FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Waukesha, Wisconsin, September 17, 2025 — HRG has completed its semiannual update of its Fine Line Classification System for health, beauty, and wellness (HBW), home health care (HHC), and general merchandise (GM) products with notable adjustments to reflect industry changes. The September 2025 updates include additions to address wearable wellness devices and pharmacy services.
A Fine Line — Health Monitoring & Activity Tracking Devices — was added to address the popularity of products which help consumers monitor various health indicators such as heart rate, sleep patterns, and more. Another addition is the Fine Line, Professional External Services. The services under this Fine Line encompass educational sessions, consultations, or other health programs that are provided outside of pharmacy offerings.
Georgia Gums, product & strategic pricing analyst at HRG, stated, “Many consumers want to be more in control of their overall health so they can better self-advocate with health care professionals. Self-care continues to be a primary focus for many consumers and the ongoing introduction of more sophisticated means of monitoring health indicators, the addition of a more specific Fine Line to address these products was needed. The Professional External Services addition was necessary because we were seeing these services showing up in our data and swiftly addressed it in this update.”
HRG’s team of analysts continually reviews the Fine Line Classification System to determine whether modifications are necessary based on consumer market changes, emerging categories and subcategories, or to reflect merchandising trends. The Fine Line system classifies HBW, HHC, and GM products into categories, subcategories, and product segments and is used across the retail supply chain. Categories are organized by 2-, 3-, and 4-digit Fine Lines by HRG’s analyst teams to offer more refined reporting capabilities, facilitate analysis of product performance, and to segment the placement of products.
HRG releases updates to Fine Lines twice a year, in March and September. Updates to the HRG Fine Line system may consist of description changes, re-categorization of items, and additions or deletions of categories and/or subcategories. Download Fine Lines, or to learn more about HRG’s industry-standard Fine Line Classification System, contact HRG client services at 414.355.1330 or info@hamacher.com.
About HRG
HRG is a trusted retail solutions provider, exploring and executing actionable strategies for brands, retailers, distributors, technology partners, and other industry organizations. For 45 years, HRG has been in the details of retail, leveraging their deep knowledge of shopper and shopping behavior to offer data & analysis, shopper experience, brand development, fixture coordination, and retail communications solutions. Their unique position in the industry and broad set of skills has allowed them the ability to customize a wide range of deliverables to a diverse array of companies. HRG is a WBENC-Certified Women’s Business Enterprise headquartered in Greater Milwaukee, is a six-time recipient of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Top Workplace, and was certified as a Great Place to Work in 2023 and 2024. Visit hamacher.com for more information.
