Waukesha, Wisconsin — August 2, 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 to dig into category trends. After reviewing the HBW products they projected to succeed in the market from the five years spanning 2017-2022, they found the categories with the largest number of new items that are still on shelves are pain relief, oral care, eye & ear care, and first aid. To illustrate the highlights, HRG created an infographic which is available now on their website.

From 2017 to 2022, HRG’s new item review team evaluated over 10,000 HBW items, considering syndicated data as well as HRG’s own proprietary PAC™ data, which is independent pharmacy channel performance data, to choose the 333 products for the Future 50 (includes multiple sizes of the featured items). An impressive 88% are still on the market. 100% of eye & ear care items (24 items selected) are still on shelves and 85% of pain relief products chosen (54 products) are still available.

The look-back analysis of the Future 50 validated HRG’s category research and analysis team’s ability to forecast the HBW products they determined had the potential to be successful based on an objective set of criteria that is also the basis of the HRG Star Rating system. Over 70% of the 333 items were awarded a coveted HRG Star rating.

Colleen Volheim, category research and analysis manager at HRG, said, “Our HRG Star Rating system has been a reliable methodology for projecting the success of new health, beauty, and wellness products for 25+ years and this Future 50 lookback has helped validate that.”