August was prime time for back-to-school shopping! Similar to July, our Category Pacesetters tool ranks office supplies and coloring as the categories with the highest share of total purchases compared to the previous 11 months. However, the general merchandise category has not experienced an upswing. With store trips, dollars spent, and units moved down year over year and a 5.3% shift to private label, back-to-school items may be on the rise, but other GM items are not.
Not all categories have experienced a downturn, though. Household needs continue to gain traction month over month, seeing a 6.0% increase in share of purchases shifting to branded. While still down YoY, store trips in this category are slightly higher than what was reported in July’s findings.
From sports drinks to fruit snacks, beverages and general food also saw improvement. Beverages garnered a 4.2% increase in branded purchases, up from 0.9% last month. The general food category trends also reflect a 1.94% YoY increase in shift to branded, and display a relatively stable number of store trips seen YoY. However, we continue to see a decline in store trips across all categories.
Stay up to date on all category trends with Ibotta as a leading data source for both incentivized and organic purchases from in-store and online sales across all major U.S. retail channels. Ibotta’s first-party SKU-level data provides insights into shopper behavior across over 3 billion lines of purchase data annually — all of which can be used to help you craft winning marketing strategies for your brand.
Explore the August YoY trends below and drill down into your sub-category by getting in touch with an Ibotta rep today.
Category trends
General Food
-9.7% store trips vs. 1 year ago
-10.7% dollar spend vs. 1 year ago
-12.3% units moved vs. 1 year ago
+1.9% share of purchases shifted to branded
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Beverage
-8.3% store trips vs. 1 year ago
-2.7% dollar spend vs. 1 year ago
-9.1% units moved vs. 1 year ago
+4.2% share of purchases shifted to branded
Household Needs
-10.1% store trips vs. 1 year ago
-9.0% dollar spend vs. 1 year ago
-10.7% units moved vs. 1 year ago
+6.0% share of purchases shifted to branded
Health & Beauty
-13.2% store trips vs. 1 year ago
-12.0% dollar spend vs. 1 year ago
-17.4% units moved vs. 1 year ago
+10.2% share of purchases shifted to private label
General Merchandise
-19.8% store trips vs. 1 year ago
-20.5% dollar spend vs. 1 year ago
-14.9% units moved vs. 1 year ago
+5.3% share of purchases shifted to private label
