Why retailers are buying less often but spending more

We all know the uncertain economy and shifting trade landscape are weighing on retail, but they’re also reshaping the M&A world.

According to KPMG’s latest quarterly M&A report on the consumer, retail, and hospitality sectors, dealmaking looked very different over the past year, starting with one headline trend: fewer deals, but much bigger ones.

Per the report, total M&A value jumped 51.7% to $229.8 billion in 2025 even as deal volume fell 6.9%. In other words, buyers weren’t chasing quantity, they were making high-conviction bets on premium assets.

Some of the megadeals that drove the increase include Kimberly-Clark’s acquisition of Kenvue, Keurig Dr Pepper’s purchase of JDE Peet’s, and 3G Capital’s take-private of Skechers.

“The headline message to me is that you had several large-conviction transactions and what was interesting was you saw some in retail and some in consumer products,” Julia Wilson, a partner in consumer and retail deal advisory at KPMG, who also co-authored the report, told Retail Brew. “If we think about where things can go next year, and why we’re cautiously optimistic, is because I’m thinking they’re probably going to benefit from some of this other strategic cleanup that’s going to be such large, high-conviction transactions. To us, [it] signifies strategic clarity so businesses are hyper-focused on performance.”

Some areas of retail are attracting more attention than others. High-growth, high-margin categories like consumer health, wellness, and digital platforms were the most active. Wilson pointed to Kimberly-Clark’s acquisition of Kenvue as an example of a company aiming to become a “powerhouse in all things wellness [and] personal care.”

When it comes to how buyers are deciding what’s “core” (the parts of the business that actually drive growth) versus “noncore” (the parts that don’t fit anymore), Wilson said companies are reassessing what they want to own and where they can realistically win.

If a business line doesn’t match where consumer demand is heading and the company doesn’t have the internal capabilities to compete, she said, it’s likely to be pulled back or carved out entirely.

“You don’t want to completely have a laser focus because then you might miss out on changing trends,” she said, adding that “in a hard market, you really want to move and orient most of your resources towards where you will have the most success.”