The increasing ubiquity of a wider range of sexual wellness products, including vibrators, lubricants, and anal-play toys, on store shelves has been a long time coming. While condom use was popularized during World War I in order to prevent the spread of venereal disease, the legality of selling condoms in the U.S. was murky until the 1930s (thanks to the Comstock Act of 1873 that made it illegal to sell “immoral goods” like contraceptives and sex toys through the mail). In 1937, the FDA mandated national standards for condom testing, which legitimized the industry and gave larger companies the green light to produce products en masse. Lubricants would come later—they only hit pharmacy shelves in the 1980s, says Carol Queen, PhD, Good Vibrations sexologist and curator of the Antique Vibrator Museum.

According to Queen, the drugstore “family planning” aisle that houses sex-related products, with a focus on contraception and disease-prevention, has only been around for about 15 years. As we head into 2023, that outdated term—and emphasis on reproduction—is getting a modern makeover. “The term ‘family planning’ is essentially a conservative one, especially when we use it today,” Queen says. “And accessing sex toys has zero to do with family planning. Reproduction and sexual pleasure aren't the same thing.” 

Sexologist Rebecca Alvarez Story, founder and CEO of sexual wellness brand Bloomi, tells us that Target is swapping its “family planning” aisles for “sexual health” ones nationally in order to reflect its customers’ range of needs. In April 2022, Bloomi became available in 1,200 Target locations. “Target wants to open [its offerings] up to this broader category [of sexual wellness] and make it more inclusive,” Alvarez Story says.

“Gone are the days where we’re going to see more products in pink and blue, for women or men. The whole concept of full-body pleasure is something that more big box retailers will lean into as well." Rebecca Alvarez Story, founder and CEO of Bloomi

Merchandising is incredibly important for brands that want to stand out from the competition on store shelves. And in the new year, this increasingly means sexual wellness brands will move away from stereotypically gendered marketing and packaging. “Gone are the days where we’re going to see more products in pink and blue, for women or men. The whole concept of full-body pleasure is something that more big box retailers will lean into as well,” says Alvarez Story.

In this vein, Orkis attributes Cake’s traction with customers, in part, to its gender-neutral approach. The brand’s color-coded “sex care system” guides buyers to the products that are right for them based on anatomy and pleasure, rather than gender identify. “All of orange means penis play, all of blue means vaginal play, all of pink means backside play,” Orkis says. Across the industry, Orkis says he’s seeing a big shift towards “the systematization of sex and just making it easy to understand and convenient.”

Big name department stores are also giving more floor space to sexual wellness products. Retailers like Sephora, Bloomindale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstrom have been offering sexual wellness products online (stocking products from sleek direct-to-consumer brands like Dame and Maude) since 2021; Nordstrom was the first with its Valentine’s Day online “pop-in” shop. But they have their sights set on a brick-and-mortar presence as early as 2023. 

Need more proof? Vella, a pleasure serum brand, will be launching as part of a sexual wellness pilot program in-store at Neiman Marcus in early 2023. Vella is currently available online and in 45 Bluemercury stores (the partnership began in June 2022). The Neiman Marcus launch is something Carolyn Wheeler, Vella chief operating officer and co-founder, is excited about, because she believes shoppers want to invest in sexual wellness—and they’re not ashamed to purchase in-person. 

“Discoverability and education in-store is easier than it is online. The category comes with a lot of shame and the way people get over that is to have conversations out in the open,” Wheeler says. Vella has projected in-store sales to quadruple in the next three years—and predicts that shopping IRL will become the most dominant way Vella customers will buy the product. In the beginning of 2022, the ratio of DTC to in-store sales was 90:20. Wheeler projects the ratio to be 40:60 in 2023. And by 2025, she expects in-store to massively outpace DTC with a ratio of 20:80.