Retailer requirements have become far more robust and difficult to navigate for today’s CPG producers. However, the benefits of better promotion, shelf space, visibility, increased sales, etc., are more than worth the efforts. When formulating for retailers such as Target, Walmart and Amazon, you will find a mix of sustainability, company, product, and ingredient level requirements. Many formulators are left asking themselves, how do I create a product that will qualify for these special programs? What ingredients in my products are on which retailer lists? How do I know if I qualify for one program but might have problems with another?
If it feels overwhelming, you are not alone! Let’s do an introduction to some of these programs and the types of considerations you need to have in mind.
First when formulating for programs, particularly retailer programs, there are structural differences that are worth educating yourself on. Each retailer program is crafted for their purposes which means they might be entirely driven by ingredient screening or might include other attributes of the product or the company that makes it. Depending on your company’s needs and the specific product category you are formulating within, some programs may not even be relevant for your organization.
To illustrate this, let’s take a quick look at the three retailers we have already mentioned. Walmart operates a Clean Beauty program that only applies to health and beauty products, but this program is nested under a larger program called Built for Better, which applies to more product categories and uses different qualification rules. In contrast, Amazon does not operate a “clean” program in any product category. Their Climate Pledge Friendly program is much broader, covering multiple product categories, with only limited consideration of ingredient selection. The Amazon program leverages existing, third-party certifications systems that can be used to identify products that exhibit climate benefits. Target’s Clean program is nested within a broader product tagging program organized around a “wellness” theme. Focused largely on ingredient selection, Target Clean has category-specific lists of prohibited ingredients and covers products in Health and Beauty, Cleaning Supplies, OTC and Supplements.
As a formulator, it is helpful to have in-depth knowledge of each of these programs and how your products need to be designed to take advantage of the benefits offered. However, trying to keep up with retailer requirements, SKUs, and formulation versions can be a daunting task. Let’s simply start with the summary below of the three programs mentioned already.
Target Clean
Why formulate for Target Clean? Target does a great job at providing special marketing benefits to products that meet their Target Clean requirements. From endcap displays to online promotions, they put Clean certified products front and center to their customers. Here is a summary of key elements of the Target Clean Program.
- Bro ad program coverage: Health and Beauty, Cleaning Supplies, OTC and Supplements.
- Target requires Clean products in all categories to be formulated without a set of chemicals it has designated as Priority Chemicals. Target states, “Products are formulated without select chemicals of concern in the following chemical groups: phthalates, propyl- & butyl-parabens, formaldehyde donors, musks, nonylphenol ethoxylates, ethanolamines, glycol ethers, siloxanes, perfluorinated substances (PFAS) and more.” The statement of “without” is defined by Target to mean that the finished product contains <100ppm of that ingredient. In addition, Target also generally requires that products must be cruelty free and/or not tested on animals.
- Target also specifies additional restrictions on ingredients on a category-by-category basis. For Beauty and Personal Care products, the full list of ingredients to be avoided are listed here. This referenced list also include Oral Care and Deodorant category requirements. For Household and Essentials, which includes Cleaning Products and some insecticides, the full list of ingredients to be avoided are listed here. For insecticides, products must also be classified as Minimum Risk Pesticide by the EPA. For OTC and Supplement products, the full list of ingredients to be avoided are listed here. In addition, products are required to be free of artificial flavors and sweeteners and synthetic colors and to have third-party certifications.
Walmart Clean Beauty
Why formulate for Walmart Clean Beauty? Walmart designed the program to give customers an easier way to find products that meet their preferences for safer formulations. Here is a summary of key elements of the Walmart Clean Beauty Program.
- Walmart describes Clean Beauty as an “online shop” where customers can find products that are made without ingredients that are on their Made Without Lists for Beauty. Walmart has included over 1,200 ingredients on this list, compiled from industry standards and third parties.
- Walmart does not allow the presence of Made Without chemicals at any concentration level. Walmart only acknowledges that their Clean “program does not guarantee that a product is “100% free from” ingredients on Walmart’s MWL…[because]…trace contaminants may exist.
- Walmart focuses on health and beauty product categories only, the program does not currently cover other major product categories.
- The Clean Beauty program is nested under the larger Built for Better program that covers a far larger product category scope and leverages a wide range of criteria to designate a product as qualifying under the Built for Better designation. Walmart indicates that seeing the Built for Better icons means, “you’ll know the products meet trusted standards for personal well-being, our communities & the environment.”
- The structure for inclusion in Built for Better relies entirely on third-party certifications such as EPA Safer Choice, Fair Trade, EWG Verified, and Cradle-to-Cradle to name a few. For more information on the larger Built for Better program, we’ve included a link here for the program launch description and here for the methodology.
Amazon Climate Pledge Friendly
Why formulate for Amazon Climate Pledge Friendly? Amazon includes a promotional tag on any product that qualifies for this program, which Amazon reports leads to increased click-through and conversion rates. Here is a summary of key elements of the Climate Pledge Friendly program.
- Unlike Target or Walmart, Amazon is not specifically focusing on ingredient composition. The focus is on products that have been “certified by one or more of the program’s qualifying sustainability certifications,” which cover a wide range of material issue areas relevant to climate change.
- Certifications accepted may cover a health and beauty product category, but each certifier typically applies a custom standard, which may not be aligned with your approach to formulation. This makes it a little harder to formulate specifically for the Climate Pledge Friendly program as you will need to select a qualifying third-party certification program and work towards meeting their criteria. If looking for the world of personal care and cosmetics, Amazon recognizes the following certifications: Cradle-to-Cradle, EPA Safer Choice, EWG Verified, Green Seal, Made Safe, and UL EcoLogo.
- You should investigate the additional requirements that are needed in order to achieve one of the accepted certifications. Most of these programs have a mix of criteria covering more than just the product ingredients. Manufacturing criteria, social policies, energy requirements, etc., may all be in scope for the certification. This may provide a much more well-rounded assessment, but it might not be what your company is interested in pursuing.
With the complexities and many options, dealing with formulation ingredients selection and assessment against these retail requirements is a difficult task. Many formulators choose to work with spreadsheets and lists in an attempt to manage their SKUs and ingredients screening requirements. However, if you are interested in a more comprehensive solution, there are tools, like Product Formulation Workbench™, that give you the ability to cross-check multiple retail product curation programs simultaneously. When building out your formulation Product Formulation Workbench™ has the ability to tell you exactly which ingredient does not meet the requirements or if your formulation will pass the standards you have set.
Here at UL Solutions’, we know keeping with retailer and regulatory changes can be daunting, but we are here to help .Click here to schedule a meeting to discuss your needs.
Please leave us a comment if you found this useful. If enough interests, we will look into producing future articles that will go more in depth on different aspects of these programs.
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