Reported sales growth was 5.7%, organic sales growth grew 3.7% and exceeded our 1.5% Q3 outlook.
The 3.7% organic growth rate in the quarter is impressive, considering the prior year Q3 2020 organic sales growth was 9.9%.
The adjusted earnings per share was $0.80, and that's $0.10 better than our outlook.
We grew consumption in 12 of the 16 categories in which we compete, and in some cases, on top of big consumption gains last year.
And although many of our brands experienced double-digit consumption growth, it's not all reflected in our 3.7% organic sales growth as shipments were constrained by supply issues.
In Q3, online sales as a percentage of total sales was 14.3%.
Our online sales increased by 2% year-over-year.
Now keep in mind, this is on top of 100% growth in e-commerce that we experienced in Q3 2020 versus 2019.
And we continue to expect online sales for the full year to be above 15% as a percentage of total sales.
Now the good news is that over the past 18 months, we have made our supply chain more resilient by qualifying dozens of new suppliers and co-packers, which provides, of course, both short-term and long-term benefits.
These conditions are expected to continue well into 2022, and Rick will cover gross margin in his remarks in a few minutes.
So the Consumer Domestic business grew organic sales 2.8%, and this is on top of 10.7% organic growth in Q3 2020.
Looking at market shares in Q3, six of our 13 power brands gained share, and our share results are clearly impacted by our supply issues.
Vitafusion gummy vitamins saw a huge consumption growth in Q3, up 24%.
It appears that the new consumers that came into the category are staying, because if we look at the last year, Vitafusion household penetration is up almost 10%.
Batiste dry shampoo grew consumption 36% in the quarter and grew share to over 40%, first time that's happened.
And also in household products, ARM & HAMMER cat litter grew consumption 11%, while gaining 50 basis points of market share.
Despite disruptions due to COVID, our International business came through with 2.3% organic growth, primarily driven by strong growth in the Global Markets Group.
Our Specialty Products business delivered a very strong quarter with 18.5% organic growth, but this was on an easy comp.
The prior year quarterly organic growth for Specialty Products was actually down 3.4%.
So 18.5% is a really nice rebound.
In response to the rising costs, we have already taken pricing actions in 50% of our portfolio, effective July one and October 1.
We will be announcing pricing actions effective Q1 2022 on an additional 30% of the portfolio.
That means that as of Q1 2022, we expect to have raised price on approximately 80% of our global portfolio of brands.
Due to our expectation of incremental cost increases, we continue to analyze additional pricing actions that can be put in place next year in 2022.
We expect adjusted earnings per share growth of 6% this year.
It's important to remember that we are comping 15% earnings per share growth in 2020.
We expect full year reported sales growth of 5.5%, with 4% full year organic sales growth.
As many of you know, we typically target 11% to 12% marketing spend.
Q3 was 12.3%, and we expect Q4 to be approximately 13%.
Third quarter adjusted EPS, which excludes the positive earnout adjustments, was $0.80, up 14.3% to prior year.
The $0.80 was better than our $0.70 outlook, primarily due to continued strong consumer demand and higher-than-expected sales as well as lower incentive comp and lower marketing spend as supply chain shortages were impacting customer fill rates.
Reported revenue was up 5.7% and organic sales were up 3.7%.
Our third quarter gross margin was 44.2%, a 130 basis point decrease from a year ago.
This was below our previous outlook of expansion as we faced incremental pressure from the effect of Hurricane Ida on material costs and distribution.
Gross margin was impacted by 500 basis points of higher manufacturing costs, primarily related to commodities, distribution and labor.
Tariff costs negatively impacted gross margin by an additional 40 basis points.
These costs were partially offset by a positive 250 basis point impact from price/volume mix and a positive 120 basis point impact from productivity.
Marketing was down $10 million year-over-year as we lowered spend to reduce demand until fill rates could recover.
Marketing expense as a percentage of net sales was healthy at 12.3%.
For SG&A, Q3 adjusted SG&A decreased to 180 basis points year-over-year with lower legal costs and lower incentive comp.
Other expense all-in was $12.1 million, a slight decline due to lower interest expense from lower interest rates.
And for income tax, our effective rate for the quarter was 20.4% compared to 17.3% in 2020, an increase of 310 basis points, primarily driven by lower stock option exercises.
We continue to expect the full year rate to be 23%.
For the first nine months of 2021, cash from operating activities decreased 18% to $653 million due to higher cash earnings being offset by an increase in working capital.
We continue to expect cash from operations to be approximately $950 million for the full year.
As of September 30, cash on hand was $180 million.
Our full year capex plan is now $120 million, down from the original $180 million in the outlook due to project timing.
This capex moves out a year, and we now expect capex in 2022 to exceed $200 million.
On October 28, the Board of Directors authorized a new stock repurchase program up to $1 billion.
Through October, we purchased approximately $130 million worth of shares.
We now expect the full year 2021 reported sales growth to be approximately 5.5% and organic sales growth to be approximately 4%.
Turning to gross margin, we now expect full year gross margin to be down 170 basis points, previously down to 75 basis points.
In our prior outlook, we had discussed $125 million of higher cost versus our plan.
That number today is $170 million, and the majority of that increase in the last 90 days relate to transportation, labor, and other increases.
The $45 million movement versus our previous outlook is primarily noncommodity-related.
We expect adjusted earnings per share to be 6%.
Our brands continue to go from strength to strength as strong consumption and organic sales growth lap almost 10% organic growth a year ago.
For our Q4 outlook, we expect reported sales growth of approximately 3%.
We expect organic sales growth of approximately 2% due to the supply chain constraints and our SPD business to return to a more normal growth rate.
Adjusted earnings per share is expected to be $0.61 per share, up 15% from last year's adjusted EPS.

Summary:
The adjusted earnings per share was $0.80, and that's $0.10 better than our outlook.
These conditions are expected to continue well into 2022, and Rick will cover gross margin in his remarks in a few minutes.
Due to our expectation of incremental cost increases, we continue to analyze additional pricing actions that can be put in place next year in 2022.
We expect adjusted earnings per share growth of 6% this year.
We expect full year reported sales growth of 5.5%, with 4% full year organic sales growth.
Third quarter adjusted EPS, which excludes the positive earnout adjustments, was $0.80, up 14.3% to prior year.
The $0.80 was better than our $0.70 outlook, primarily due to continued strong consumer demand and higher-than-expected sales as well as lower incentive comp and lower marketing spend as supply chain shortages were impacting customer fill rates.
This was below our previous outlook of expansion as we faced incremental pressure from the effect of Hurricane Ida on material costs and distribution.
On October 28, the Board of Directors authorized a new stock repurchase program up to $1 billion.
We now expect the full year 2021 reported sales growth to be approximately 5.5% and organic sales growth to be approximately 4%.
Turning to gross margin, we now expect full year gross margin to be down 170 basis points, previously down to 75 basis points.
We expect adjusted earnings per share to be 6%.