For years, intimate care products were often merchandised as a category unto themselves. Lubricants went with lubricants. Vibrators went with vibrators. Menopause products went in one section, while personal care and traditional wellness lived somewhere else.

But today’s consumer doesn’t necessarily think—or shop—like they used to. 

Consumers increasingly approach wellness as an interconnected part of their lives. Sleep, stress, skincare, movement, hormonal health, intimacy and pleasure can all contribute to how someone feels. For retailers, that creates an opportunity to rethink where intimate care products live and what they are merchandised alongside.

Cross-merchandising can help customers discover products they weren’t necessarily looking for while making intimate wellness feel like a natural extension of everyday care.

Here are five ways to put that strategy into action.

1. Merchandise Around a Need, Not Just a Category

Instead of asking, “Where does this product belong?” ask, “Why would my customer need this?”

Consider a menopause-focused display featuring cooling products, sleep support, moisturizers, intimate moisturizers or lubricants, supplements and other products relevant to this stage of life.

Likewise, a relaxation assortment might bring together candles, bath products, massage oils, sleep masks and intimacy products.

When products are connected by a customer need or experience, the display begins telling a story… and that story can encourage multiple purchases.

2. Introduce Intimate Care Into Beauty + Personal Care

Beauty and personal care offer natural opportunities for cross-merchandising.

Body oils can sit alongside massage products. Shaving and grooming products can be paired with intimate skincare. Bath and body products can lead customers toward products designed for intimacy, relaxation or connection.

This is particularly valuable for retailers who are newer to intimate wellness. Rather than immediately building an entire department, strategically introducing products into familiar categories can help test customer interest while creating organic discovery.

3. Think in Terms of Life Stages

Some of the strongest merchandising opportunities aren’t based on age. They’re based on what a customer is experiencing.

Consider assortments built around:

Perimenopause + Menopause: cooling, sleep, skincare, vaginal wellness, lubricants and sexual wellness.

Active Aging: mobility and recovery products alongside intimate wellness products designed around comfort, accessibility and changing bodies.

Solo Pleasure Curiosity: variety, explanation, setting the mode and even giving permission depending your customer… this can and should support many generations

Life-stage merchandising also creates an opportunity for education. Simple signage explaining why products have been grouped together can make a display significantly more useful.

4. Create “Complete the Experience” Moments

Retailers have used this strategy forever.

Buy the pasta, and the sauce is nearby. Buy the swimsuit, and you’ll find the cover-up. Intimate wellness should be no different.

A vibrator display might include lubricant, toy cleaner and storage solutions. Massage products could be paired with candles and body oils. Travel-size personal care could include travel-friendly intimate care.

Train your team to think beyond the first purchase by asking… What naturally completes this experience?

One customer need can easily represent two, three or more products when the recommendations genuinely make sense together. As a result? A more satisfied customer and stronger sales.

5. Use Cross-Merchandising to Normalize the Category

Perhaps the biggest opportunity isn’t just increasing basket size. It’s increasing visibility.

When intimate care is consistently isolated from the rest of wellness, we’re unintentionally reinforcing the idea that it is somehow separate. Placing these products thoughtfully alongside skincare, personal care, sleep, fitness, menopause, travel and other everyday categories sends a different message:

Intimate wellness is wellness.

That doesn’t mean every intimate product belongs everywhere. Cross-merchandising should always be intentional, relevant and appropriate for the retailer’s customer.

Start small. Select five intimate care products and identify two unexpected—but logical—places they could appear within your store. Track sales. Listen to customer questions. Pay attention to what gets picked up together.

The goal isn’t simply to sell another product. It’s to help customers discover solutions they may not have known existed—and make intimate care easier to see, understand and shop.

And when we accomplish that, we’re not only growing baskets. We’re growing the category.