walmart‘s largest private brand “Great Value” has a new look.
The company announced Wednesday that about 10,000 of the brand’s products, ranging from LED light bulbs to gallons of milk to frozen chicken nuggets, will be in stores in new packaging starting in May. Walmart first launched its brand in 1993 and hasn’t changed its look in over a decade. The products and prices in the new packaging remain the same.
Shoppers will see more modern and colorful packaging for Great Value, starting with snacks, followed by cereal, cream cheese and sour cream items. Scott Morris, senior vice president of private brands at Walmart US, said it will take about 18 to 24 months for all products to have the new packaging.
According to market researcher Numerator, Great Value has higher household penetration than any other store-owned brand in the country, with 87% of U.S. households purchasing at least one item from the brand in the past year. According to the company, the top five private label brands in U.S. household penetration are all from Walmart, and Walmart is also the nation’s largest grocer by annual sales.
Walmart’s Great Value brand is getting a new look. Starting this spring, shoppers will see more modern and colorful packaging.
Provided by Walmart
Still, Walmart’s overhaul of Great Value is an aggressive strategy as more companies improve the quality of their products. According to Numerator, Amazon’s grocery brand has become the fastest-growing private brand year-over-year based on sales volume since its launch in October. some retailers etc. costco Trader Joe’s and Trader Joe’s attract customers because of their reputation for low-priced, high-quality private label groceries and wine, among many other products. And Aldi, a retailer that stocks almost exclusively private label brands, is expanding its national footprint, opening more than 180 stores in the U.S. this year.
Additionally, the overhaul coincides with Walmart’s significant gains from customers with annual household incomes of more than $100,000. It attracts affluent shoppers not only by offering lower prices, but also faster shipping and more unique and stylish products. For example, we’ve added more chef-driven flavors, plant-based items, and trendy ingredients to Bettergoods, the private label grocery line we launched about two years ago.
David Hartman, Walmart’s vice president of creative, said in an interview with CNBC that customer research shows that while shoppers like the quality and price of the products, “we feel like the brand representation on the packaging is a little behind the times.”
“What they felt was this was a compromise,” he says. “They love this product, from food to supplies, but they weren’t particularly proud to display it in their homes and with their families.”
The packaging for Walmart’s Great Value products, such as Donut Shop coffee, has a colorful, more modern look.
The new packaging looks more colorful and crisper than the previous version. Hartman said Walmart chose the new design to make it easier for busy shoppers to find the products they’re looking for, both in store aisles and on the Walmart app.
Clearer, more concise packaging will also help Walmart’s picking operations, which quickly remove items from shelves for customers’ online orders, Morris said.
Morris said the company needs to continue meeting demand for private labels that look, taste and feel different from cheap knock-offs of national brands.
“The bottom line is that customers continue to expect more from private labels,” he said.
In the United States, the market share of private brands is expanding. They account for about 20% of the total grocery market in the U.S., compared to about 45% to 50% in Canada and Europe, said Steve Zurek, vice president of advanced analytics at NielsenIQ. Still, he said, it’s a notable increase from about 15% in the U.S. about a decade ago.
He added that Gen Z shoppers, the younger customers retailers are currently chasing, are pushing private labels further because they buy more than previous generations and often prefer products over well-known national brands.
“The stigma is slowly disappearing,” he said. “For some generations, having a store brand sitting on the counter while entertaining is almost a badge of honor in a way.”
