One in five units sold in 2023 was a store brand, a record, as more consumers make private label shopping routine.
The hot new brand in retailing appears to be private label.
A flurry of statistics and surveys over the past several months find store brands are growing faster in dollar sales than competing national brands. Store brands also have been taking a bigger share of all unit sales, according to a recent report by the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), hitting a record last year of 20.7%.
Food inflation (25% over the past four years) has been the main driver. But shoppers who try store brands increasingly judge them to be equivalent to national brands, a good value. Just over half of consumers in a 2023 Food Industry Association (FMI) survey said private label goods are very or extremely important in deciding where they shop, and three out of five shoppers reported purchasing more store brands than in 2022.
Growing consumer interest in private label goods is not limited to food.
More than half of 1,000 adult consumers in a survey by technology company Bazaarvoice said they were interested in private label clothing and accessories, and more than 80% had a positive perception of store brands.
Gen Z, the sustainability generation, is emerging as the private label generation.
The PLMA last fall found that 64% of Gen Z shoppers said they buy store brands “always/frequently,” and 51% “always/frequently” choose a place to shop due to its store brands. The newest generation of consumers are developing shopping habits that suggest private label will continue to grow.
An even bigger picture emerges when you consider that roughly 70% of consumers in another Bazaarvoice study said they were open to, or had tried, new brands. A huge swath of consumers are restless and up for grabs.
“Consumers expect to have the same or similar experience with a private label product that they do with a product from a known brand,” according to Bazaarvoice chief marketing officer Zarina Stanford.
She recently told trade sourcingjournal.com, “The key to determining whether or not a private-label strategy will work for a business is knowing, understanding and listening to customers and their needs.
“The consumers are telling us what we should do or should not do, and I think we should let them guide us,” she said. Sage advice.
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