FMCGs shore up trade margins, consumer promotions ahead of festive season

Margins not impacted significantly even as firms offer everything from price-offs and grammage increase to buy-one-get-one free schemes, combo packs

A trip to the local supermarket is increasingly becoming a shopper's delight. Promotional activity across brands, notably in home and personal care, has gone up as firms strive to improve sales. This includes everything from price-offs and grammage increase to buy-one-get-one free schemes, combo packs et al.

At the same time, companies are also offering higher trade margins to retailers to push their products as churn levels increase. Data from market research agency Nielsen shows that retailers are prioritising their assortments to focus on mainly high-selling items.

Average number of categories stocked in August-September, says Nielsen, was down three per