2026 Consumer Products Outlook | Deloitte Insights

Nicola Johnson, “The future of the consumer industry,” Deloitte Global, accessed Dec. 15, 2025.

Michael Daher, Renee Bomchill, Ankit Patel, Stephen Rogers, and Justin Cook, “The value-seeking consumer: Competitors could lose out to brands offering more than low prices,” Deloitte Insights, June 23, 2025.

Deloitte ConsumerSignals survey conducted in August 2025 with 15,000 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Daher, Bomchill, Patel, Rogers, and Cook, “The value-seeking consumer.”

Ronald P. O’Hanley, “5 transformational trends shaping global finance,” World Economic Forum, Jan. 6, 2025.

Deloitte Consumer Products Industry Outlook survey, October 2025. Question: “Which one of the following markets outside of North America and Europe do you believe has the highest growth potential for your company in 2026 and beyond?” Top responses were Southeast Asia (39%) and India (32%).

Deloitte Consumer Products Industry Outlook survey, October 2025. More than half of survey respondents (69%) indicate they are shortening supply chains to derisk; Jason Douglas and Tom Fairless, “Trump tariffs aim to bring down curtain on era of globalization,” The Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2025.

Deloitte Consumer Products Industry Outlook survey, October 2025. Question: “Thinking about your M&A strategies in 2026, to what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?” Fifty-five percent of survey respondents agree that their organization regularly divests low-performing lines of business. Similarly, 55% agree that 2026 will be a bigger-than-normal year for acquisitions.

Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge, “Tariffs cause ‘unprecedented’ disruption to global trade rules, WTO chief says,” Reuters, Sept. 2, 2025.

Philip Straehl, “Market uncertainty will continue in 2026. Here’s how investors can cope,” Morningstar, Nov. 18, 2025.

Reuters, “How companies are responding to Trump’s tariffs,” Dec. 15, 2025.

Michael Wolf, “United States economic forecast,” Deloitte Insights, Sept. 30, 2025.

Konrad Putzier, “How the U.S. economy became hooked on AI spending,” The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 24, 2025.

Mary Cunningham, “Nearly a quarter of U.S. households live paycheck to paycheck, report finds,” CBS News, Nov. 17, 2025.

Millicent Wong, “China’s property slump this year looks worse than expected, S&P says,” CNBC, Oct. 10, 2025.

Hannah Miao, “China’s economic growth momentum slowed in October,” The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 6, 2025.

Hannah Miao, “China’s exports unexpectedly contract,” The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 8, 2025.

Jonathan Watts, “China fossil fuel use undermines U.S. climate goals, report warns,” The Guardian, Sept. 7, 2025.

Reuters, “EU finalizes €176 billion defence loans with Poland taking largest share,” Sept. 9, 2025.

European Central Bank, “Monetary policy statement,” press release, June 5, 2025.

Don Nico Forbes, “EU lowers outlook for 2026 on higher-than-forecast U.S. tariffs,” The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 17, 2025.

Alex Curry and Becky Galea, “Rethinking productivity: Materially more with materially less, at maximum pace (Autumn 2025),” Deloitte, October 2025.

Ibid.

Chip Cutter, “More big companies bet they can still grow without hiring,” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 27, 2025; Emily Stewart, “Investors love layoffs,” Business Insider, Feb. 22, 2024.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Food and beverage and tobacco products: Labor share,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Dec. 4, 2025. At 15.7%, labor ranks third highest in share of total production costs behind material (55%) and capital (16%).

Liz Dominguez, “Gartner’s 2025 supply chain tech trends: CPG retail’s roadmap and roadblocks,” Consumer Goods Technology, March 25, 2025; The Wall Street Journal, “The new economics of compute: How AI is rewriting the rules of chipmaking,” accessed Dec. 15, 2025; Sam Grayling, “The state of global labour markets in 2025, and other trends in job and skills this month,” World Economic Forum, Sept. 4, 2025; International Labour Organization, “Global wage report 2024–25: Is wage inequality decreasing globally?” Nov. 28, 2024.

Deloitte Consumer Products Industry Outlook survey, October 2025. Question: “In your view, how are the following key metrics for your business likely to change in 2026?” Those surveyed who expect to see the biggest productivity increases are the least likely to expect increased layoffs at their companies (4%) compared to the overall average (11%).

Deloitte Consumer Products Industry Outlook survey, October 2025. Question: “In which of the following areas do you expect to see the highest ROI from deployment of all types of AI-based applications?” Those companies that are outsourcing core functions or forming centers of excellence are three times more likely to expect one of the highest ROIs in the talent domain (14%) relative to those that are not outsourcing (of which only 4% are expecting one of the highest ROIs in talent).