A new study suggests that just over 70% of British consumers plan to keep buying supermarket own-label products even if inflation starts to ease, whilst simple discounts remain the most popular type of promotion.
According to the food & beverage trends report by research platform Attest, 7 in 10 consumers have no intention of reverting back to big brands after making the switch during the cost of living crisis in a bid to save money.
Of those that have, nearly 26% said they would ‘definitely’ stick with own-label lines, even if price wasn’t an issue, while a further 44.6% ‘probably’ would. Only 12.9% stated they wouldn’t stick with them, although Boomers showed the greatest intent to abandon own-label.
The survey also revealed that 58% of shoppers are visiting multiple supermarkets in person to hunt for the best prices. It found inflation caused some consumers to leave Morrisons, Tesco and Waitrose (high prices, lack of deals).
Out of six promotion types, discounting the price of a product is what shoppers want the most, closely followed by BOGOF deals. Offering a percentage of extra product free was ranked third, alongside a ‘pre-inflation price freeze’.The research also details that discounts don’t need to be huge to incentivise shoppers. When asked for the minimum discount that is persuasive, the top answer was a 20% discount (for 38% of people). A further 22% would buy with a 30% discount, while 20% would be convinced by a discount of 10% or less.
Attest CEO, Jeremy King, said: “Faced with new pressures, British shoppers have evolved in behaviour, and have acquired a real taste for supermarkets’ own-label brands. This shift is driven by rapid price rises for all grocery and household products and may be permanent for several important sub-segments. Well-known brands that can’t compete on price are the losers here and face significant challenges.
“The big-name brands need to provide consumers with new, compelling reasons not to switch to own-label rivals, or in some cases motivate them to come back to big brands.
“This puts supermarket chains under serious pressure to either offer the best deals that beat other retailers and attract consumers, or to extend their own-label product lines to offer ever-increasing appeal to inflation-weary consumers.”
NamNews Implications:
- A key issue has to be the tolerable amount of a brand premium.
- i.e. how much extra a consumer is prepared to pay for the ‘certainty’ of a brand…
- (despite the advent of shrinkflation in some cases)
- All adding up to the effect of trust in the relationship.
- Meanwhile, consumers realising by direct experience that ‘brands are not much better’?
- …may take some persuading when things revert to ‘normal’…
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