---
title: "Winning the Shelf May Mean Losing the Business"
description: "In recent conversations with brand owners, the topic quickly turns to retail transformation. They are watching Sam's Club, Hema, Aldi, discount stores, supermarket overhauls, and instant retail, and they are anxious. They ask how to protect share in these channels and whether retailer private labels will squeeze them off the shelf. But they are still using an old framework: they see the shelf changing and worry about losing space, while the real shift is in consumer purchase paths."
author: "任文青"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2026-05-25"
categories: "Brand Marketing, Retail Formats"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/winning-the-shelf-may-mean-losing-the-business-1bb49ba1/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/winning-the-shelf-may-mean-losing-the-business-1bb49ba1.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/brr-iF4Aoajp2xse1WV6Lg"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E8%B5%A2%E4%BA%86%E8%B4%A7%E6%9E%B6%E7%9A%84%E5%93%81%E7%89%8C-%E5%8F%AF%E8%83%BD%E6%AD%A3%E5%9C%A8%E8%BE%93%E6%8E%89%E7%94%9F%E6%84%8F-1bb49ba1.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/winning-the-shelf-may-mean-losing-the-business-1bb49ba1/"
citation: "任文青. “Winning the Shelf May Mean Losing the Business.” New Distribution, 2026-05-25. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/winning-the-shelf-may-mean-losing-the-business-1bb49ba1/"
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---

# Winning the Shelf May Mean Losing the Business

> In recent conversations with brand owners, the topic quickly turns to retail transformation. They are watching Sam's Club, Hema, Aldi, discount stores, supermarket overhauls, and instant retail, and they are anxious. They ask how to protect share in these channels and whether retailer private labels will squeeze them off the shelf. But they are still using an old framework: they see the shelf changing and worry about losing space, while the real shift is in consumer purchase paths.

Recently, I chatted with a few brand owner friends, and the topic quickly turned to retail transformation. Sam's Club, Hema, Aldi, discount stores, supermarket overhauls, instant retail—they are all watching these, and they are all anxious.

By the end of our talks, I found they were asking similar questions: How do I protect my share in these channels? If retailers make their own brands, will my shelf space be squeezed out?

These questions are important. But as I listened, I had a feeling: they are still using the old framework to understand today's market changes.

What they see is that the shelf has changed; what they worry about is that space is shrinking.

In the past, the brand battlefield was indeed on the shelf, competing with same-category brands for display and position. On the surface, it still looks that way today, but the more fundamental change is that consumers' purchase paths have shifted.

Why does a consumer go to this channel? Why do they trust the choices there? Why will they come back to buy again next time? These questions are determining how the shelf will change and who it will be reserved for.

My judgment is: brands are no longer competing for shelf position, but for a place in the consumer's purchase path. The two statements seem similar, but they are fundamentally different.

A brand that wins the shelf may also be losing the business. Brands that don't understand this layer are likely to miss the most important channel opportunity in the next five years.

## **What is retail competing for?**

Over the past three years, the retail industry has changed rapidly. Discount stores, Pangdonglai overhauls, Sam's Club, Hema, Aldi, instant retail—they seem to have different directions and strategies.

But what they are truly competing for is only one thing: where consumers will default to for their next shopping trip.

In the past, retailers didn't have to answer this question urgently. As long as they had enough big brands, good locations, and dense store networks, consumers would come in. Brands attracted people; retailers put the goods on the shelves.

But today, consumers have too many choices. They can buy online, at community stores, via instant retail, at membership stores, or at discount stores. If everyone sells similar products at similar prices, consumers have no reason to come to you specifically.

So, retailers must give consumers a new reason to come here to buy.

Snack discount stores rely on low prices and variety to pull many consumers back offline:

> Pangdonglai cut SKUs and reworked product structures, becoming a model for many supermarkets;
>
> Sam's Club and Aldi are increasingly popular; consumers walk in not to find a familiar brand, but to buy products that these retailers have curated and defined;
>
> Hema expands private labels, co-branded items, and custom products to strengthen channel differentiation with exclusive goods.

Different directions, but they all converge on the same thing: getting consumers to form a fixed habit—coming back here to buy next time.

This is the underlying logic of this round of retail transformation. On the surface, it's about formats, prices, and product structures changing; underneath, retailers are competing for consumers' default choices.

## **The shelf's premise is that consumers still come**

What does this mean for brands?

In the past, brands could be less concerned about competition among retailers. Each channel had its own customer base, and brands just needed to enter as many outlets as possible and compete for display space on every shelf against same-category competitors. Distribution rate, display area, trade spending, and promotional resources were the core actions.

These are not wrong.

But today, there is a war among retailers for consumers. If a category is increasingly served by membership stores, discount stores, or instant retail, a brand that wins on the original shelf may only be winning on a shelf with declining foot traffic.

A brand gets a good position in a traditional supermarket, but consumers' habit for buying that category has shifted to other channels. Then the value of that good position will continue to decline.

Good display is still useful, but only if consumers still come here to buy.

In the past, brands asked: What rank am I on this shelf? Today, they must also ask: Is this shelf still in the consumer's purchase path?

In the past, brands competed on the shelf alone with same-category products, and position was the only variable. Today, brands must form cooperative units with retailers to jointly compete for consumers' default buying behavior—brands embedded in habits are the ones that are truly hard to replace.

## **Understand the path to get the product right**

So brands need to change the questions they ask about channels.

In the past, you would ask: Is there foot traffic? Are costs high? Will they give me shelf space?

Today, you must also ask: Why do consumers come to this channel? What do they mainly buy here? What price range do they accept? Does this channel solve for stockpiling, trying new things, low prices, immediacy, or trust?

These questions determine how a brand should enter a channel.

Take beverages: the logic is completely different across channels. At Sam's Club, it's large packs, family stockpiling, and quality trust; at Hema, it's immediacy, novelty, and scenario differentiation; at snack discount stores, it's low price, high turnover, and small packs; at regional supermarkets, it's family daily needs, community relationships, and stable repurchase.

Using the same national product to roughly adapt to all channels will become increasingly ineffective.

But I want to be clear: national products are not something to abandon; they remain the foundation for many brands. The real opportunity lies in running a second line beyond national products—channel customization.

National products continue to cover national distribution; a separate line is created for channel-specific specifications. Core SKUs maintain the original pricing system; different packaging and combinations are developed for membership stores, discount stores, and regional supermarkets. The two lines do not interfere with each other but jointly cover consumers' different purchase scenarios.

This "dual-track" approach has already been proven in some brands. It solves not the question of "whether to do channel customization" but "how to do channel customization without disrupting the existing system."

## **From supply to co-creation**

When it comes to channel customization, many brands' first reaction is to change packaging or adjust specifications.

But that's just form, not essence.

The true starting point of channel customization is re-understanding why consumers in that channel come. Specification changes, packaging changes, and price range changes are conclusions, not starting points.

This step cannot be done by the brand alone.

Brands have R&D capabilities, technical accumulation, quality endorsement, and supply chain capabilities; retailers have consumer insights, sell-through data, channel reach, and scenario understanding. If the two sides only talk about fees, display, and payment terms, that's still an old relationship.

The truly new relationship is making products together. Define category opportunities together, develop exclusive specifications together, and adjust products based on membership, store, scenario, and repurchase data.

This kind of deep cooperation will only be reserved for a few brands. Retailers cannot build such relationships with too many people at once. Joint development, channel customization, and private label supply chains require investment in data, teams, supply chains, and long-term operations—it's not as simple as giving a few more display positions.

So in the future, brand-retail cooperation will become fewer, deeper, and heavier. Whoever enters the retailer's core cooperation list first will have a better chance of capturing the next round of channel dividends.

Brands embedded in consumer buying habits are hard to replace. Those that are not embedded, even if they are still on the shelf today, will become increasingly unstable.

## **Why this discussion?**

The above judgments are the starting point for our preparation of the China Private Label Industry Chain Conference.

We want to bring together brands and retailers that are actually doing these things to discuss specific issues: How can brands run channel customization beyond national products? How can they find new cooperation models with regional retail, membership stores, and discount stores? How can they move from shelf games to joint development and product co-creation?

On June 4-5, in Hangzhou, the China Private Label Industry Chain Conference will feature three forums directly relevant to brand owners.

"Brand Dual-Track: National Products + Channel Customization" discusses how brand owners can run the channel customization line without disrupting the existing system.

"Regional Retail Transformation and New Opportunities for Brands" discusses what new windows exist for brands after supermarket overhauls, SKU reductions, and product structure rework.

"Brand × Retail: Joint Development and New Collaboration Mechanisms" discusses how manufacturers can move from fee negotiations to deeper product co-creation.

At the event, there will be a group of leading retail companies that are advancing private labels, channel customization, and joint development. They care not just about having suppliers, but about who can develop products together, run mechanisms together, and create new channel growth together.

In the past, brands entered retail by placing goods on shelves. Today, brands must enter the retailer's product system to have a chance to enter consumers' buying habits.

This threshold is rising. Those who enter early will have more time than others.

**Scan the QR code to learn more about the conference**


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 任文青
- Published: 2026-05-25
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/winning-the-shelf-may-mean-losing-the-business-1bb49ba1/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/brr-iF4Aoajp2xse1WV6Lg

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