Waukesha, Wisconsin — May 17, 2023 — HRG recently looked back at the new health, beauty, and wellness (HBW) items they chose as part of their annual selection of the Future 50 products for Drug Store News. After reviewing the HBW products they projected to succeed in the market from the five years spanning 2017-2022, they found that their selections have proven to be largely on target. To illustrate the highlights, HRG created infographics, the first of two is now available.
From 2017 to 2021, HRG’s new item review team evaluated over 10,000 HBW items, choosing 333 of them for the Future 50 (including multiple sizes of the featured items). An impressive 88% are still on the market. Additionally, of the products ranked in the top five of the Future 50 from those five years, 100% are still on the market and 60+% are in the top 25% of their Circana category.
To assess performance, HRG’s category and research analysts reviewed syndicated data as well as HRG’s own proprietary PAC data which is independent pharmacy channel performance data. Colleen Volheim, category research and analysis manager at HRG, said, “The look-back analysis of the Future 50 was a great validation of the team’s ability to forecast the HBW products they determined — based on an objective set of criteria that is also the basis of our HRG Star Rating system — had the potential to be successful. There are a number of reasons why new items may not find success — some out of a manufacturer’s control — and we know many products don’t make it beyond the first year after launch. These products obviously filled a need, and the manufacturer had the resources to get it on shelf, as well as let consumers know the benefits and features their item was designed to address.”