Clean Digestive Health Company Wonderbelly Launches at Walmart

Wonderbelly is on a mission to clean up the OTC aisle. 

The brand, known for its clean digestive health medications, on Tuesday is announcing its expansion into 2,500 Walmart doors with end caps, following the launch of its latest product: Multi-Symptom, $10, which is a Pepto-Bismol alternative. The brand has two other stock keeping units — an antacid, $10, a Tums alternative; and Bloat + Gas Relief, $10, a Gas-X alternative, which will also launch into Walmart — and there will be nine skus total with the flavor assortment.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Wonderbelly to Walmart and provide an option for customers looking for dye-free digestive care products, “ said Paulo Araujo, director of merchandising, health and wellness at Walmart. “We’re excited about the collaboration with Wonderbelly and see strong potential to drive growth and provide more options in the category for our customers at an everyday low price.”

Additional retailers include Target, CVS and Amazon, making for over 100,000 physical points of distribution. 

The brand, founded by brothers Noah and Lucas Kraft, launched out of a personal need. Growing up, Lucas Kraft dealt with an eating disorder. Upon his recovery, he found himself constantly reaching for traditional antacids, which are filled with ingredients like talc, dyes and artificial sweeteners, to treat lingering digestive issues.

When entering Target in 2023 shortly after its initial launch, cofounder and chief belly officer Lucas Kraft told WWD: “I got sort of outraged because, of all things, medicine is something I’m supposed to trust. Inherently it’s supposed to benefit my health.“

When the brand launched three years ago, the team never imagined it would reach such a broad retail footprint so quickly, but with consumer attitudes moving toward clean ingredients and government regulations, such as the banning of certain dyes, it has amassed success quickly. According to Noah Kraft, its consumer base is extremely broad in terms of location, political affiliation and lifestyle.

Retail sales are projected to reach $18 million, doubling from 2024 and tripling from 2023, according to the team. With this, it is the fastest growing OTC digestive health brand. 

“What’s become very clear to us is, the consumer that’s looking for clean ingredients, particularly dye-free products, is now a mainstream consumer,” said Wonderbelly cofounder and chief executive officer Noah Kraft. 

He added that the Multi-Symptom launch is a significant moment for the brand, as it broadens its consumer base even further. 

“It’s a totally new way of us thinking about the digestive category in the sense that everyone has Pepto,” he said. “Tums and Gas-X are acute users who use them habitually, but basically everyone has the ‘break glass product,’ so we really are going mass with that in a different way.” 

The brand’s retailers are similarly welcoming new consumers with Wonderbelly’s presence, as well. Specifically, sales data and analytics firm Spins reports that 60 percent of shoppers in the United States grabbing Wonderbelly are new to the category. 

“We are incremental, and we’re bringing in a much younger consumer,” said Noah Kraft, adding that their main customer is thirtysomething with expendable income, often female-leaning. “We’re bringing in a customer that usually wouldn’t even walk this aisle.” 

Aside from offering a clean alternative to Pepto-Bismol and similar products, the brand, as with its other products, chose to differentiate even further with this launch. The team found the two biggest pain points were, of course, that the formulas weren’t clean and in most cases, the products weren’t enjoyable to take. 

“[Multi-Symptom is] an enjoyable experience, all the while without compromising on ingredients,” said Lucas Kraft. “We wanted to show that it was achievable, especially when there’s this product that’s been around for 100 years. They’ve had the time, the money and the brains to make it all those things, but they just haven’t.” 

Rather than the typical sweet bubblegum, the product comes in three flavors: Mixed Berry, Orange & Crème and Vanilla Bean. 

“Flavors play a really interesting role with this product, because you need to want to take it in a time that you might not actually be interested in something extremely flavorful,” said Lucas Kraft. 

Flavor has played a crucial role across the brand’s entire portfolio, which includes unexpected iterations like Strawberry Milkshake, Fruity Cereal and Mango Smoothie. 

The team also opted to develop the product in a chewable format versus a liquid, both to match with its other skus and align with consumer habits — according to the brand’s findings, the younger consumers they are targeting are more inclined to opt for a chewable or tablet over a liquid formula. 

While the brand didn’t expect to have this mass retail footprint so quickly — in fact the team had to say “no” to retailers even earlier on to ensure they were actually ready to enter so many doors at once — it was the ultimate goal to compete directly with the heritage brands with these product alternatives. 

“We want to be on shelf next to the leading brand,” said Noah Kraft. “The fact that we show up in these retailers, and the response is always, ‘How quickly can you guys launch?’ just shows what a vacuum there’s been in the market.”

According to Noah Kraft the brand has aspirations to eventually enter into the digestive health supplement category, given the credibility it has built in the OTC environment. In addition to this, the team is now looking heavily into the broadening of GLP-1 usage and exploring what complementary products could look like for the brand to eventually launch. 

“[The GLP-1 market further] validates the opportunity that we’re currently pursuing,” said Lucas Kraft. “What you get there is a person who is comfortable with pharma, however, is looking for a cleaner, better life.”

While the brand has several products that it’s considering for the future, particularly alternatives to traditional digestive health medications, the focus, particularly following this Walmart launch, is its retail distribution.

“We’ve moved so fast the next year is about establishing,” said Noah Kraft.