Strategic Imperative to Advance Category Management & Private Brands

December 2025

PwC’s latest study reviews category management practices in 159 grocery stores across six cities in China, and features insights from Harvard Business School and Vanderbilt University professors.

Category management and private brands expansion have become a strategic imperative, offering a way for businesses to sustain themselves in a dynamic and crowded consumer market.

The environment in ready and the timing is right to significantly level up category management capabilities (in supplier relationships, assortment planning, pricing, merchandising and private brands management) and develop private brand products for targeted customer segments.

The next phase for category management in China should be integrating international best practices, such as data-driven collaboration, trust-based supplier partnerships, and mature private brand management, with the unique aspects of the Chinese market, including regional diversity, evolving consumer trust, and omnichannel integration.