Organic Craze

In a retail market as large as that of the United States, even a small niche can be big business. The Organic Trade Association reports that the organic personal care market for 2003 reached $170 million in sales, a 19.4 percent increase over the year before. The sale of organic foods in 2003 reached $10.8 billion, and yet that figure represented just 2 percent of total food sales. The Hartman Group reported that 66 percent of consumers use organic products at least occasionally, and 11 percent use them daily — and the numbers are rising.

The importance of these numbers to gift retailers of personal care products is that the American consumer is now well versed in the concept of organic products.

The technical definition of "organic" offered by the National Organic Standards Board requires plants grown by methods that use as few "off-farm inputs" (such as fertilizer or pest control chemicals) as possible, and that enhance "biodiversity" — in other words, methods that are good for the soil, the groundwater, the air, and everything that lives in and around the farm.

Fernando Lima, co-founder of Long Island City, New York-based Florestas, bottom lines it even more simply. "You want to know what you're feeding your body," he says. "Researchers at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York found that 60 percent of what we put on our skin is absorbed into our blood streams. Organic products are the purest they can be, grown without chemicals or fertilizers; they are very simple and very safe."

The key appeal of organic products is that they don't contain pesticides or other chemicals that have been associated with cancer, infertility, and other ailments. Children and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable, but consumer groups have raised concerns about the effects of certain chemicals — especially petrochemicals (may cause acne or skin discoloration) and parabens (preservatives that have been linked to breast cancer) — for all consumers. Organic raw materials also have not been genetically modified.

Organic farming helps preserve and heal the environment by conditioning soil, keeping the seas and groundwater clean, and preserving biodiversity. Paying a little more for an organic product combines the appeals of health food and cause-related marketing, allowing customers, in their daily lives, to change the world for the better. And organics' niche status and slightly higher price tag will help distinguish your store from the competition — especially the mass market.

Timothy Bahash, president and founder of Philadelphia-based 4mula, explains, "The quality of the products is enough to sell them, but addressing these important issues offers added value. Why isn't everything made this way? Knowing that a company is not paying slave wages in China [for instance] makes a difference. Consumers respect that, and they'll buy on ethics in addition to quality."

However, relatively few personal care products are completely organic. One's much more likely to find "natural" products made with as many organic ingredients as possible — a percentage that varies from product to product. Meanwhile some products, while organic in philosophy, are not officially certified.

"It's very difficult to police," says Bahash. "There are plenty of well-intentioned people making products they probably think are organic, but actually aren't. We'd like to ultimately make the products organic, but availability is a problem. Our products contain very obscure ingredients like pumpkin seed oil; some we haven't been able to source at all, and some run out. We're not currently able to make our products [organically], but that's more a function of sources than desire. Once we can, we'll shift over."

But natural is a much broader term than organic, and not subject to the same rigorous certification standards. It can mean anything from a scrupulously pure product made from ingredients that simply aren't commercially available in organic form, to anything that has a plant or mineral anywhere in it.

It is, therefore, very important to ask potential vendors just what they mean by "natural." Good indicators to look for include essential oils instead of artificial fragrances, an absence of artificial colors, no parabens (rosemary or citrus can be used as natural preservatives instead) or phthalates (which have been linked to birth defects, according to The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics), biodegradable products, and products that are not tested on animals.

Once you're sure you've got organic or natural products, it's just as important to convey that information to the customer with informative hangtags or signage, because when it comes to selling organic and natural personal care, information is your best sales tool.