Anti-aging rides wave of sales from baby boomers

Skin care products, including facial moisturizers and facial anti-aging products, experienced an uptick in sales, and the growth is expected to continue going forward as baby boomers help fuel sales and shoppers indulge in small luxuries.

According to data from SymphonyIRI Group, sales of skin care — which includes acne treatments, body anti-aging, depilatories, facial anti-aging, facial cleansers and facial moisturizers and fade/bleach — rose nearly 2.5% to about $3.53 billion for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 2 at total 
U.S. multi-outlets.

Looking ahead, demand for skin care products — especially anti-aging — is expected to continue. “Baby boomers feel ‘young at heart,’ and they will also want to look young and healthy. Anti-aging is expected to see a 24% increase in constant value terms for 2011 to 2016, to reach U.S.$3.6 billion,” research firm Euromonitor International stated in a recent “Beauty and Personal Care in the U.S.” report.

Meanwhile, half of U.S. consumers are likely to make a small luxury purchase in the next six months, including 48% who are likely to purchase luxury personal care products, according to research findings released in November from Accenture. Among the findings, physical stores beat online shopping 2-to-1 for luxury personal care products: 44% of shoppers in this category prefer drug stores and 40% prefer department stores.