DXPs, SnackMagic, +2 more rapidly trending topics

Exploding Topics scours the internet to find emerging trends before they take off.

Here are four of the latest developments, along with some insights and analysis to help you take advantage.

1. Whipped Body Butter

Whipped body butter is a whisked, fluffy skincare cream.

Shea butter alone is expected to be a $2.9B market by 2025.

For example DTC beauty brand Coco and Eve, sells a “body moisture whip”.

The startup doubled its sales across its whole range of body products last year.

But much of the market for whipped body butter currently comes from the homemade sector. In fact, there are more than 1K whipped body butter products listed on Etsy.

What’s next:

Whipped body butter is part of the luxury beauty meta trend.

The luxury cosmetics market is forecast to be worth $75.5B by 2025.

Augustinius Bader is a German luxury skincare brand named after its founder, a professor in biomedical science.

The startup generates annual revenue of $6M.

And 111Skin, a London-based luxury beauty startup, saw revenues increase by 50% last year. Which prompted a “multi-million” investment from Vaultier7, a health and beauty investment fund.

Other fast-growing startups in this space include Albiva, MZ Skin, and UOMA Beauty.

2. Digital Experience Platform

A digital experience platform (DXP) is an evolution of a content management system, modified to address multiple aspects of the customer experience.

The digital experience platform market is expected to be worth $15.8B by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 10.9%.

According to a recent Omninsend study, purchase rates are 287% higher when 3 or more channels are used to communicate with customers.

Bloomreach is one of the market leaders in digital experience platforms in the ecom space, claiming to power 25% of all US and UK Ecommerce experiences.

The company, which has 750 customers, raised a $150M round in January.

On a smaller scale, InspireHub makes the IHUBApp, a DXP designed specifically for small businesses.

The Texas-based startup has an estimated annual revenue of $5.6M.

What’s next:

Digital experience platforms are part of the “meet customers where they’re at” meta trend.

Searches for “business texting” are growing steadily.

And ManyChat reports that “chat marketing” (marketing through messenger apps) can achieve up to an 80% open rate.

Ahachat makes a marketing, sales and customer support chatbot for Facebook Messenger.

And Landbot is a no-code chatbot builder that works on WhatsApp (and on websites).

The Spanish startup has grown revenue 10x since 2018, and now has 2.2K paying customers. Landbot raised an $8M Series A round in January.

Other fast-growing topics in the meta trend include Instagram Checkout, Pimcore and Optimove.

3. SnackMagic

SnackMagic is a snack-focused subscription box service.

Customers can set up a snack budget. And recipients choose which treats to receive from the catalog. There’s also an option for curated snack boxes (with some limited customization).

The service menu includes snacks, beverages, and pantry items from 236 brands.

The startup reached $20M in annual revenue in December 2020. And raised $15M in a Series A funding round at a $66-99M estimated valuation in April 2021.

What’s next:

SnackMagic is a part of the “DTC fourth meal” meta trend.

35% of US consumers state that they are snacking more now compared to the start of the pandemic.

Another survey suggests even higher numbers, with 46% of global survey respondents consuming more snacks (and 62% among remote employees).

And 38% of consumers opt to buy snacks online, up from 20% before the pandemic. Plus, 69% of consumers plan to continue purchasing snacks after the pandemic, and 77% said the process was easier than expected.

Here are some interesting growing brands in this space:

IWON Organics: High-protein snack brand. Most of their products are made from beans, peas, and rice. The California-based startup raised $850K in disclosed funding across 2 rounds.

Schoolyard Snacks: Makes keto-friendly, sugar-free snacks containing milk protein isolate. Schoolyard Snacks reports that they have more than 200K customers. They raised $5M in funding last year.

Outstanding Foods: Manufacturer of plant-based snacks. Their flagship product is a “pigless pork rind”. Sales of “plant-based meat snacks” in the US have grown by 42% over the last year.

4. Cooling Blanket

A cooling blanket is bedding that’s engineered to reduce bed temperatures.

According to BBC research, 65.3 degrees is the optimal room temperature for sleeping. But this is often exceeded, particularly in summer months.

Certain cooling blankets and mattress toppers use electric cooling systems. But the majority try to create natural cooling through specially chosen materials.

Dangtop, one of the market leaders, utilizes bamboo. The blanket stays about 3 degrees cooler than its environment.

The company’s flagship cooling blanket on Amazon brings in roughly $105.49K per month (AmzScout).

What’s next:

Cooling blankets are part of the high end sleep products meta trend.

The high-end bedding market is worth an estimated $2.36B (Statista). That’s forecast to rise to $2.48B by 2023.

And the sleep technology market could reach $32B by 2026.

Neorhythm is a magnetic stimulation headband designed to “activate the body’s natural sleep process”.

The product raised $2.14M (£1.53M) on Indiegogo from over 7.1K backers. And was named as one of the top 4 wearable healthcare innovations for 2021 in the Innovation World Cup Series.

Other trending topics driving this meta trend include Cozy Earth, Zimasilk and Crane & Canopy.