How will consumers react to higher gas prices, especially in an economy fraught with uncertainty?

Discover how winning CPG manufacturers were able to decrease their number of stock-keeping units (SKUs) while increasing market share. On average, these winners realized an 8% greater reduction in SKUs and 5% higher sales than others in their category, and they increased overall category size.

While most manufacturers believe that their strategic collaboration efforts are effective, only 20% of these efforts achieve significant impact. Learn how winning CPG manufacturers achieved an average sales lift that was 11 percentage points higher than other collaboration efforts.

Find out how some CPG manufacturers were able to increase their unit prices by three percentage points more than the average unit-price increase for their category and grow their category share by 2%.

Following a robust December, sales in the U.K. grocery retail sector were subdued in January as the expected post-Christmas lull was further depressed as a result of snow that covered much of the country in January.

In the UK, sales in the grocery sector grew 3.1 percent in the four weeks ending November 28, according to The Nielsen Company, a modest showing compared to last month’s sales growth of 4.2 percent and 5.6 percent in November 2008.

With consumers looking to stretch their money as far as possible, it’s no surprise that they might be attracted by promotions and sales at their local grocery store.

Todd Hale, SVP, Shopper and Consumer Insight, The Nielsen Company
2008 was a stellar year for store brands in the U.S., with both dollar and unit growth outpacing branded offerings across consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories. Store brand dollar sales within food, drug and mass merchandisers grew 10.2% for the year, while branded dollar sales grew by just 2.6%. Although the gap in unit sales was not as wide, indicative of how store brand dollar growth resulted from inflationary pricing across a number of commodity-based categories, store brand units grew 2.6% …

What do Spam and Ramen noodle sales have in common? Both are leading indicators that it’s crunch time in the aisles of America’s retailers as consumers tighten belts and budgets in response to investment losses and economic uncertainty.