Market researcher Numerator, in its updated Private Label Trends Tracker, reported almost all households in the United States purchased private-label products in the home and garden, grocery, health and beauty and household categories during the past 12 months.
Private-label goods have become a more generally accepted and embraced shopping choice in terms of what is being sold and which retailers are selling them. In store terms, Numerator pointed out, the top five-selling private-label brands are all owned by Walmart. However, when it comes to private-label share, Walmart is sixth in Numerator’s assessment, coming in at 30%. Ahead of Walmart in terms of own-brand share sold are Aldi at 80%, Trader Joe’s at 69%, Costco at 34%, HEB at 33% and Walmart sibling Sam’s Club at 33%.
In an example of a retailer using promotions to push its private-label brands, Walmart’s 2024 back-to-school sales and marketing campaign featured a large proportion of own brands. In its recently launched off-to-college promotions, Walmart gave top billing to its Mainstays brand, spotlighting a Mainstays Cloud Ottoman and a cowgirl-inspired lit sign over Apple and its Air laptop.
By retail channel, Numerator indicated private label takes 33.1% of club sales, 30.3% of office sales, 28% of mass sales, 26.8% of home improvement sales, 25.5% of pet sales, 25.2% of food sales, 22.5% of dollar stores sales, 22.1% of online sales, 14% of drug store sales, 13.7% of gas and convenience sales, 9.2% of electronics sales and 2.9% of beauty sales. Private-label products accounted for 24% of total units sold across ten major product categories during the past year, according to Numerator,
Value, as weighed by consumers today, is a critical factor, with 43% of respondents to a Numerator survey indicating they buy private-label items to save money and 58% of consumers saying private-label brands offer an above-average value for their price. Consumers remain concerned about quality, as only 29% think private-label products are as good as name-brand merchandise.
Product categories with the highest private-label share were office at 38.7%, home and garden at 32.5%, tools and home improvement at 29% and household at 26.7%. Grocery share trails at 23.8%, followed by with baby at 22.7%, pet at 17.6%, health and beauty at 17.4%, toys at 16.1% and electronics at 11.1%.
In a marketplace where, in many cases, own and national brands are thickly mixed together, just about every U.S. household purchased a private-label non-grocery item in the past year, according to Numerator, and effectively all households in the country purchased a private-label grocery item over the past 12 months. After that, 99.2% of households purchased a health and beauty item, 98.9% bought a household product and 97.6% bought home and garden merchandise. The sectors changing most year over year were home and garden, with private-label household penetration down 2.8%, and electronics, with household penetration down 1.8%
Pictured above: Walmart Mainstays cookware.
