TABS Analytics Blog

When you need household care products - cleaning supplies, paper towels, garbage bags, dishwasher detergent, air fresheners and mops/brooms - you probably have them on your shopping list for Walmart, your neighborhood grocery store or maybe club stores, like Costco, if you want to seriously stock up. You may not automatically think about going to your local home improvement store for these products, but chances are you may have picked up one or more of them while you were buying paint to freshen up your living room, new fixtures for the kitchen, or a replacement toilet for your bathroom. Home improvement stores are significant competitors for retail sales of household products across 15 categories of products analyzed in the first TABS Analytics Household Care Study.

Our first infographic from the 2017 TABS Household Care survey is a study in contrasts: deals are important, online shopping is not. Five key trends, as we see it, are shaping the household care landscape for this important CPG sector. Read on below to learn what they are.

And, don't forget to watch the recording of our 2017 Household Care Study webinar, where we reviewed these trends in detail, and more...  

In our first infographic from the 2017 TABS Food and Beverage Study, we highlight the importance of deal tactics among shoppers. Some findings from our study include:

• Households with kids place the most importance on deals
• Grocery continues to struggle in attracting online shoppers

Be sure to watch the recording of our 2017 Food and Beverage Study webinar where we reviewed these points, and more, in detail.  

At a time when the majority of consumer goods companies are unsatisfied with their ability to manage trade promotions, and many are still doing so on spreadsheets, the value of a great vendor to help with trade promotion management/optimization (TPx) can't be underestimated. TABS Analytics was honored to be named as one of the best-in-class vendors by the Promotion Optimization Institute (POI) in its 2017 TPx Vendor Panorama report.

The TPx Vendor Panorama was developed to help guide consumer goods companies to successfully execute trade promotions at the headquarters level. In addition to identifying vendors’ strengths and weaknesses, the report offers key insights from the POI survey, and suggests numerous strategies companies can employ to improve trade promotions. 

YouTube, Facebook, beauty blogs and other social media channels are increasingly important to women when they are deciding which cosmetics to purchase, according to the 2017 Cosmetics Study survey released by TABS Analytics. The TABS study is seeing social media’s impact on brands grow since the inception of the survey four years ago. Among all buyers, 39 percent said that social media is very important – up from 27 percent in 2014.

Online reviews, demo videos strongly influence heavy buyers’ cosmetics purchase decisions

Shelton, CT – November 28, 2017 – Women who buy 10 or more types of cosmetics products annually (defined as heavy buyers) say online reviews are now more important than saving money when it comes to making purchasing decisions, according to TABS Analytics’ Fourth Annual Cosmetics Study. According to the study, 52 percent of heavy buyers are influenced by online reviews, but only 49 percent like to shop at cosmetics stores with good deals. Deal preference among heavy buyers dropped 11 percentage points from 60 percent in 2016 to 49 percent this year. But for light buyers (who annually buy 1-4 types of products) deal preference remains strong (42 percent) compared to online reviews (17 percent). For medium buyers (5-9 types purchased), deal preference (48 percent) also tops online reviews (25 percent).

TABS Analytics has added a new study – household products – to its arsenal of consumer packaged goods sector analyses. Conducted in September, the first-ever household care study examined trends, demographics, deal preferences and shopping patterns related to 15 categories in the $75 billion household goods sector: toilet paper, laundry detergent, paper towels, garbage bags, household cleaner, dish soap, facial tissue, air fresheners, fabric softeners, bleach, dishwasher detergent, mops/brooms, paper napkins, disposable tableware and floor-cleaning sheets.

Hispanic and black households, large families help drive sales, as do high purchase size and purchase frequency, in part due to significant distribution across multiple channels

Shelton, CT – October 31, 2017 –Walmart leads all outlets for purchase share in the $75 billion household products market, TABS Analytics reported in its first TABS Household Care Study Webinar. This sector has much more channel competition than other consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories, TABS said. Walmart leads with 16.4 percent of purchases, but food retailers aren’t far behind with 14.9 percent. Dollar stores and home improvement stores have a 9.5 and 9.3 percent share, respectively, and there are nine outlets with a purchase share of at least 5 percent. E-commerce share of purchases is only 5 percent and TABS hypothesizes that the low share is a result of the high purchase frequency of many household products across multiple channels. 

Even though eCommerce still only accounts for a small portion of sales in the food and beverage market, the ability for consumers to purchase items on the web and then pick them up at a local retailer has been driving online shopping growth in the U.S. during the past year. While U.S. online sales increased by 13 percent since 2016, this channel is still just a drop in the bucket compared to the predominance of brick-and-mortar retailers. And it has a long way to go before it can be considered a success – like eCommerce is in the U.K. – based on established retail loyalty norms.

That’s just one of the findings that TABS CEO Dr. Kurt Jetta shared last month when releasing the results of the TABS Analytics 5th Annual Food and Beverage Consumables Study, which for the first time expanded to include analysis of the U.S. and U.K markets.  The study looked at similarities and differences that exist between the two countries, and if any U.K. trends could potentially foreshadow things to come in the U.S.  

Complementary expertise of both companies provides multi-faceted platform to service wide array of clients and categories in consumer packaged goods (CPG) arena

Shelton, CT – October 16, 2017 – TABS Analytics has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Pivotstream, Inc., a Seattle-based global data analytics firm. Pivotstream, a global business intelligence firm that operates in CPG, has strong ties to the wine and spirits industry, with three of the top U.S. distributors as clients. TABS says that the Pivotstream platform will be a core component of TABS’ service offerings going forward.