From picnics and pool parties to backyard barbecues and ball games, summer is in full swing and demand for seasonal staples is soaring. In June, we saw a surge in sales of items like sunscreen, pool accessories, hot dogs, ice cream, and outdoor play items. However, store trips and purchase volume continue to be down year over year across key categories.
The health & beauty category, in particular, continues to experience significant headwinds. However, it did recover slightly from May, seeing small gains in store trips, dollars spent, and units moved. The shift to private label also slowed, decreasing from nearly 30% YoY in May to 21% YoY in June.
This isn’t the time for health & beauty brands to back down though. According to the latest numbers from Circana and released by the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), private label dollar market share is sitting at an all-time high of 20.4%. And leading the way in private label growth is the beauty category, which is up 10% in dollar sales for the first half of the year.
The general merchandise category faced some challenges of its own in June, experiencing a decrease in store trips, dollars spent, and units moved year over year — as well as a sudden swing toward private label. In May, general merchandise brands won back .03% of market share year over year, but in June, private label brands reclaimed 4.2% of that market share.
As inflation remains top of mind for consumers and private labels continue to gain traction, it’s worth keeping these trends in mind — and taking action to drive consumers to your brand. Ibotta is 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. By leveraging this data strategically, brands can find ways to stand out and win back critical market share throughout the year.
Explore the June YoY trends below and drill down into your sub-category by getting in touch with an Ibotta rep today.
Category trends
Planning Ahead?
Identify over-indexing categories and track seasonal buying behavior by month with the Category Pacesetters web tool.
