Study: Aldi, Target, Amazon lead as fastest-growing private brands
Walmart reigns supreme when it comes to private-label household penetration, but three other retailers are coming up fast.
Walmart owns four of the top five private brands, according to a study by data and tech company Numerator that examines private label trends across channels. Ranked by household penetration, the top five private label brands include four Walmart brands: Great Value (purchased by 72.7% of U.S. consumers), Equate (51%), Marketside (44.2%); and Freshness Guaranteed (40%) The fifth top private brand is Dollar Tree (32.5%).
Aldi, Target and Amazon ranked as the fastest growing private brands, the study found. (In July, reports surfaced that the online line giant had begun reducing the selection of products it sells under its own brands. As of 2020, Amazon had 45 different house brands.)
Aldi’s private label household penetration grew by 2.3 points from the second quarter of 2021 the second quarter of 2022, followed by Target’s Favorite Day (up 2.2 points), Amazon’s Amazon Basics (up 1.7), Sam’s Club’s Member’s Mark (up1.3) and Kwik Trip (up 1.3).
The study also found as inflation continues to rise, price is becoming more important than brand name for many consumers, including middle- and high-income ones. Nearly 40% of high-income consumers and middle-income consumers alike are purchasing private label as a cost-saving measure. Interestingly, high-income consumers have the most favorable opinions of private-label products.
Overall Sales
In other Numerator findings, more than three-quarters (77.5%) of Aldi’s sales are for private label products, followed by Trader Joe’s (59.4%), Wegmans (49.4%), Costco (33.5%), Sam’s Club (30%), H-E-B (26.9%), Walmart (23.3%), Kroger (22.1%), Meijer (15.8%) and Hy-Vee (15.2%).
Target (15.1%), Whole Foods Market (14.7%) and Publix (13.6%) follow closely behind the top 10 in private label share (among grocery, household, health & beauty). While Amazon captures higher private label share among its consumer electronics and home goods products, the retailer posts a private label share of only 3% among grocery, household, and health & beauty products.
Grocery
• Within the grocery sector, private label brands account for 17.4% of sales, while branded products account for 82.6%.
• Private label grocery share in the club channel (32.1%) is approximately twice that of other channels. Club is followed by mass (22.6% private label share), online (20.2%), food (18.6%), dollar (9.9%) and drug (4.7%).
Household Products
• Within the household products sector, private label brands account for nearly $1 in $5 spent (19.5% of sales), compared to 80.5% for branded items.
• In the club channel, private label products account for more than one-third of all Household product sales. Private label Household products share in the club channel (35.5%) is followed by mass (19.4%), dollar (19.2%), food (18.7%), online (13.1%) and drug (8.9%).
• Online private label share continues to grow in the Household sector. While online holds the second-lowest share (13.1%) for private label products, it was the only channel to see consistent growth over the past two years.
Health & Beauty
• Within the health & beauty sector, private label brands account for more than $1 in $10 of consumer spend (11.9%, compared to 88.1% for branded items).
• The dollar channel closely trails the drug channel in health & beauty private label share. The drug channel represents the highest share of health & beauty private label sales (18.4%), followed by dollar (17.7%), mass (16.9%), club (14.2%), food (8.7%) and online (5.2%).