Source丨FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation
The "mini-packaging trend" is sweeping through the entire snack bulk retail channel.
Familiar snacks and beverages are all "slimming down"—the taste remains the same, but the portion sizes have changed. Take Lay's, for example: the original 23g and 40g chip bags have gotten even smaller, with the smallest package now just 12g, priced between 0.9 and 1.2 yuan—if you didn't look at the specifications, you'd think prices had reverted to a decade ago.
Lay's chips in different specifications Image source: Lazada
This trend has also extended to beverages.
In the snack bulk retail channel, which has gained significant attention in recent years, small-packaged beverages ranging from 100ml to 200ml are becoming increasingly common.
Why do beverages shrink in the snack bulk retail channel? The answer may lie in the channel's screening mechanism.
Familiar beverages are getting smaller in snack bulk retail stores
"Why are drinks in snack stores so small now? They're smaller than my palm."
This is a question raised by a user in a post on Xiaohongshu, noting that the smaller drinks have returned to a price of 1 yuan per bottle, with portions becoming "baby-sized." The comments below sparked a new round of discussion about whether the smaller items taste good and are suitable. Supportive consumers said they never finish larger drinks, so mini sizes are just right; opponents said they're gone in a couple of sips, which is unsatisfying.
Xiaohongshu user feedback Image source: Xiaohongshu
But whether loved or hated, brands are increasingly sending more small packages to snack bulk retail stores. From beverages to milk, mini versions are common in these stores.
Take Want Want AD Calcium Milk, for example: when it appears in snack bulk retail stores, it's often in 125ml boxed specifications.
AD Calcium Milk itself is a beverage with snack attributes, and with the smaller packaging, it has reduced some of the "sweet burden." Consumers insert the straw and finish it in about three sips, echoing the product's packaging slogan "slightly sour, slightly sweet, never tiring." This size reduces the psychological burden of not finishing a drink, satisfies cravings without taking up space, and doesn't fill you up before meals—it's "lighter" than the original 350ml bottle.
Want Want AD Calcium Milk 125ml packaging Image source: Want Want
Vita Lemon Tea has also shrunk its packaging: the regular size is 250ml, while the small size is 125ml.
Consumers picking up the 125ml version will see that each 100ml contains 221KJ of energy, and with the 125ml specification label, they can calculate that one 125ml lemon tea drink is about 66 kcal.
Compared to regular large packages, small packages are lighter and easier to carry, better meeting consumers' diverse needs across different drinking scenarios. Due to limited stomach capacity, small packages reduce the burden of single consumption, creating conditions for consumers to try multiple categories, thereby effectively expanding consumption opportunities for different beverage categories in various scenarios. In thirst-quenching scenarios, one can choose small-packaged lemon tea; at other times or in other scenarios, one can try small packages of yogurt, soy milk, juice, and other categories.
Vita Lemon Tea 125ml packaging Image source: Vita
It's not just beverages—even milk packaging has become smaller in snack bulk retail stores.
For example, Mengniu's pure milk often appears in 200ml specifications in snack bulk retail stores, rather than the more common 250ml standard packaging in traditional retail terminals. Even in membership stores and warehouse supermarkets, Mengniu's "customized" new products are also small packages, such as the new Telunsu 200ml Master Limited Edition, which achieved monthly sales exceeding 100 million yuan shortly after launch. [1]
Compared to 250ml packaging, Mengniu's 200ml milk has a lower unit price, occupies less shelf space, and the packaging clearly states "each box contains 6.4g of high-quality protein." In its promotions, Mengniu also emphasizes that this product provides nutrition throughout the day, is a great breakfast companion, an energy boost for afternoon tea, and a box before bed to help you sleep soundly.
Mengniu 200ml pure milk packaging Image source: Mengniu
Whether it's AD Calcium Milk, lemon tea, or pure milk, the smaller packaging is essentially adapting to the corresponding channel.
Small packaging is what consumers want to buy in food bulk retail stores. It allows consumers to purchase "the most affordable first-tier brand snack items" and also enables them to try a variety of products in small quantities. [2]
Small packaging: the specification selected by bulk retail
Bulk retail is a retail model originating from Japan, characterized by providing a "wholesale supermarket" shopping experience, typically selling goods at lower prices. Its features include a wide variety of products, convenient locations, direct and effective promotions, and regular special offers to stimulate consumer purchasing desire. [3]
Snack bulk retail is not just a "low-price channel." In a highly competitive e-commerce environment, price is not a scarce resource; what's truly scarce is a shopping experience that encourages consumers to take more, buy quickly, and return repeatedly. The "China Snack Bulk Retail Industry Blue Book" shows that China's snack bulk retail offers good prices, good products, good shopping experiences, and good buying convenience, meeting consumers' new demands. [2]
In this Blue Book, small packaging is key to the "good buying" aspect of the snack bulk retail channel—by offering a large number of bulk, weighed snacks, snack bulk retail helps consumers solve the problem of choice difficulty; after trying multiple varieties in small quantities, consumers will develop long-term repurchase of certain varieties, eventually forming a snack consumption habit of "trying new products + repurchasing old ones." [2]
Snack bulk retail store Image source: Snack Busy official website
First, small packaging makes low prices more perceptible.
Snack bulk retail aims to provide consumers with good prices, making low prices more direct. To this end, the channel optimizes the snack supply chain, shortens intermediate links, and offers consumers the most affordable first-tier brand snack items, with prices lower than both traditional offline and online e-commerce. [2] Brands also need to maintain their price systems by adjusting product packaging or specifications to avoid price chaos. [4]
For white-label or private-label products, reducing single-package specifications and lowering unit prices is also a direct and stable way to acquire customers.
Second, small packaging determines whether the snack bulk retail store is "good to browse."
The "good to browse" experience comes from two factors: selection density and change frequency. In the same shelf and freezer space, small packages occupy less volume, meaning stores can fit more SKUs, more flavors, and more brand combinations. At the same time, rapidly changing shelves make the shopping experience less predictable, and consumers make purchasing decisions based on store displays and promotions, likely becoming more inclined to buy as they browse.
Snack bulk retail store image
When this mechanism is applied to the beverage category, the advantages of small packaging are further amplified.
In snack bulk retail stores, beverages are also becoming "snackified," with the thirst-quenching function taking a backseat. Just as consumers don't buy snacks as meal replacements, they don't seek to be fully satisfied. In snack bulk retail, the reason for choosing becomes "I want to try it," whether out of curiosity about flavors or the need to relieve spiciness or greasiness as a snack companion, which may prompt consumers to put a beverage in their shopping basket.
Small packaging further makes this motivation easier to satisfy: it's lighter on the wallet, easier to carry, and offers more choices at the same price, giving consumers more initiative in selecting beverage flavors. As for dairy small packages, although they are pure milk, the smaller size makes them different from the logic of stocking up at supermarkets, becoming a product more suitable for "add-on purchases," just like the spicy relief mentioned earlier—many people also buy milk to pair with spicy snacks.
Snack bulk retail promoting wholesale prices Image source: Snack Youming
It can be said that small packaging is not just a packaging strategy for a specific brand, but a "universal answer" for the high-turnover model of the snack bulk retail channel. It makes it easier for stores to establish a low-price mindset, create richer displays, and run new product launches and eliminations more efficiently. It also makes beverages easier to add to the cart and dairy products easier to enter daily replenishment paths at a lower threshold, avoiding elimination from the bulk retail store's list.
It's not that beverages and dairy suddenly want to become smaller; it's that snack bulk retail has chosen small packaging. [2]
Specification is strategy
How do brands use "small packaging" to carve out incremental growth?
When small packaging becomes the consensus in retail bulk stores, packaging specifications are no longer just about container size, but a precise channel strategy.
- Exclusive specifications to maintain brand price systems
Snack bulk retail stores often enter the market with low prices. If traditional specification products are directly introduced, it can easily trigger price wars across channels.
To this end, brands first adjust products entering the bulk retail channel. In the research report on Li Zi Yuan by Dongwu Securities, "Brand Renewal and Channel Transformation, Awaiting Results," the channel strategy mentions that when introducing products into the snack bulk retail channel, the company will "differentiate product packaging and specifications from other channels to avoid price management chaos," and plans to launch customized and co-branded products more suited to this channel. [4]
Small packaging in snack bulk retail stores Image source: Quanshi Online
- From "quenching thirst" to "satisfying cravings": beverages join snack gift packs
In supermarkets and convenience stores, beverages are often single-point purchases to quench thirst. But in snack bulk retail, beverages are more like "companions"—to relieve greasiness, spiciness, pair with sweet or salty snacks, or even for consumers to try new flavors.
Kantar Worldpanel data strongly supports this trend. In 2024, sales of packaged beverages in snack stores grew by as much as 95%, with penetration growth doubling. The penetration rate of consumers buying both snacks and packaged beverages increased from 6.3% to 13.9%, far exceeding the growth of single categories. [5] In other words, more consumers are buying beverages in snack bulk retail stores, and more are buying beverages and snacks together.
When beverages begin to take on roles of satisfying cravings, pairing, and trying new things, product forms also change. Small packaging is no longer just a capacity choice but becomes the basic unit supporting combined purchases. Beverages are also starting to be made into sets with different flavors, just like snacks.
New Hope's "Colorful Enjoyment Pack" is a product of this thinking. The product uses 200ml small packaging and combines multiple flavors into a "platter." With banana milk, honeydew melon milk, and taro milk, each flavor in packs of two, it emphasizes "multiple tastes, one satisfaction," rather than repeated consumption of a single flavor.
On the packaging, New Hope highlights two key points: one is the use of Korean elements to create freshness and recognition, and the other is the prominent "raw milk ≥80%" label, directly endorsing the product's ingredients. The former attracts consumers to pick up the product, while the latter reduces decision hesitation.
New Hope Colorful Enjoyment Pack Image source: New Hope
- The collectibility of small packaging drives high repurchase rates
Small packaging's low volume and low unit price naturally lower consumers' purchase threshold, even making beverage consumption as likely to trigger collectibility as trendy toys.
Beverage brands doing IP collaborations in the snack bulk retail channel make "buying more" more reasonable.
Take Yili's QQ Star, a children's growth milk and dairy beverage brand, for example: its collaboration with "My Little Pony" didn't change the milk's function. But through small specifications and varied packaging, QQ Star breaks down the purchase action into multiple low-threshold choices.
With 125ml small packages displayed in rows of four, each box features a different My Little Pony design. Even different flavors have different packaging. This IP-attributed packaging attracts child consumers, while the "100% raw milk" label on the packaging makes decision-making consumers more willing to buy this rich, affordable small package for their children.
QQ Star My Little Pony co-branded product Image source: QQ Star
A similar logic appears in the collaboration between One Cow Raised by One Person and Sanrio.
Although the co-branded products come in various specifications, only the 125ml mini pure milk was chosen to enter the snack bulk retail channel. [6] The small size reduces the cost of single decisions and allows different character packaging to be displayed side by side on the same shelf.
On the packaging, One Cow Raised by One Person features Sanrio's popular characters: Hello Kitty, My Melody, Kuromi, Pochacco, and Pompompurin appear on pure milk and high-calcium growth milk packaging. With IP-endorsed small packaging, consumers who originally planned to buy one box may end up "collecting them all."
One Cow Raised by One Person Sanrio co-branded product Image source: One Cow Raised by One Person
- "Non-standard" forms to grab attention
When consumers are accustomed to bottled and boxed beverages, non-standard versions often stand out.
Even Lian Coffee has launched triangular small-format drip coffee concentrate, jasmine green tea, and black oolong concentrate products. This product further shrinks the classic Tetra Pak triangular package from 200ml to 20ml. The new triangular packaging is not only novel and cute but also adds more consumption scenarios.
In snack bulk retail stores, the distinctive triangular packaging of Lian Coffee makes it easier to grab consumers' attention on crowded shelves. This product is not ready-to-drink; consumers need to perform simple steps at home before drinking. This packaging form, different from regular beverages, adds more participation and fun to each drinking experience.
From product packaging to consumption form, Lian Coffee's packaging makes the beverage more like a snack than traditional coffee or tea, more likely to spark consumer interest.
Lian Coffee product Image source: Tetra Pak
Small packaging in snack bulk retail has become the standard answer filtered by the channel mechanism: lower prices, richer displays, better performance in new product launches and eliminations, and easier for consumers to grab on the go.
This is why we frequently see small-format paper-packaged beverages like 125ml and 200ml on snack bulk retail shelves. Tetra Pak offers a rich product line and mature solutions for small-capacity packaging, enabling brands to efficiently capture the growing consumer demand in bulk retail stores with cute mini packages, maintaining stable supply and quality assurance amid high-frequency launches and rapid turnover.
Tetra Pak small packaging Image source: Tetra Pak
Small packaging brings beverages into bulk retail, and brands use small packaging to secure a place in the growing snack bulk retail channel.
References: [1] "Mengniu's First Half Revenue 41.6 Billion! Striving to Help Consumers Drink Milk, Drink Good Milk, and Drink the Right Milk," August 27, 2025; [2] "China Snack Bulk Retail Industry Blue Book," CIC Consulting; [3] "Wanchen Group: Bulk Retail Advances Rapidly, Wanchen Soars," December 10, 2024, Dongwu Securities; [4] "Li Zi Yuan: Brand Renewal and Channel Transformation, Awaiting Results," January 24, 2025, Dongwu Securities; [5] "Navigating the New Blue Ocean of Accelerating Channel Change," Kantar Worldpanel; [6] Gong Zuoren, "Contemporary Young People 'Cheers with Emotions'—One Cow Raised by One Person X Sanrio Family Milk New Product Launch," July 10, 2025, Laborer.
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