In this Issue

VR. AR. AI… Oh my.

There is no question how much technology is changing not only the way retailers and brands engage consumers during the pre, during and post phases of the shopping experience, and reshaping the path to purchase, but also how brands bring new innovation to the market and rethink how products are merchandised online and in store.

Below, DSN outlines the big trends, predictions and critical issues that will make the news in 2017 and beyond.

1. VR takes over

From the hot color segments to new product launches, here is what you need to know about the beauty business in 2017.

(To view the full Beauty Trends Report, click here.)

Mass market color cosmetics sales continue to climb, driven primarily by adventurous millennials.

Rather than watch the nail category continue to evaporate, retailers and brands are bonding together with innovative launches and impactful in-store presentations.

(To view the full Beauty Trends Report, click here.)

For the 52-week period ended Oct. 30, nail color sales were down 11.4% across multi-outlets, according to IRI. That’s prompting action.

A key trend captured by the 2016 TABS Analytics Vitamin and Minerals Supplements study is the continued decline in the number of heavy buyers (those who purchased more than three types of vitamins in a year). Heavy-buyer penetration peaked at 40% in 2012, but in 2016, heavy-buyer penetration dropped to 30%.

(Click here to view the full VMS Report.)

Before you got into the association management business, you worked in government and even ran for Congress in 1980. What led you to politics, and what are one or two of the most important things that experience taught you?

I was 27 years old when I ran for Congress, so I was in my formative years. I learned that I could compete with anyone, despite my blue-collar background. However, I realized I don’t have all of the answers, and probably never will.

It probably won’t surprise anyone that I was NOT one of the hundreds of millions of people who got swept away in the whole Pokémon Go thing last summer. If you would have told me a year ago that you were looking for Pikachu, I probably would have said, “God bless you.… Now what are you looking for?”

As we ship this issue to the printer, it has been less than 24 hours since Drug Store News hosted its 18th annual Industry Issues Summit. What began almost two decades ago as a closed-door discussion between a handful of retail merchandising executives and a few vendors in a small hotel meeting room has since evolved to become one of the signature thought leadership and networking events on the industry calendar.

AARP’s Project Catalyst — an initiative aimed at sparking healthcare innovation focused on people ages 50 years and older — in a report from April projects that by 2020, 117 million Americans will need some sort of caregiving assistance. At that point, the size of the market for the 45 million unpaid and 5 million paid caregivers is estimated to reach $72 billion, with RAND estimating opportunity costs around caregivers to be $522 billion every year, based on income unpaid caregivers lose in time spent on eldercare.