Beauty, health and wellness are converging into one retail category

As consumers become more educated about the products they're buying and look to make more holistic purchases, a new retail category is emerging.

What were once three separate sections — beauty, health and wellness — have converged into one large category as consumers look for products that serve multiple purposes. That change in consumer behavior is creating more competition for companies racing to win over the corresponding share of customers' wallets, industry experts said.

According to a new study from consulting firm AlixPartners, nearly 100% of consumers surveyed believe that the category is just one budget item, whereas it was three before.

The survey, conducted jointly between CEW and AlixPartners between May and June, sampled 1,000 consumers age 18 and over and split across gender, age, income brackets and regions. The survey also polled 127 executives in the beauty, health and wellness industries.

"What we found in the data is a consumer is just as likely to trade off a night cream for another night cream as a night cream for a personal trainer," Lindy Firstenberg, co-lead of the company's beauty, health and wellness practice, told CNBC. "Anything in beauty, health and wellness is within the consideration set."

As wellness becomes more mainstream, 40% of consumers in the survey said they want traditional beauty companies to expand their reach in terms of the products they offer. At the same time, the AlixPartners study found that 42% of executives said they wanted their companies to stay in their lane.

"What that shows is a fundamental disconnect that consumers are asking for more; they're asking for different, they're asking for a new playbook, and executives are saying, 'No, that's way too scary. That's not going to happen,'" Firstenberg said.

Firstenberg said she believes companies may be hesitant to take on a big bet that won't necessarily immediately pay off on a quarterly cycle. It's a move that would also include lengthy time for research and development and consumer profiling.

"They're not willing to look outside of themselves in order to see that broader beauty, health and wellness bucket, which is the exact opposite of consumers," Firstenberg said.

That trend comes as consumers are also becoming more knowledgeable about the products they're buying and integrating a more science-backed approach to their beauty purchases, a trend AlixPartners calls the "consumer PhD."

Firstenberg said people are also looking to other consumers, especially on social media, for which products to buy and which ones will have the best results, instead of relying on the brands.

Some companies are choosing to team up with existing brands on the other side of the sector to expand their offerings.