2026 Global Consumer Products Industry Outlook

Consumers are increasingly moving from convenience and brand driven choices to value driven tradeoffs. 47% of consumers globally, including 35% of high- income households, now behave as value seekers, regularly sacrificing convenience to keep costs down, making price value scrutiny a mainstream expectation across income levels. Growth will favor more-value-for-the-price (MVP) brands that consistently feel “worth it” across price tiers, but only one-third brands currently achieve that.

Deglobalization and shifting trade policies are creating new pressure points that demand more active management. Companies are reducing exposure to policy risk, adjusting pricing strategies, and rethinking where and how they compete. By 2026, seven in ten executives expect high growth opportunities beyond their traditional markets, supported by expanded distribution, digital capabilities, and e-commerce.

Consumer products companies are moving away from aisle spanning conglomerates toward more focused portfolios. Two thirds of surveyed organizations plan to grow through partnerships, while about half intend to rationalize SKUs to reduce complexity, improve efficiency, and stay closer to evolving consumer needs.

74% of surveyed companies are simplifying organizational structures to reduce interdependencies and enable faster, more accountable decision making. Flatter structures and end to end processes, often supported by artificial intelligence (AI), are becoming prerequisites for scaling productivity and unlocking value. Many organizations also expect to pair simplification with outsourcing and centers of excellence to free capacity for growth and accelerate AI-enabled operations.

Investor expectations are shifting away from headcount growth toward productivity gains driven by digital transformation and AI. Growth is increasingly expected to come from doing more with the same workforce through automation, process redesign, and better use of data, not simply by adding talent.

Traditional CPG-retailer roles are being reshaped. 79% of executives expect power to shift further toward retailers over the next two to three years, driven by private label growth, retailer scale, and advantages in consumer data. The opportunity lies in deeper collaboration, with more joint operating models focused on shared planning, pricing, early innovation, and cost reduction.

AI is transforming the supply side of the market, but consumers are becoming AI powered too. As generative AI increasingly influences discovery and purchase decisions, the next battleground will include generative engine optimization (GEO), AI-enabled checkout pathways, and agentic commerce. Yet only 31% of executives say they are actively addressing how to influence AI-assisted shoppers, suggesting a growing strategic gap.