Lifestyle Factors Impact Hair Care Category

ROBERT VOSBURGH

A new report released in June by the Global Market Development Center shows hair care is a nonfood gateway category into the health and wellness lifestyle. The study hints that retailers need better insight into where their shoppers are in the wellness continuum.

“It's important to understand that peripheral shoppers will evolve over time in the wellness lifestyle” to become mid-level and eventually core consumers, said Chris DePetris, GMDC's director of wellness programs.

For example, a peripheral wellness consumer who is shopping the hair care aisle will initially be more concerned with price and scent, while a core wellness shopper will focus on animal testing, environmental impact and ingredients — a marked departure that retailers need to be aware of as they create their planograms.

If there is one common denominator among those consumers polled in the study, it's effectiveness, said DePetris. Some 73% or respondents called it the most important non-pricing factor in making their purchase decision.