Shelf space is where everything happens in retail merchandising. It’s where consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands compete for attention and online sales. But how do most retailers decide what to stock, and exactly where to place it, for the best shopper experience? The answer lies, as it often does, in data. Specifically, information that actually reflects changing consumer behavior.
For years, tracking industry trends and using clear metrics to identify the fastest‑growing product categories has helped retailers decide which CPG products to prioritize and where to allocate valuable shelf space. What’s different now is the tempo. Social media and influencer buzz can propel a product from niche to nationwide in days, then send it sliding back down just as quickly. To keep pace with these shifts and still make confident decisions, retailers are pairing category‑level insights with virtual testing and real‑time shelf optimization as part of a more agile merchandising business model. This post looks at the fastest-growing CPG categories in 2026 and, more importantly, how to stay ahead as shopper preferences keep moving across the CPG industry.
The Fastest-Growing CPG Categories
The fastest‑growing CPG categories haven’t shifted dramatically during the past few years. What’s changing is what wins within those spaces, including how health‑conscious Gen Z and millennial shoppers discover and buy products across digital marketing channels and in‑store.
Functional Beverages
The global functional beverage market continues to grow, driven by consumer demand for their proclaimed health benefits such as immunity and gut support. The sector is expected to grow from roughly $179 billion in 2026 to more than $314 billion by 2035, fueled by innovations in adaptogens and probiotics. As a result, functional drinks are claiming more space within beverage doors and coolers, often displacing traditional sodas and juices in prime locations.
Health and Wellness
Health and wellness product sales are surging as consumers prioritize longevity and everyday physical and mental well‑being. The global wellness economy reached about $6.8 trillion in 2024 on its way toward $8.5 trillion by 2027, growing faster than global GDP. Products that promote energy, muscle performance, and stress management, such as cellular‑health supplements, are in especially high demand.
Natural Personal Care
The demand for natural personal care, including clean‑ingredient skincare and sustainable beauty, shows no signs of slowing down. This niche is predicted to grow from $190.7 billion in 2024 to $433.2 billion by 2034 as health‑conscious shoppers scrutinize ingredients and sourcing more closely than ever. Brands are focusing on eco‑friendly formulations, while retailers and CPG companies use digital storytelling, partnerships, and targeted marketing campaigns to build trust and justify premium pricing.
Organic and Specialty Dietary
Organic, gluten‑free, specialty dietary, and “free‑from” products remain a powerful growth engine for CPG and retail. In the U.S., the organic food market exceeded $95.4 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach nearly $191.3 billion by 2035. This is driven largely by health‑conscious shoppers looking for high-quality, chemical‑free options and cleaner labels across everyday categories.
Plant-Based Everything
Plant‑based products, spanning foods, beverages, and even cosmetics, are seeing strong and sustained market expansion. The global plant‑based food market is expected to rise from about $50.7 billion in 2025 to $103.75 billion by 2034, even as the category matures and faces more competition. Growth is less about labels and more about how well these products fit into everyday life, from weeknight dinners to grab‑and‑go snacks. As brands sharpen flavor and nutritional profiles, shoppers are trading up into plant‑based options and pulling them off the shelf with far less hesitation.
Private-Label Brands
Private‑label CPG brands are outpacing national competition in both growth rate and market share as 2026 begins. In 2025, U.S. store‑brand sales climbed to a record $282.8 billion, up 3.3% from the previous year and nearly three times the growth rate of national brands. Shoppers are increasingly choosing private-label brands for both value and quality, as retailers leverage data, automation, and closer partnerships with manufacturers to expand exclusive product lines, sharpen pricing, and align assortments with consumer needs across categories.
Why Are These Categories Still Growing?
Retailers have long seen category shifts tied to consumer values, such as health, wellness, and ingredient transparency. Today’s shoppers scrutinize labels, pay closer attention to how products are made, and increasingly expect options that feel “better for me” and “better for the planet,” which is why plant‑based, organic, functional wellness, and private‑label assortments keep gaining space.
At the same time, influencers and social media have become a primary driver of discovery and trial for specific products within these categories. Around half of consumers say platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are one of the main ways they learn about new brands, while 39% made online purchases because influencers recommended the products. After an influencer post goes viral, brands can see inventory wiped out in a matter of days.
All these online moments routinely create CPG micro-moments. A functional soda or an eco-cleaner can break through on social channels, then trigger a cascade of demand in stores as shoppers join in for fear of missing out on the next big thing.
How Do You Keep Up with Changing Preferences?
Although the fastest-growing product categories might not have changed during the past few years, items in each category can soar in popularity seemingly overnight off the back of a single social media post or influencer recipe, then plummet back down. Retailers are used to tracking broad, enduring CPG trends, but they now need to constantly detect and act on micro‑trends as well.
Here are some strategies that can help:
- Stock the right mix. Then keep testing.
Treat proven category leaders as your foundation, but continually run small experiments at the edges. Put conventional favorites next to fast‑rising newcomers, and use rapid A/B resets to see how new entries perform before you fully commit. - Know your customers in real time instead of on paper.
Go beyond annual surveys. Use digital receipts, loyalty data, social listening, and quick in‑store feedback to see when preferences start to shift. If you wait for a quarterly review to confirm a trend, you’ve probably already missed the peak. - Let data and analytics outrank gut feeling.
Use predictive analytics and social listening tools to spot emerging brands and SKUs before they show up in last month’s sales report. Then allocate shelf space based on these signals. - Collaborate to move faster.
Work closely with CPG and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands on faster test‑launch cycles and custom planogram pilots. Rather than just squeezing new products into existing fixtures, co‑create displays and campaigns that connect what’s happening online with what shoppers see in‑store.
If you’re wondering how to make all this speed both scalable and low‑risk, that’s where InContext comes in. Our role is to turn these merchandising principles into something you can simulate, measure, and roll out with confidence, before you ever touch the shelf.
Harness 3D Digital Twin Testing and AI to Stay Ahead
Today it’s not enough to rely on quarterly resets. Shelf sets need to adapt monthly—and in some categories, weekly—to keep up with micro‑trends. The fastest way for retailers to keep pace is to test, analyze, and optimize before any physical reset occurs. InContext’s ShopperMX and Arrangement AI enable retail teams to do all three.
By creating an 3D‑powered digital replica of their store in ShopperMX, fed by real‑time data on sales and engagement, teams can simulate product placements and display changes without touching a single SKU or disrupting store traffic. Arrangement AI then helps brands and retailers run virtual A/B tests of CPG launches and predict how, say, moving a trending product to an endcap might impact cross‑category performance. This results in faster, more accurate, and less risky decision-making than relying on trial‑and‑error resets.
E-commerce data supercharges this process, revealing which items are trending digitally and should be tested for priority or expanded presence in‑store. By comparing online success with brick‑and‑mortar sales, retailers can pinpoint omnichannel winners and avoid overcommitting to fleeting fads.
Ready for the Next Wave of CPG Growth?
In 2026, the fastest-growing categories and brands won’t wait for quarterly resets. Staying ahead means moving from guesswork to simulation and from annual reviews to real-time insights influenced by today’s social feeds. InContext provides intuitive and predictive virtual testing so your team can make the merchandising changes that matter most, at the speed of the market.
Contact InContext to see how AI and digital twin tech can help you lead the next chapter of CPG retail.
FAQ
- How do health-conscious shoppers change which CPG products deserve more shelf space?
As categories such as plant-based foods and organic or “free-from” items grow, health-conscious shoppers make it clearer which variants actually earn repeat trips to the shelf. That behavior helps retailers and brands in the consumer packaged goods industry decide where to expand facings, where to trim, and which products to prioritize in their merchandising initiatives. - What role does the supply chain play when CPG demand spikes overnight?
When a product goes viral, retailers that have supply chain teams plugged into real-time demand signals can react faster, shifting inventory and protecting availability. This coordination is crucial in fast-moving FMCG categories, where a delayed response can mean empty shelves and a weaker customer experience just as interest peaks. - How can retailers use online sales and digital marketing to improve in-aisle conversion rates?
Online sales data and digital marketing performance reveal which claims and pack types actually persuade shoppers to buy. Retailers and brands can feed those learnings back into shelf layouts and assortments in key CPG categories, improving in-store conversion rates while keeping messaging consistent across channels. - Where do product development and marketing strategy intersect for these fast-growing categories?
In categories such as functional beverages and natural personal care, product development teams are working more closely with marketers to ensure new items fit the occasions and benefits shoppers already respond to. That alignment helps CPG and FMCG brands focus on fewer, stronger launches that support long-term, year-over-year growth instead of one-off experiments that never scale. - What new opportunities do these trends create for retailers and brands?
As demand concentrates around certain health-forward and value-focused CPG products, retailers gain new opportunities to refine assortments and test targeted price or pack strategies, using virtual testing to see which layouts perform best. Brands that plug into this test-and-learn approach can win earlier access to premium placement and better understand consumer preferences, while jointly building initiatives that benefit both sides of the shelf.
