Once upon a time, private label was where dreams went to die.
It was the consolation prize. The "I guess this will do" option. The beige, generic alternative you bought when money was tight and standards were flexible.
Today, private label is coming for your market share with the confidence of a startup that just closed Series B funding. And unlike that startup, private label actually has distribution, data, and decades of consumer trust.
Welcome to the new world order, where one in five CPG products is private label, and that number is climbing faster than ever.
The Numbers That Should Keep You Up at Night
Let's start with the facts that hurt:
Private label sales are projected to approach $277 billion in 2025
60% of shoppers now trust store brands equal to or better than national brands
71% rate private label quality as equal or better compared to national brands
Private label grew market share to 21.2% dollar share and 23.2% unit share, both all-time highs
But here's the kicker: younger shoppers are even more open to private-label brands. Gen Z and Millennials, who've grown up in an era of highly designed retail brands, are less attached to legacy CPG names.
Translation: The future doesn't care about your hundred-year history.
How Private Label Got Its Glow-Up
The Design Revolution
Remember when private label packaging looked like it was designed by someone's nephew who "knows Photoshop"?
That's over.
Walmart's recent debut of bettergoods marks its "largest private brand food launch in 20 years," featuring 300+ items with decidedly modern design. Target has been playing this game for decades. Kroger gets it too.
Private label discovered design, and suddenly your brand's pretty package isn't the differentiator it used to be.
The Data Advantage
Here's the dirty secret nobody wants to talk about: retailers know more about your customers than you do.
With point-of-sale data, loyalty programmes, and direct customer feedback, retailers have insight into shopper behaviour at a granularity many CPG brands can only dream of. Walmart's Luminate platform lets its merchandising teams spot flavour trends early and iterate quickly.
They know what sells, when it sells, who buys it, and what they buy it with. They know if consumers are trading down from your brand before you see it in your quarterly numbers.
And they're using that data to build private label products that are surgical strikes on your market share.
The Quality Perception Shift
The old stigma, that private label meant lower quality, is fading faster than your brand's shelf space.
According to research, 60% of consumers now believe private label products offer the same or better quality than national brands. For Gen Z, that number is even higher.
This isn't about consumers settling. This is about consumers choosing. Actively. Enthusiastically.
Why Your Brand's Traditional Moats Are Draining
Innovation Isn't Exclusive Anymore
"But we have R&D!" you cry.
But so do retailers. And they're faster.
Private label brands can mimic flavours, formats, and even packaging in a fraction of the time it takes your innovation pipeline to squeeze out a line extension. By the time your "revolutionary" new flavor hits shelves, there's already a private label version sitting next to it at 30% less cost.
Marketing Muscle Means Less
You spent millions on that Super Bowl ad. Private label spent nothing and still gained market share.
Why? Because they don't need awareness. They have placement. They have the shelf. They have the end cap. They have the app. They have the data that tells them exactly when to put their product on sale to capture your customer at their moment of price sensitivity.
Distribution Is Democratized
Your hundred-year relationship with retailers is not as valuable as you think.
And when the retailer IS the competition, that relationship gets complicated fast. They control the shelf. They control the promotion. They control the narrative.
And increasingly, they control the customer.
The Strategies That Still Work (If You're Brave Enough)
Strategy 1: Be Impossible to Copy
Private label can copy your formula. They can copy your packaging. They can even copy your marketing.
But they can't copy your story, your values, or your emotional connection, if you actually have those things.
This means:
Founder stories that matter: Not "we saw a gap in the market" but "this changed my life and here's how"
Values that cost you something: It's easy to say you're sustainable when it's profitable. What do you do when it's not?
Community, not customers: Brands that build movements, not just market share, create moats private label can't cross
Strategy 2: Go Where Private Label Can't (Yet)
Private label excels at the middle. The everyday. The predictable.
Where they struggle:
Ultra-premium: There's no private label equivalent of luxury
Ultra-niche: Specific dietary needs, cultural preferences, micro-trends
Ultra-innovative: Bleeding-edge ingredients, formats, and functions
Direct-to-consumer: Your own channel, your own rules
The brands that are winning aren't fighting private label in the middle. They're escaping to the edges.
Strategy 3: Speed Becomes Your Superpower
If private label is fast, you need to be faster.
This means:
Launch cycles measured in weeks, not years
Testing in market, not focus groups
Failing fast and publicly (consumers love an underdog story)
Iterating based on real-time data, not annual planning cycles
The old CPG playbook of two-year development cycles and national rollouts is dead. Be the speedboat, not the cruise ship.
Strategy 4: Make Private Label Your Frenemy
Plot twist: what if private label wasn't the enemy?
Some smart brands are:
Manufacturing private label products (if you can't beat them, supply them)
Partnering on exclusive retailer brands that aren't quite private label
Using private label as a testing ground for innovation
Learning from private label's successes instead of dismissing them
The brands that survive the private label revolution might be the ones that join it.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Differentiation
Here's what most brands don't want to admit: most CPG products aren't that different. Your pasta sauce isn't fundamentally different from their pasta sauce. Your shampoo isn't revolutionary compared to theirs.
The differentiation you think you have? It's probably:
A slightly different flavor profile (copyable)
A marginally better ingredient list (copyable)
A prettier package (definitely copyable)
A bigger marketing budget (increasingly irrelevant)
Real differentiation in 2025 means:
Emotional resonance: How does your brand make people feel about themselves?
Cultural relevance: Are you part of the conversation or just advertising around it?
Experiential value: What experience are you creating beyond consumption?
Social currency: Does buying your brand say something about the consumer?
The Action Plan for Brands That Want to Survive
Step 1: Audit Your Actual Differentiation
Not what your brand deck says. What consumers actually experience. If private label launched an identical product tomorrow, why would anyone still buy yours?
If the answer is "they wouldn't," you have work to do.
Step 2: Pick Your Battle
You can't win everywhere. Where will you make your stand?
Premium quality at premium prices?
Innovation that private label can't match?
Values and story that transcend product?
Direct relationship with consumers?
Choose one. Then commit and execute.
Step 3: Speed Up Everything
Your annual planning cycle? Cut it in half. Your product development timeline? Quarter it. Your response time to market changes? Make it instant.
Private label moves at retail speed. You need to move faster.
Step 4: Build Direct Relationships
Every customer whose email you have is a customer private label can't fully own. Every subscription customer is a mini-moat. Every community member is a brand advocate private label can't buy.
Stop treating DTC as an experiment and start to treat it as survival.
The Silver Lining in the Store Brand Storm
Here's the paradox: private label's rise might be the best thing that ever happened to brands that deserve to exist.
It's forcing the question: why do you exist? What value do you actually create? What would the world lose if your brand disappeared tomorrow?
The brands that can't answer those questions convincingly? They probably shouldn't exist. And private label is the market force that's accelerating their departure.
But for brands that can answer those questions, that have a real reason to exist beyond "we've always existed", private label is creating clarity. It's forcing innovation. It's demanding excellence.
The Bottom Line That Actually Matters
Private label isn't going away. It's not a trend. It's not a phase. It's a fundamental shift in how retail works.
The private label sales approaching $277 billion in 2025? That's not the ceiling. That's the floor.
Your brand has two choices:
Compete on price and convenience (you'll lose)
Compete on everything else (you might win)
The brands that will thrive aren't the ones that ignore private label or dismiss it as inferior. They're the ones that learn from it, adapt to it, and find ways to offer value that transcends the product itself.
Because in the end, private label is really good at selling products. But brands, real ones, sell something more. They sell identity. They sell values. They sell feelings. They sell stories.
And until private label figures out how to manufacture those, you still have a chance.
…or will you just keep pretending it's 1995 and private label is still just the generic option nobody really wants?
It’s your move!