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Doug Williams is a 25-year veteran of the natural products industry, having been general manager of a regional retail chain in Georgia (Peachtree Natural Foods, founder of a still-running independent brokerage, Kudzu Natural Resources). He is a consultant to retailers and producers, and since 2018 has been national sales director for Green Earth Medicinals, a clinically developed botanical medicine company specializing in cannabis-based medicine.

Question: How has the pandemic affected the CBD market?

Answer: In general, the CBD market has seen a slowdown in growth, but is still growing. The pandemic saw many consumer goods categories go online at the expense of retailers, but the CBD category took a hefty hit.

The years 2020 and 2021 saw a slowdown in natural products retailers’ CBD sales, with much of the category growth going to e-commerce, pharmacies and CBD-focused specialty retailers. According to data presented by Nutrition Business Journal, retailers saw a drop in sales from 2019-2020, even as the natural products industry saw a 16 percent boost in supplements overall. The plunge was even more spectacular in mass grocery and natural foods retail outlets (excluding Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s) tracked by SPINS/IRI. The CBD dietary supplements category hemorrhaged 45.1 percent annual sales from 123.4 million in May 2019 to just 67.7 million in May 2020.

Question: Who is using CBD products?

Answer: According to a July 2021 Natural Products Insider post, 10 percent of Americans report using a CBD product within the past 30 days, but the data skews younger, with Millennials averaging about 13 percent and Baby Boomers only at 5 percent. Millennials and iGen are reporting they are using it for emotional self-care (including stress, anxiety, depression and relaxation). Older generations are turning to CBD for the same issues but are more likely than their younger counterparts to say they are using CBD to try to help manage chronic pain and reduce inflammation. Millennials and Gen X account for more than two-thirds (71 percent) of CBD users, and a plurality of both generations use CBD daily. Both generations are also more informed about the CBD dose they take, especially when compared to Baby Boomers, who are also most likely to buy CBD from a natural product retailer. Younger consumers, who are less likely to shop at health food stores, take more doses per day, which is consistent with established protocols on using CBD to support the healthy function of the endocannabinoid system.

Question: Why has CBD slowed in growth?

Answer: I believe the answer is found in consumer studies showing that most consumers are disappointed in the CBD products they have tried, as their experience doesn’t live up to the hype. It’s not a lack of choice; the market has slowed down in growth even as we saw a flood of new products available. In 2020 we saw a 75 percent crash in food and beverage products with CBD, and a 2 percent drop in hemp CBD products overall, while 2021 only managed 2.5 percent growth. Part of this stagnation can be traced to an abundance of products using inaccurate or misleading messaging about their effects and intended usage. Problems continue surrounding the quality and quantity of CBD used by manufacturers. A 2017 JAMA study, and a Jan. 2022 report from Leafreport.com, show that nearly 70 percent of CBD products sold mislabel their CBD content.

Question: What should health food store retailers do to increase the sales of these products?

Answer: Retailers have to take extra steps to ensure quality in this segment of the market. We have to provide better customer guidance and curate our store sets to ensure the customer only gets the highest quality products that will help them. To guarantee high quality for consumers, retailers should perform due diligence by confirming the certificates of analysis for CBD brands they sell, which means not only asking for the C of A but reading it and then confirming with the lab that the certificate is legitimate. Even when CBD percent content labeling is correct, many products listed as “full-spectrum” do not contain other cannabinoids, suggesting that the brands are using cheaper CBD isolate that they are labeling as full spectrum.

Question: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Answer: The story is as it has ever been—consumers do not buy products that don’t work. We have to take our responsibility seriously to help people get results in a market that is rampant with fraud. If the natural products space wants to sell CBD successfully, it must be willing to provide high-quality products and inform consumers on proper usage.