SHELTON, Conn.—As more traditional retailers expand their selection of organic food and beauty products, and as the media continues to focus more attention on this emerging trend, there has actually been no growth in the number of U.S. consumers that purchase these products, according to a recent study by TABS Group, a marketing, research and consulting firm in the consumer products industry.
"The usage results for our latest study were remarkably similar to the results from last year's study: Organic food and beauty products continue to be niche products; they have not penetrated a mass audience, to date," stated TABS Group president and founder, Dr. Kurt Jetta. "Identical to last year, only 38 percent of adults claim to have purchased anything from the major organic categories in the last six months."
Purchase levels for organic beauty care products also had very low mainstream acceptance with stated purchase for organic skincare at 6 percent and organic hair care and cosmetics at 4 percent. There was no meaningful change in the household penetration of any of these categories compared to the 2008 study done by TABS Group. By contrast, non-organic products for all of the above categories have household penetration levels of well above 70 percent.