Can copycat private labels improve the consumer’s shopping experience? A fluency explanation

A top priority among retailers is enhancing the consumer’s shopping experience. With the number of private label products increasing at the same time retailers are shedding slower moving products, understanding how private labels impact the consumer’s experience at the retail shelf becomes critical. While one might think that private labels, in particular those that look similar to their national brand counterparts (i.e., copycat private labels), may hinder the shopping experience by making it more difficult for consumers to choose a product, we find the exact opposite. Adopting a fluency perspective, we show that when copycat private labels are included in a shelf set, consumers with high knowledge of the category experience greater choice ease, and as a result they subsequently evaluate their chosen product more favorably. Importantly, the choice ease and evaluations of novice consumers are found to be unaffected. Consequently, this research provides insights for retailers and manufacturers on how and why copycat private labels positively impact an important aspect of the consumer’s shopping experience (i.e., choice ease).