Catalina says, Inflation is Pushing Consumers to towards Private Label

Catalina, a data and insights firm, said as inflation pushes consumers to seek out more affordable products, retailers are seeing a surge in unit sales in certain private-label categories.

In a recent analysis of Catalina of the private label market, it found that specific categories experienced an increase in the unit sales in period of six months between January 2022 to July 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

The private-label categories that saw sales increases included soup, baking mixes, prepared foods, canned fish, and baking mixes, indicating that consumers are seeking out the convenient options to provide help in preparing multiple meals throughout the day.

Catalina said the rise in unit sales of store brand staples such as canned fish and soup indicates consumers have been looking for affordable dinner and lunch solutions. The firm added that while the trend of scratch baking has declined, the baking mixes have remained popular, with shoppers increasingly opting for the store brand mixes.

Catalina noted that, other categories including baby food and cereal experienced some more modest unit sales growth of over 6 percent during the same 6-month period against one year ago. In the category of baby food, consumers are dealing with nationwide shortages of name-brand products, and private-label offerings have helped them to fill the void.