How Private Brands are Shaping the Grocery Shopping Experience

By: Avery Collins, Summer Intern, Insights, Education & Communications, FMI

Understanding what consumers want from private brands is crucial.

This year’s Power of Private Brands 2024: What's Ahead for Shoppers and Private Brands report paints a very positive picture about consumer perspectives and buying behaviors, with shoppers increasingly choosing stores based on the availability and quality of their private brand products.

Our recent digital seminar, hosted by director of Industry Relations, Tom Cosgrove and manager of Research and Insights, Allison Febrey, covered the expanding and evolving outlook on private brands and their packaging, branding, logistics, marketing, and much more.

Price, Quality, and Value

Shoppers were asked about their opinions of store brands, offering increasingly positive perspectives about private brands compared to prior years, using words such as good, great, quality and better. This shift indicates a growing openness among shoppers to try more private brand items.

Additionally, a great degree of shoppers reported high awareness of store brands at their primary purchase, whether under the store name or another name altogether.

Looking at consumer purchasing habits, 55% of shoppers have been purchasing more private brands over the past year, compared to only 28% purchasing manufacturer brands.

There has also been a notable increase in the importance of quality and taste as key purchase drivers. When comparing data from last year to this year, quality and taste have become more significant factors in consumers' decisions to buy store brand products. With quality as a purchase driver increasing from 30% in 2023 to 42% in 2024 and taste jumping from 26% to 42%.

This indicates that while consumers appreciate the cost savings of private brands, they are also increasingly seeking out products that meet high taste and quality standards.

Room to Grow

Manufacturer brands still hold a slight edge in some respects. Consumers report that manufacturer brands are better at providing details such as product or source information and are viewed as providing more novelty and variety as well as a higher quality product. Transparency is increasingly valued, and this level of detail can be a decisive factor for many shoppers. By focusing on the aspects manufacturer brands have traditionally excelled in, private brands can work towards closing the gap and enhancing their market perception.

As we look to the future, the rapid evolution of private brands promises new developments, meeting the changing needs of shoppers and solidifying their place in the retail landscape.

To learn more about the power of private brands, download and read FMI’s Power of Private Brands 2024: What's Ahead for Shoppers and Private Brands today!