“2008 was a year in which onlineshopping faced steep rises in the price of their staple food items, far beyond the general rate of food inflation. mySupermarket.co.uk, the supermarket comparison site, has uncovered an increasing trend of ‘downshifting’: consumers swapping their favourite branded products for a supermarket own brand alternative, often surrendering long-standing brand loyalty to make significant savings.

The attached table gives a detailed insight into this recent trend, but to summarise:

• Pasta is the product people are most willing to downshift on with an 8% increase in the sales of own brand items since last year.
• Other items people are happy to downshift include crisps, tomato ketchup and cereal - with sales of own brand products up 4% on last year.
• Cola is one product which shoppers don’t seem to be willing to compromise on with 91% of sales going on branded, a figure which hasn’t changed in the last 12 months.

The items which have seen the greatest trend for downshifting are many of the staple items which have seen significant price rises.

“With shoppers seeing the price of their weekly shop rising, becoming a savvy shopper became more important than ever in 2008. Downshifting is a quick and easy way of saving money and is something which is becoming increasingly popular. There is a definite correlation between the areas where prices have risen sharply over the past year and where shoppers are downshifting and whilst there are certain products which shoppers seem unwilling to compromise on, many are surrendering their brand loyalty on favourites such as ketchup as they move to an own brand alternative.

Saving money doesn’t have to mean giving up our favourite products or deserting our chosen supermarket. By simply swapping brands or taking full advantage of special offers we believe shoppers can often save up to 20% on their shopping bill. The trend for downshifting is set to continue into 2009, but rather than shoppers having to trawl the aisles, they can input their weekly shop into mySupermarket.co.uk and the Price Checker tool will automatically highlight the ‘downshift’ item as well as like-for-like alternatives.”

Product	2007 Own Brand (% sales)	2008 Own Brand (% sales)	Change
Cola	9%	9%	-
Instant Coffee	14%	17%	3%
Crisps	19%	23%	4%
Ketchup	21%	25%	4%
Tea Bags	23%	26%	3%
Breakfast Cereal	28%	32%	4%
Bread	35%	36%	1%
Baked Beans	35%	38%	3%
Biscuits	39%	39%	-
Water	43%	45%	2%
Toilet Paper	61%	60%	-1%
Tinned vegetables	62%	63%	1%
Pasta	56%	64%	8%
Juice	68%	66%	-2%

Source: MySupermarket