (extended producer responsibility) for packaging. Requirements vary by product type and by country, so a generic checklist isn't enough. Map the specific rules for your product and target markets before launch.

Is Expo West worth attending if you're planning EU or UK expansion?

Yes. It draws more Health & Wellness and Beauty brands than any other US event, and tax/compliance and marketplace-listing questions come up constantly as US supplement and natural beauty brands look to formalise EU or UK market entry.

Make Your Move

Won shelf space at Expo West?

If Expo West confirmed the US category is crowded, the next question is whether Europe's less-saturated wellness market is your brand's next growth chapter.

Expandly handles the parts that hold health and wellness brands back: VAT (value-added tax) registration, product classification and compliance, marketplace listings including Amazon, our Recommended E2E Expansion Partner, and fulfillment from our Netherlands warehouse. It's one sequenced operation, built on the Global Expansion Pathway (GEP™), rather than five vendors to manage yourself. Want to talk through what launching in Europe would look like for your product line?