Housewares industry sees record growth amid pandemic

The pandemic has upended any number of industries — but among all the wreckage are a few that have persevered and even (gasp!) thrived. Drug stores are one. Along with grocery and mass retail, these essential retail channels have been a bright spot, not only in terms of financial success, but as key players in making sure that consumers have been able to acquire the necessities that have been getting them through this trying time.

On behalf of consumers — and moms — everywhere, I personally thank you for your efforts and the risks that you shouldered keeping your stores open and providing essential services. Your employees put themselves on the front lines by coming into work and making sure that our needs were met. Stores that remained open to provide essential services during the crisis stand to realize enhanced customer loyalty in the years ahead. In fact, many consumers indicate that they are now relying on stores like yours for products that they might normally have purchased somewhere else. 

The home and housewares industry has discovered its own essential nature for consumers during this crisis. Immediately after the pandemic became known, our industry saw record growth. In retrospect it’s no surprise, is it? Spaces that were meant for entertaining guests are now in-home classrooms. Remodeled kitchens are the background for Zoom calls taken from the breakfast nook. The focus on the home is absolute, and consumers looking to buy products to enhance their homes are often first looking at the options offered by their preferred essential retailer (that’s you). 

Drug and grocery stores have always carried some degree of housewares products. Humidifiers, personal groomers and, especially, kitchen gadgets and cookware. These have always been high-margin products albeit lower volume, as consumers were perhaps more inclined to buy these categories elsewhere. Today, we see the perfect convergence of “essential”— as housewares category demand intersects with consumer dependence on — and loyalty to your stores.

To give you a sense of the overall opportunity, I’ll point you to some key statistics from NPD Group, which tracks point of sale and register receipts to realize actual consumer purchasing habits. These are stats from the first several weeks of the pandemic through April, but all have continued to outperform 2019 numbers.

Personal Care:

• Facial trimmers $25 million;
• Home hair clippers up 18 million;
• Hot air stylers up $4.7 million; and
• Massaging appliances up $1.2 million.

Housewares:

• Metal bakeware up $5.2 million;
• Traditional food storage up $3.2 million;
• Non-electric can openers up $2.3 million; and
• Caps up $1.2 million.

These are categories that can naturally flow into your store and generate real profit for your business. And they show no sign of slowing down; in many instances, we wondered if we were just pulling holiday spending forward — but the truth is that the holidays look very different from past years and may require even more in-home spending. How many people are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time because they normally travel to another relative’s home? Do they have all of the necessities on hand to host at home? Will the winter holidays see fewer people, but on more discrete occasions? All seems likely in the near term.

As the “home authority,” the International Housewares Association tracks and reports on consumer trends, and the concepts of safety, security, health and wellness all have taken on new meaning and increased gravitas as of late — and the opportunity for stores to up- or cross-sell consumers is immense. Please look to IHA as a resource as you consider how to enhance your home and housewares offering, and I look forward to discovering all of the new product innovations borne from the pandemic with you at The Inspired Home Show 2021 on Aug. 7 to 10, 2021.