Price comparison for natural health products in New Zealand

Natural health pricing in New Zealand can be hard to follow.   At bemo, we decided to look into it. 

We used the hot selling product; Collagen, as an example.   Collagen is used to provide a healthy radiant skin. 

The top-selling Collagen product internationally is;

• Neocell Super Collagen + C (120 tabs)
• In NZ, this is not available everywhere and local brands such as Go Healthy Collagen for Joints was used as a reasonable comparison.

There are 2 main sources of quality of collagen - in-store pharmacies and online.

In NZ, the largest major pharmacy chains (Life and Unichem) are owned by the same company, Green Cross Health.   Local pharmacies do a great job serving their local area, they carry a wide range of brands (but generally all the same products) but their pricing is usually very high.   The Australian-owned Discount Chemist Warehouse now has a few stores and promote themselves as the cheapest location.   

There are a number of online only retailers of natural health in NZ.  Ease of use is an issue at many sites as they are very dated, or have 30,000+ products to find your way around.    We used Healthpost and myNaturalHealth as comparisons.

There are also a few own brand Collagen providers in NZ which whilst we didn't compare these directly, they tend to be much higher priced.

So what did we find?

First the pharmacies;

• Unichem doesnt have products on its website! It just links to the Life Pharmacy website.
• Life Pharmacy had Neocell but in a bigger packsize, however when you try to go there the page doesn't exist!
• Life Pharmacy had the similar Go Healthy product on "offer" at $63.99
• Discount Chemist Warehouse didn't have Neocell Collagen, nor did they have the exact same Go Healthy Collagen for Joints.   They did have a similar Go Healthy product, Go Healthy Beautiful Skin Support.  They say "why pay $71.99!" which makes you think its a huge discount, and it's priced at $38.99.

OK and now the online stores;

• Healthpost have the Neocell Super Collagen + C, and it's priced at $38.30
• myNaturalHealth have the Neocell Super Collagen + C, and it's priced at $38.90
• At bemo we have the Neocell Super Collagen + C with our normal every-day pricing at $35.00. 

Our Conclusion ...

Local pharmacies are great if you shop in person, they have the stock, and you don't mind what price you pay.

Discount chemists promote heavily that they are saving you lots, but often their pricing is more expensive than other options who don't shout discounts so much.

There are a number of online only stores with pricing that is cheaper than even discount chemists.

For Neocell Super Collagen + C, bemo was the lowest price of all the sources we reviewed.  Far cheaper than local pharmacies, cheaper than the discount pharmacy, and the lowest price of the online competitors we reviewed.   

Go bemo!! 👍👍 (phew!)

If you'd like to buy this product then click here ... Neocell Super Collagen + C

Disclaimer: All competitor pricing and functionality was correct at the time of writing this article, 27 Feb, 2020.