Health and beauty products are the most frequently promoted products at major supermarkets, a new Guardian Australia analysis shows, with shampoos and conditioners among the items that are almost permanently on sale at Coles and Woolworths.
The big grocery retailers also heavily promote unhealthy foods, which are often displayed prominently near checkouts and at the end of aisles, despite an anticipated government clampdown on such selling tactics.
Promotions are typically funded either solely by a product manufacturer, or through an agreement between the manufacturer and the supermarket to share the reduced profit margins, in expectation of increased sales. Multinationals usually wield the biggest marketing budgets.
Bronwyn Thompson, a sales strategist who has worked for major household brands, says health and beauty products have high profit margins and are often produced by major corporations, leaving ample room to discount.
“The pockets of the multinationals are deep and Coles and Woolies would be supporting them quite well,” says Thompson.
“It’s a growing sector; we now even have tweens in that market, and there are a lot of competitors. Everyone’s chasing that growth.”
Companies like French multinational L’Oréal and US skincare brand Olay feature heavily in promotions at supermarkets, along with vitamins suppliers Nature’s Way and Swisse.
More than 45% of the specials at Coles and Woolworths are health and beauty products, according to the analysis. We looked at one year of data between June 2023 and July 2024 provided by deals website Shppngtrlly.com.au.
The data was captured weekly, giving a snapshot of what was on sale in this period, but not whether they ever went “off” sale.
The categories can be fuzzy as supermarkets can use very broad, overlapping and sometimes inconsistent classifications for their products. Sometimes, the same product can be shelved under “pantry” in one store, under “drinks” in another, or periodically be included in seasonal or special categories.
Guardian Australia matched, merged and grouped together thousands of products, based on the metadata that was on the supermarket pages. But there are still thousands that remain uncategorised.
Some products were repeatedly discounted throughout the year – one kind of Twinings tea appeared 42 times in our dataset. Nature’s Way vitamin D tablets were discounted 39 times and some Olay shampoos more than 20 times.
The ABC has previously found thousands of products follow a cyclical pattern where Coles and Woolworths take turns putting products on sale.
A Coles spokesperson said the supermarket was focused on helping customers find value amid cost-of-living challenges, and is currently offering many fresh produce specials.
“There are many factors which help us decide if and when to put items on special, including seasonality, availability, supplier preference and frequency of purchase,” the spokesperson said.
A Woolworths spokesperson said one way the supermarket tried to provide great value was by running promotional activities across a range of categories.
“We offer promotions on products that are popular with our customers, from both national brands and our own and exclusive range,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re focused on making healthier food more affordable, including offering healthier products in our promotions to provide customers with extra value on foods that are better for them and their families.”
The brands that go on sale the most outside health and beauty are also very well known, with confectionery company Cadbury and clothing brand Bonds featuring prominently.
Given unhealthy items are often bought on impulse, discounts are seen as a great way by supermarkets to entice customers to make an unplanned purchase.
The major supermarkets discount unhealthy food twice as often as healthier items, with specials twice the size, according to Deakin University research. Meanwhile, the majority of price-promoted drinks in Australia are for sugary beverages.
“People go into supermarkets with good intentions, but they’re undermined,” says the Food for Health Alliance executive manager, Jane Martin.
“These drive people to eat more unhealthy food and the vast majority of people are not eating enough fruit and vegetables.”
Martin says supermarkets should be prevented from applying temporary discounts to unhealthy items.
The federal government has described Australians’ diets as “sub-optimal”, in a trend that has resulted in a range of negative consequences, including increased rates of obesity and associated chronic diseases.
The government is looking into options to limit unhealthy food marketing to children, who are particularly vulnerable to promotions at a time they are forming lifelong food habits.
Most current measures designed to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing in Australia are industry-led and voluntary, which differs from the approach of comparable jurisdictions.
While Woolworths has previously announced it would remove “children’s confectionery” at the end of checkouts and aisles, the aisle ends still feature discounted “sometimes foods” such as chips.
There is a ban in the UK on the placement of unhealthy food and drinks in prominent locations in stores, such as end of aisles and checkouts, as well as online restrictions. Volume-based price promotion restrictions, affecting multi-buys, are due to come into force next year.
One in five discounted health and beauty products that we looked at were for hair care, mostly shampoos and conditioners. This is based on the more granular categories that sometimes appear on the individual product pages of the supermarket websites – although we were unable to get more info for about a third of the products in this category.
The health and beauty segment is seen as an important growth leg as supermarkets take market share from once dominant department stores and pharmacies.
Supermarkets even design their cosmetics aisles differently to the rest of their stores, with more appealing furnishings.
Thompson says supermarkets understand the growth potential for health and beauty, and will try to entice more customers to buy those products as part of their grocery shop.
“People are starting earlier on these products, and their routines get more and more complicated and involved with health and beauty,” Thompson says.
“Supermarkets understand that the sky’s the limit.”
