Dive Brief:
- Drugstores, like grocery stores, haven’t felt much of the sting of e-commerce competition the way other retailers have for a variety of reasons, according to a new report by BI Intelligence.
- Health and personal care products see $300 billion in sales annually, second only to groceries. However, just 7% of those sales were online, compared to 30% web sales for electronics and 20% web sales for home furnishings.
- The report says that’s changing, with 36 million U.S. shoppers going online for health and beauty products last year, up from 20 million in 2010.
Dive Insight:
The success of web beauty retailers like Birchbox, which offers a subscription service, is one big reason for the recent uptick in e-commerce sales for this category. Sephora has stepped up its own e-commerce game with the unveiling of its two-day “Flash” membership delivery model. These players are putting pressure on drugstore retailers and others that cater to consumers’ needs and wants for health and personal products.