82% of Holiday Shoppers Will Buy Private Brands, Daymon Report Finds

Eighty-two percent of consumers plan to buy private brands (retailer-owned store labels) this holiday season, according to the Holiday 2026 Private Brand Intelligence Report released Thursday by omnichannel retail solutions agency Advantage Solutions and its private brands unit, Daymon.

The figure is the headline finding of the proprietary study, and it lands at a moment when distributors and suppliers to grocery and mass retail are watching store-label share as a margin lever. For retailers, private brands typically carry higher gross margins than national brands; for manufacturers, they represent a growing volume channel that competes directly with branded product.

Dave Peacock, CEO of Advantage Solutions, framed the demand as budget-driven: "No season tells us more about what consumers value than the holidays. This year, consumers are balancing tighter budgets with the desire to celebrate, and they're making deliberate choices about where to save. That's where private brands and other high-value, high-quality products are driving purchasing decisions."

How strong is the private brand pull?

The report's most strategically loaded number for channel power: 71% of consumers say they choose where to shop specifically because of a retailer's private brands. That inverts the traditional dynamic in which national brands pulled traffic to stores. It effectively gives retailers that invest in store-label quality a durable traffic and loyalty asset — and gives private brand suppliers negotiating leverage in those relationships.

The rest of the consumer base reads like this:

• 93% of consumers are celebrating Thanksgiving; 95% are celebrating Christmas
• 52% of Gen Z plan to host Thanksgiving; 53% of millennials plan to host Christmas
• 87% say they will spend the same or more on holiday groceries this year
• 77% plan to purchase products with seasonal flavors
• 69% try to balance healthy choices with holiday indulgences

The hosting data among younger cohorts matters for assortment planning: hosts buy in larger baskets and across more categories, from appetizers to decor. In plain words, younger shoppers are stepping into the highest-spend occasion of the year, and they're doing it with private brands firmly in the mix.

What trends are shaping the season?

The report identifies four research-backed currents retailers and their suppliers should plan against:

• Seasonal flavors and scents in demand. Interest is strongest among younger generations. The report reviews the top holiday flavors of the year and how retailers are using scents and shapes to bring the season to life at shelf.
• Limited-time offers need long lead times. Seasonal limited-time offer (LTO) programs are now a fixture of retail strategy, but a selling window of a few weeks often requires a year or more of planning — a supply chain and inventory-turns constraint distributors should note well before the season starts.
• The holiday balance. Financial pressure and year-round wellness priorities are reshaping how consumers shop the holidays, per the report.
• Non-foods are gaining. Food still drives the majority of private brand sales, but pet, home, and decor categories are a growing force — a signal for distributors whose assortments have been food-heavy.

Each of these translates into concrete merchandising economics: seasonal LTOs compress the sell-through window, so forecasting accuracy directly hits markdown risk and inventory turns.

Where does this leave suppliers and retailers?

Christine Boenig, president of Daymon North America, said trust in store brands now extends beyond price. "Consumers increasingly see private brands as a holiday staple they can trust, choosing them for quality as much as value," she said. "That trust gives retailers an opening to innovate, from seasonal flavors to new products built for every holiday occasion, and this report is designed to give them a head start on 2027. Whether retailers are refining their holiday lineup or building something new, Daymon's product development and quality assurance expertise helps them turn these insights into private brand growth."

The 2027 reference is notable: the report positions holiday private brand planning as a year-round discipline, not a Q4 scramble. With 82% purchase intent and 71% of shoppers picking stores on the strength of own labels, expect private brand pipeline commitments and supplier line reviews to move earlier in the calendar as retailers compete on assortment they own outright.