It’s February, which means that the fun of the holidays has fully faded to a distant memory, spring still seems like eons away, and what we’re left with is winter.
But cheer up, friends! Though the sun may have skipped town for the southern hemisphere (jealous), there are still many things that can brighten your day, if not the weather. The CPG industry, as we all know, is ripe with news items that warm our hearts. As the world tests you with cold temperatures and freezing eyelashes, here are a few things to love about CPG right now.
- Your favorite stores will now come to you.
It seems like it’s a daily occurrence to hear that another retailer is eager to save you both gas money and time spent bundling up in 17 layers to hit the store for groceries. What Peapod and Instacart built is now being pushed even further as Jet.com gets into delivering not just health and beauty and household goods, but also groceries. And Target just bought Shipt in December, so you can get that warm and fuzzy feeling for same-day delivery from your favorite bulls-eye. New research from Acosta notes also shows that that online grocery spending will double by 2023, as retailer click-and-collect grocery offerings expand. (And hey, not having to get out of your car is almost as good as not having to put on pants to go get your groceries.) - Smaller brands can make a run for the big bucks. A recent Financial Times article posited the question of whether big brands might be the next market bubble. “A longstanding and unchallenged assumption held by many is that Big Brand consumer goods companies are extremely safe and solid bets,” the author writes. The problem, however, is that these CPG companies are being priced higher and higher in the stock market, even though their sales are slumping. And that is a pretty good indicator that those big brands may be in a precarious bubble. While that, per se, is not necessarily something to love (sorry, big brands), that is some potentially good news for the smaller suppliers trying to get a toehold in the market. The holes that big brands may leave are perfect places for smaller brands to slip in and takeover, infusing the market with new names, new products, and new opportunities for consumers and retailers alike.
Besides slipping into the holes left by big brands, smaller brands are becoming adept—and more nimbly so—at leveraging social media to take big brands down a peg. Writes Michael Fertik in a 2018 Forbes article, “Today, customer opinion eclipses ad spend. Brands are co-created with consumers online — which means smaller companies and entrepreneurs have a huge opportunity to compete with larger enterprises based on merit and the ability to deliver a great customer experience.” Smaller brands seem to have better access to their consumers, and eagerly engage with them to get input and insight on where they can improve, and what they’re doing well.
