U.S. shoppers slow to embrace organic beauty, food products, study says

SHELTON, Conn. Despite the buzz surrounding organic beauty and food items, these items have not yet gained mainstream acceptance by U.S. consumers, according to a recently released study by TABS Group.

“There is a significant gap between the hype and reality of consumer purchase behavior with regard to organic products,” said Kurt Jetta, president and founder of the marketing research and consulting firm. “Less than 40% of adults claim to have purchased anything from the major organic categories in the last six months.”

According to the study, organic beauty care products were found to have low mainstream acceptance with stated purchase for organic skin care at 5% and organic hair care and cosmetics at 4% and 3%, respectively.

Organic fresh fruit had the highest purchase incidence at 27%, with organic fresh vegetables close behind at 26%. Organic dairy products, eggs and milk were cited for purchase by 18% and 17% of U.S. adults, respectively. Frozen organic products like vegetables, fruit and ice cream, had low purchase levels at 5% to 6%.

By contrast, non-organic products for all of the above categories had household penetration levels of well above 70%, according to TABS Group.

“The findings are consistent with trends we have been tracking in retailer sales data,” Jetta said. “Very few of these products have meaningful sales levels in traditional mass market retailers, even the ones that are very strong in the natural food and specialty channels.”