How retailers can leverage their private label marketing advantage over national brands

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Private label sales continue to grow, reaching a record $283 billion last year, with sales and unit volume growth outpacing those of national brands.

While retailers are often selling private label products that are similar to, or even dupes of, national brands, their marketing approach—from innovation to packaging to merchandising—must differ from national brands to be successful.

National brands often rely on storytelling and campaigns outside of the store or their own website to drive brand loyalty before consumers go shopping, EY Global Consumer Senior Analyst Jon Copestake told Retail Brew, whereas the point of sale is much more important for private labels to give shoppers options and incentivize them to buy.

The top rung

While retailers have long offered private labels, they ramped up their offerings following the supply chain chaos and subsequent out-of-stocks during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Retailers gained “goodwill and trust” during that period that they’re now leveraging with not only lower-priced private labels for budget-conscious shoppers, but more premium options, Copestake said. They’ve begun “laddering” their private label offerings across different pricing tiers to “make sure that they’re capturing much more than just a budget-conscious consumer,” he said.

Selling more premium items also allows retailers to compete with national brands in categories like soft drinks and alcoholic beverages where brand loyalty is more steadfast, Copestake noted.

Retailers will often start with a lower-priced brand before entering premium. For example, to complement its long-standing Great Value brand, Walmart launched its premium, better-for-you line Bettergoods in 2024, which has since amassed about half a billion dollars in sales as of October 2025. GoPuff followed a similar model, launching its Basically line in 2022, followed by Basically Premium in 2024.

Discount-focused private brands are most often visually aligned with the retailer’s brand identity, while premium options stray from the retailer’s branding to create a more distinctive look, Copestake noted. Great Value is marketed with Walmart’s blue-and-white branding, while Bettergoods is more colorful and modern, for example.

Corner the market

Retailers have more “room to play” than national brands in promoting their private labels in stores, Copestake said, and store employees well-versed in their own brand offerings are also an essential marketing tool, Malin Andrée, EY global retail industry leader, noted.

The most effective approach to private label in-store merchandising differs between categories. In grocery, a tried-and-true strategy is merchandising private labels directly next to national brand counterparts to allow for product comparison. For more premium or niche offerings, retailers can establish a separate section of the store or aisle to allow for new product discovery, which often happens within categories like cosmetics, Andrée noted. Sephora and Ulta Beauty both have separate sections for their own brand cosmetic lines, for example. Even in grocery, Target dedicates separate in-store space for its Favorite Day bakery items and snack mixes.

Retailers can tailor promotions both in stores or online to drive sales. For example, Stop & Shop recently offered free delivery when customers buy $20 worth of its own brand products, and Sephora’s semi-annual sale offers the highest percentage discount—30%—for its Sephora Collection products. Retailers can also leverage loyalty programs to encourage private label sales, Copestake noted.

Express lane

Andrée said retailers who had previously reset their assortments only a few times a year have accelerated their private label innovation strategy over the past few years to stay on top of trends.

Retailers owning private labels means they can “follow fast” on innovations—Copestake pointed to many retailers’ takes on Dubai chocolate over the last year—using trends and the copious amounts of shopper data they collect to launch, refresh, or reformulate products quickly to meet consumers’ needs.

“An agile private label strategy means that they can shift their suppliers and actually launch private label versions into that category quite quickly,” he said.