Reported sales growth was 13.9% and adjusted earnings per share was $0.70.
Organic sales grew 9.9%, driven by higher consumption.
In Q3, our online sales increased by 77% as all retailer.coms have grown.
In 2019, 8% of our full year sales were online.
This year, we expect full year to be about 14% online.
Recall, we began the year targeting 9% online sales as a percentage of global consumer sales.
In Q1, it was 10% online; Q2, 13%; and Q3, also 13%.
So we expect the full year to be actually close to 13% as well.
If we look at year-to-date shipment and consumption patterns, our brands remain generally in balance in the 15 categories in which we compete.
In Household, our laundry business consumption was up 4% and ARM & HAMMER cat litter was up 8%.
BATISTE dry shampoo remains impacted by social distancing, with consumption down 10%, but improved sequentially compared to Q2 when consumption was down 22%.
TROJAN consumption was down 6% in Q3, but also improved sequentially when we were down 15% in Q2.
VITAFUSION and L'IL CRITTERS gummy vitamins saw the greatest consumption growth of any of our categories in Q3, up 49%.
At a recent investor conference, you may have heard me cite consumer research that suggests it takes 66 days to form a new habit.
After three consecutive quarters of growth, our Specialty Products business contracted 3.4% in Q3, primarily due to the poultry segment.
We've launched ARM & HAMMER CLEAN & SIMPLE, which has only six ingredients plus water compared to 15 to 30 ingredients for typical liquid detergents.
And in the second half, we launched ARM & HAMMER ABSORBx clumping cat litter, a new litter, which is 55% lighter than our regular litter.
We now expect full year adjusted earnings per share growth of 13% to 14%, which is far above our evergreen target of 8% annual earnings per share growth.
Given our strong performance, we have raised our full year outlook for sales growth to be approximately 11% and organic sales growth to be approximately 9%.
Third quarter adjusted EPS, which excludes an acquisition-related earnout adjustment, grew 6.1% to $0.70 compared to $0.66 in 2019.
Reported revenue was up 13.9%, reflecting a continued increase in consumer demand for our products.
Organic sales was up 9.9%, driven by a volume increase of 10.2%, partially offset by 0.3% of unfavorable product mix and pricing, primarily driven by new product support.
Organic sales increased by 10.7%, largely due to higher volume.
This quarter, tracked consumption was 7.7% for our brands compared to an organic sales increase of 10.7%.
We had 400 basis points of help from strong growth in untracked channels, primarily online, and 100 basis point drag from couponing to support new products.
Consumer International delivered 11.6% organic growth due to higher volume, offset by lower price and product mix.
For our SPD business, organic sales decreased 3.4% due to lower volume, offset by higher pricing.
Our third quarter gross margin was 45.5%, 110 basis point decrease from a year ago.
Gross margin was impacted by 110 basis point drag from tariffs and a 90 basis point impact from acquisition accounting.
In addition, to round out the Q3 gross margin bridge is a plus 100 basis points from price/volume mix; plus 160 basis points from productivity programs, offset by a drag of 80 basis points of higher manufacturing costs, inflation and higher distribution costs; as well as a drag of 90 basis points for COVID costs.
Marketing was up $45.7 million year-over-year as we invested behind our brands.
Marketing expense as a percentage of net sales increased 230 basis points to 13.8%.
For SG&A, Q3 adjusted SG&A decreased 30 basis points year-over-year, primarily due to leverage from strong sales growth.
Other expense all in was $12.3 million and $3.9 million decline due to lower interest expense from lower interest rates.
And for income tax, our effective rate for the quarter was 17.3% compared to 21.6% in 2019, a decrease of 430 basis points, primarily driven by higher tax benefits related to stock option exercises.
For the first nine months of 2020, cash from operating activities increased 29% to $798 million due to significantly higher cash earnings and an improvement in working capital.
As of September 30, cash on hand was $549 million.
Our full year capex plan continues to be approximately $100 million as we begin to expand manufacturing and distribution capacity, primarily focused on laundry, litter and vitamins.
As I mentioned back at the Barclays conference in September, we do expect a step-up in capex over the next couple of years to approximately 3.5% of sales for these capacity-related investments.
For Q4, we expect reported sales growth of approximately 9%, organic sales growth of approximately 8%.
We previously called 150 basis point contraction in the second half.
Now we're saying down 190 basis points.
As a result, we expect Q4 adjusted earnings per share to be $0.50 to $0.52 per share, excluding the acquisition earnout adjustment as we exit 2020 with momentum.
And now for the full year outlook, we now expect approximately 11% for the year 2020 sales growth, which is above our previously 9% to 10% range.
We're also raising our full year organic sales growth to approximately 9%, up from our previous 7% to 8% outlook.
We raised our cash from operations outlook to $975 million, which is up 13% versus year ago.
We expect gross margin to be down 20 basis points for the year, primarily due to the impact of acquisition accounting, COVID costs, incremental manufacturing and distribution capacity investments and the higher tariffs on WATERPIK.
Previously, I have said the first half of the year was plus 150 basis points on gross margin and the second half was down 150 basis points on gross margin.
Now we're calling down 190 basis points for the back half or down 20 basis points for the year, and that implies down 250 basis points for the quarter.
So our full year tax rate expectations are 19%, and we also raised our adjusted earnings per share growth to 13% to 14%.
As you saw in the release, we had an earnout benefit of approximately $50 million in the quarter in reported earnings.
As a backdrop, we bought that business for $475 million upfront and a $425 million earnout tied to year-end 2021 sales.
That sales target represented in excess of 15% CAGR for three years off of a baseline of $180 million of trailing sales.
The revised 3-year CAGR for this business is closer to 8%.

Summary:
Reported sales growth was 13.9% and adjusted earnings per share was $0.70.
Recall, we began the year targeting 9% online sales as a percentage of global consumer sales.
We now expect full year adjusted earnings per share growth of 13% to 14%, which is far above our evergreen target of 8% annual earnings per share growth.
Given our strong performance, we have raised our full year outlook for sales growth to be approximately 11% and organic sales growth to be approximately 9%.
Third quarter adjusted EPS, which excludes an acquisition-related earnout adjustment, grew 6.1% to $0.70 compared to $0.66 in 2019.
For Q4, we expect reported sales growth of approximately 9%, organic sales growth of approximately 8%.
And now for the full year outlook, we now expect approximately 11% for the year 2020 sales growth, which is above our previously 9% to 10% range.
We're also raising our full year organic sales growth to approximately 9%, up from our previous 7% to 8% outlook.
We raised our cash from operations outlook to $975 million, which is up 13% versus year ago.
So our full year tax rate expectations are 19%, and we also raised our adjusted earnings per share growth to 13% to 14%.