Price Gap Growing Between Private Label and National Brands; 99% of U.S. Households Now Purchasing Private Label Products, Numerator Reports

27% of Private Label Buyers Unaware of Retailer Affiliation; Premium Store Brands Now Represent 40% of Private Label Spend

CHICAGO, May 7, 2025 (GlobeNewswire) – Numerator, a data and tech company serving the market research space, has released Private Label Perceptions, an analysis of the U.S. private label market, covering trends such as premiumization, brand strategy, and the evolving role of name brands. The report leverages verified purchase data and a March 2025 sentiment survey of over 21,000 private label buyers across 130+ brands in the CPG and General Merchandise sectors.

Private Label Purchase Data Findings:

• Private label’s presence is ubiquitous across U.S. households. In 2024, household penetration was highest for the grocery (99.9%), health & beauty (99.2%), household (98.9%), home & garden (98.0%), and tools & home improvement (86.3%) sectors. Over three-quarters of U.S. households also purchased apparel (84.8%), party & occasions (82.9%), and office (79.7%) private label products.
• Private label sales had been outpacing national brands for the past five years. In 2020, private label sales grew 29% (vs. 15.4% for national brands). In 2022, private label sales grew by 6.9% (vs. 3.6%), and in 2024, private label sales grew by 2.3% (vs. 4.5%).
  • Growth is fueled by more trips and increased spend. In 2024, private label trips grew by 2.3%, spend per unit grew by 1.9%, and households purchasing private label grew by 0.7%.
  • The price gap between private label and national brands has grown by 38% since 2019. On average, consumers are paying over $2 more for a nationally branded product than for a private label product.
• Consumers are shifting private label share of spending for both CPG and General Merchandise. Club stores and home improvement stores both saw dollar share increases in 2024 (+1.1 points and +1.7 points, respectively).
• Retailers that launched new private label brands in 2024 are seeing traction with diversified offerings. As of March 2025, 12% of U.S. households have purchased Target’s Dealworthy brand (launched in February 2024), spending an average of $9. Similarly, 20.6% of U.S. households have purchased Walmart’s Bettergoods brand (launched in April 2024), spending an average of $16 on the brand.
• Consumers are trading up to premium private label brands. Premium private label now accounts for 40% of all private label spend, up 3.8 points since 2019.

Private Label Verified Buyer Survey Findings:

• Consumers believe that private label provides value. Consumers said budget-friendly (65% of respondents), reliable (33%), generic or basic (31%), trustworthy (24%), and family-friendly (23%) were the words or phrases that came to mind when thinking about private label brands.
• But consumers do admit quality and variety concerns. Barriers to purchasing more private label products are limited variety or availability in private label options (30% of respondents), habit / purchasing the same name brands as usual (25%), concerns about quality or consistency (24%), and preference for specific national brands (21%). Consumers said that promotions and assortment expansion were the top two improvements private label brands could make.
  • Consumers trust CPG more than general merchandise private label products. The top trusted categories among private label products are health & beauty (68% of respondents), grocery (67%), and household (66%), while the least trusted are toys (53%), apparel (55%), and office supplies (56%).
• One in four private label shoppers were unaware they purchased a store brand. 27% of private label shoppers did not know they bought a store brand made specifically for the retailer.
  • Brand ownership recognition is higher in CPG than in general merchandise. Household (78% of respondents), grocery (77%), and health & beauty (73%) had the most awareness, while toys (43%), tools & home improvement (43%), and electronics (46%) had the least.
    • Target and club private label brands are easily recognized. The brands with the most awareness are Member’s Mark / Sam’s Club (95% of respondents recognized it as a private label brand), Kirkland Signature / Costco (92%), Up & Up / Target (88%), and Cat & Jack / Target (87%), while the brands with the least awareness are Spring Valley / Walmart (25%), Vigoro / Home Depot (24%), Better Homes & Gardens / Walmart (18%), and Expert Gardener / Walmart (16%).

Numerator’s Private Label Perceptions survey was fielded in March 2025 to over 21,000 purchase-verified private label buyers across 130+ private label brands in both the CPG and General Merchandise sectors. Purchase data was compiled using Numerator’s 150k household Total Commerce Panel.

About Numerator:

Numerator is a data and tech company bringing speed and scale to market research.  Numerator blends first-party data from over 1 million US households with advanced technology to provide 360-degree consumer understanding for the market research industry that has been slow to change. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, Numerator has 5,800 employees worldwide; 80 of the top 100 CPG brands’ manufacturers are Numerator clients.