Consumer packaged goods (CPG) are the everyday items people buy, use, and buy again, such as cereal, shampoo, dish soap, and sparkling water. The category covers anything that shoppers consume quickly and restock often.
Household spending grew across every major CPG category in 2025, from food and beverage to health and beauty, according to NielsenIQ’s Expanded Omnishopper report. But that growth isn’t even across brands. US private label sales hit $282.8 billion, growing nearly three times faster than national brands.
This guide covers what counts as a CPG, how the industry is evolving in 2026, and the ecommerce strategies CPG brands use to grow: subscriptions, omnichannel selling, AI-ready product pages, and first-party data.
What are consumer packaged goods (CPG)?
Consumer packaged goods are nondurable products people buy, use up quickly, and then purchase again. You’ll find CPG items at grocery stores, pharmacies, and convenience stores.
Five traits define a CPG:
- Frequent replacement: Shoppers use the product and buy it again within weeks or months, not years.
- Repeat purchases: The same shopper buys the same product, or the same product category, on a predictable cycle.
- Accessibility: CPGs sell at low unit prices and sit within easy reach at grocery, drug, and convenience stores.
- Consistent demand: These are everyday goods, so consumer demand doesn’t disappear when budgets tighten or trends shift.
- High-volume sales: CPG brands depend on selling large quantities at low margins rather than few units at high markups.
Examples of consumer packaged goods include:
- Food: Snacks, cereal, frozen meals, and beverages.
- Household items: Cleaning products, toilet paper, and batteries.
- Personal items: Cosmetics, home remedies, hygiene products, and over-the-counter medications.
Consumer packaged goods differ from durable goods, which are meant to last for years, such as washing machines and furniture. CPGs also fall within the wider category of consumer products, specifically under consumer nondurables: goods with a useful life of less than three years that get replaced on a predictable cycle.
Manufacturers and retailers compete on brand loyalty, advertising, packaging, pricing strategies, and distribution networks to win shelf and cart space.
CPG vs. FMCG: What’s the difference?
FMCG stands for fast-moving consumer goods. These are the highest-turnover items in the CPG category, such as milk, bread, soda, and toilet paper. These products sell in high volumes and are repurchased weekly, sometimes daily.
MCG is technically a subset of the broader CPG category, but in practice, the two terms are used interchangeably.
| CPG | FMCG | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Broad: any nondurable good bought and consumed regularly | Narrower: the fastest-turnover subset of CPG |
| Turnover speed | Weeks to months | Days to weeks |
| Unit cost | Varies by category | Typically lower, sold at higher volume |
| Examples | Cosmetics, over-the-counter medication, batteries | Milk, bread, beverages, toilet paper |
| Perishability | Mixed: some perishable, some shelf-stable | Mixed: perishable items common, but not universal (a Coca-Cola bottle qualifies as FMCG despite a long shelf life) |
The core distinction: fast-moving consumer goods turn over quickly and cost less per unit, but every FMCG is also a CPG product.
CPG industry trends
- Market growth and economic outlook
- Sustainability and packaging transparency
- AI and data-driven operations
- Private label growth
- Direct-to-consumer CPG strategies
The CPG space is moving through a period of accelerated change, shaped by consumer caution, private label momentum, and the rollout of AI across marketing and operations.
Market growth and economic outlook
Consumer packaged goods spending grew across every major category globally in 2025: health and beauty (8%), baby care (7%), food (4%), pet care (4%), and household care (3%), according to the NielsenIQ data. Food and beverage products remained the biggest draw on household budgets, with 227 shopping trips per household each year, compared with 83 trips for health and beauty.
Private label is growing faster than the national brands it competes against. Store brands set a new sales record in the US in 2025, a 3.3% increase over the prior year.
Sustainability and packaging transparency
Packaging transparency has become table stakes rather than a differentiator. PepsiCo, one of the largest CPG manufacturers, aims to make 97% or more of its primary and secondary packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2030, up from 93% in 2024.
Meeting that kind of goal takes more than a packaging redesign. It takes a communication strategy that doesn’t read as vague or performative.
“We have to explain every step along the way,” says Kailey Bradt, CEO at sustainable beauty brand Sonsie Skin. “We can’t just introduce a new material...We have to be really mindful about how we are educating and how we are articulating what we’re doing differently, because if we don’t, then it’ll just seem like greenwashing.”
That kind of specificity on sustainability matters for smaller CPG brands, too. Naming the material, the supplier, or the certification behind a claim is a more concrete sustainable business standard than a general statement about eco-friendly products.
AI and data-driven operations
CPG and retail leaders describe AI as a top priority, but few have matched that conviction with investment. About half of CPG and retail executives put less than 0.5% of revenue toward AI, even though 75% call it a top strategic priority, according to a Deloitte survey of 200 industry executives. Most of that spending still goes toward IT and data infrastructure rather than revenue-generating customer-facing use cases. Store owners face a similar gap between interest and know-how. Twenty-nine percent of store owners who don’t use AI tools say they aren’t sure what those tools can do, according to a 2025 Shopify survey of store owners.*
Closing that gap doesn’t require a big new AI budget. Shopify’s built-in analytics include Sidekick, an AI assistant that answers plain-language questions about a store’s own sales and inventory data. It’s the kind of tool a smaller CPG brand can use without a dedicated data team.
Private label growth
Private label brands have lost their reputation as cheap substitutes. More than half (53%) of consumers globally say they’re buying more private label products; 68% now see private label as a good alternative to name brands, and 69% say it offers good value, according to NielsenIQ’s Private Label and Brand Growth report.
Store-brand unit sales climbed to 68.7 billion in 2025, up 0.6% year over year, while national-brand units declined 0.6%, according to data from the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA). Store brands have also gained ground steadily over time. Dollar share rose from 19.1% to 21.3%, and unit share from 21.6% to 23.5%, between 2021 and 2025. “Store brands are outperforming national brands across the US, growing faster, expanding share, and delivering record-setting sales results,” said PLMA president Peggy Davies.
Retailers are responding by expanding upmarket. Walmart’s Bettergoods, launched in 2024, has already become one of the fastest-growing private-label brands, reaching purchases from about 9% of US households within its first year, according to a Numerator report cited by Retail Dive.
Direct-to-consumer CPG strategies
Direct to consumer (DTC) lets a CPG brand set its own pricing and messaging, control the customer experience, and own the first-party data behind it all. That direct relationship and data can shape product development decisions, such as flavors, formulations, and pack sizes.
Subscriptions fit naturally into this model. Offering a subscription can turn one-time buyers into recurring revenue for everyday, replenishable products, outside the usual retail cycle.
CPG market research, analytics, and operations
A CPG brand faces a steady stream of decisions: what to make, how much to stock, and how to get it onto shelves and doorsteps. This section walks through that decision-making, starting with product research and running through the full product development process.
Use market research to guide product and channel decisions
Market research helps a CPG brand decide what to make next and where to sell it. Some ways to validate a product idea include:
- Running formal surveys
- Tracking purchase behavior
- Offering limited pre-orders
- Organizing pop-ups
“Based on pop-up information but also looking at our customer data on Shopify, it seems like New York is the next big one for us, so we’re really seriously considering trying to find a great space there and build out a small Valencia-style factory,” says Todd Masonis, cofounder at Dandelion Chocolate.
That approach is market research in practice: pop-up sales data plus Shopify customer data fuel a real expansion decision grounded in actual purchase behavior rather than assumptions. It also connects to product strategy and where a product sits in its life cycle, whether it’s still finding its audience or due for a refresh.
Track sales velocity, inventory, and packaging needs
Sales velocity—how many units move through a store or channel per week—is a metric CPG brands track closely. It shapes production runs, packaging orders, and the amount of inventory to hold at any given time.
“We know exactly what we need based on real sales data, so we’re not tying up cash in excess inventory or missing sales due to stockouts,” says Angelus Direct CEO Tyler Angelos.
That kind of visibility compounds across a growing product line. “Not only do I want to sell more, but it helps me to prepare to order enough empty boxes, so I actually base a lot of my business decisions on looking at that Shopify data,” says Jonathan Grahm, chocolatier and founder of Compartés Chocolate.
Plan fulfillment and distribution costs
Fulfillment strategy affects both margin and speed. Many CPG brands run a hybrid model that includes a direct-to-consumer site for control and data, paired with a marketplace or retail partner for their reach and fulfillment infrastructure.
“Having your Shopify site live but fulfilling out of Amazon FBA [Fulfillment by Amazon] … is absolutely one way of doing that,” says Alex Matthews, cofounder at De La Calle.
Distribution costs, storage fees, shipping rates, and marketplace fulfillment fees are part of the same pricing math, regardless of the mix a brand chooses. The same math applies to sourcing decisions made further upstream. Strategists can use product sourcing apps to calculate supplier lead times and minimum order quantities, and weigh them against projected sales velocity.
CPG ecommerce strategies for 2026
- Test a subscription model
- Use an omnichannel strategy
- Improve product pages for shoppers and AI search
- Build CPG marketing across content, social, email, and retail
- Use customer data for personalization
US retail ecommerce sales reached $326.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026, accounting for 16.9% of total retail sales. For CPG brands, that growth brings fiercer competition and more channels to win customers.
Here are five strategies CPG brands can use to compete in 2026:
Test a subscription model
Subscriptions turn one-time buyers into repeat buyers who generate recurring revenue, particularly for items people restock at predictable rates, like toiletries, household staples, and snacks. Shopify Subscriptions lets store owners set up recurring orders, which works better for CPGs with predictable usage rates than ones with unpredictable or highly seasonal demand.
“The subscription part of our web business is really important, because it’s recurring revenue. But really, for us, it’s about having retention and really excited customers. And it’s a proof point that people like you, they’re willing to stick with you and they want your product,” says Verve Coffee cofounder Colby Barr.
Use an omnichannel strategy
Shoppers move between social platforms, search engines, retail media, and physical stores within a single purchase decision. Despite the growth of digital channels, in-store sales still account for roughly 77% of FMCG sales, and household spending in physical stores runs nearly three times higher than online spending, according to NielsenIQ’s 2026 consumer outlook. Store owners building an omnichannel strategy need both experiences to work together rather than treating one as an afterthought.
An omnichannel strategy connects messaging, pricing, and service across every touchpoint: researching a product online, checking in-store availability, and picking it up or returning it, all as one continuous experience rather than separate transactions.
Improve product pages for shoppers and AI search
A product page is a CPG brand’s digital shelf, and increasingly, it’s also the source material AI shopping tools pull from when they summarize or recommend a product. Clear, structured information now serves two audiences at once: the person reading the page and the AI system parsing it.
To cover both:
- Use high-quality images from multiple angles
- Write clear, specific product descriptions that include ingredients, materials, and usage instructions
- Structure key details (size, quantity, dietary attributes) so they’re easy to scan and easy for AI tools to extract accurately
- Keep information current, since outdated specs or discontinued claims create inconsistency between the page and the product
Build CPG marketing across content, social, email, and retail
CPG marketing spans content, social, email, and increasingly, retail media placements within a retailer’s own app or site.
Marketing is the top first-year challenge for new store owners, cited by 37% of respondents in a 2025 Shopify survey. Word of mouth is the most common first-year growth strategy (53%), followed by building a social media presence (35%).
Good Girl Snacks turned that word-of-mouth dynamic into a growth engine before it had a product to sell, building its following through daily social posts rather than paid advertising. “We always say our followers are our influencers,” says Yasaman Bakhtiar, cofounder at Good Girl Snacks. That same community directly shapes the product line. A comment asking for a “garlic one” inspired its garlic-cumin flavor.
Use customer data for personalization
Purchase history, subscription behavior, and repeat-purchase patterns all signal what a customer is likely to want next. Shopify customer segments and email marketing automations transform those signals into targeted campaigns, reorder reminders, or recommendations based on past purchases.
Brands that collect and use customer data for personalization should do so in accordance with applicable privacy, consent, marketing, and data-protection laws. Consult qualified legal counsel as needed, since requirements vary by market and continue to change.
CPG brand case studies
Heyday Canning
When Kat Kavner and Jaime Lynne Tulley launched Heyday Canning, they set out to disrupt an overlooked aisle: canned beans.
“Canned food is this massive industry, but it’s just not top of mind because the shelves are filled with boring, commodity products,” says Kat Kavner on the Shopify Masters podcast.
Heyday introduced premium, flavorful beans targeted at convenience-minded, discerning consumers. Breaking into CPG isn’t easy: products often look interchangeable on the shelf, and building brand recognition takes time. Kat points to velocity—how many units sell in each store every week—as the metric that matters most in the category.
To build that velocity, Heyday leaned on marketing. Free in-store samples, pop-up events, coupons, and well-funded viral marketing campaigns all helped establish the brand and keep it moving.
Good Girl Snacks
Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar noticed something odd while scrolling social media at their first jobs out of college. The hashtag “pickle” had racked up 9.5 billion views, yet the pickle aisle itself hadn’t changed in years. They left their jobs and spent two months building a following on TikTok and Instagram before Good Girl Snacks had a product to sell.
That pre-launch strategy paid off. The brand is now stocked in Whole Foods and Erewhon, built entirely on organic reach rather than a paid acquisition budget. The cofounders treated their earliest followers as informal focus groups and influencers rolled into one, using comment sections to shape flavors and inviting followers, not paid influencers, to brand events.
“We do work with a team of sales brokers that help us facilitate some of these relationships, but for the most part, having a broker will get you a conversation with a buyer. It’s not going to get you in,” says Leah Marcus, cofounder at Good Girl Snacks.
“So you have to have the product and the following and the backing to actually be able to make it into the store—and then once you’re in the store, be able to stay in the store—because getting in is one part.”
*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.
CPG FAQ
What does CPG stand for?
CPG stands for “consumer packaged goods”—everyday items that people buy, use, and repurchase, like toilet paper, toothpaste, and bread. The category also includes food, beverages, personal care items, and household cleaning supplies.
How is CPG different from retail?
CPG describes a product category, while retail describes the broader business of selling goods to consumers, whether in stores or online. CPG items sell across many retail formats, including grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, and ecommerce sites.
What are the challenges facing the CPG industry?
CPG brands must compete against growing private-label store brands, deal with fast-changing consumer preferences, and manage the pressure to back up sustainability claims with specifics rather than vague marketing language. Supply chain costs and access to shelf space are ongoing challenges for smaller brands.
How are CPG brands adapting to changing consumer preferences?
CPG brands are investing in clean-label ingredients, sustainable packaging, and direct-to-consumer channels that connect them directly to shopper feedback. Many are also building social media communities that shape product development before a launch, not just promote it afterward.
What technologies are transforming the CPG industry?
AI is changing how consumers discover CPG products through AI-assisted search and shopping tools, and how smaller brands operate day to day. Built-in tools like Shopify’s Sidekick let a store owner answer questions about their own sales and inventory data without needing a dedicated data team. Store owners are also using customer data platforms to personalize marketing and retail media networks and reach shoppers closer to the point of purchase.
