Brandless online store hits sweet spot with millennials

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Jul 21, 2017

A new online store called Brandless is giving millennials affordably priced unbranded consumer packaged goods (CPG) product in a transparent model.

Brandless is based in San Francisco and Minneapolis. It offers over 200 items crossing categories of personal care, beauty, home and food. Each item sold is $3. The goods sold are not name brand products.

Brandless discovered millennial consumers are more inclined to gravitate towards transparency, authenticity, and core values including non-GMO, fair trade and organic over a specific brand. Brandless has emerged at the same time as an uptick of consumers shopping at dollar stores. According to Reuters, even higher earning millennials with annual incomes over $100,000 have increased their shopping at dollar stores.

Analytics show consumers are not as brand loyal as they once were. Instead, particularly on the CPG front, consumers are open to more affordable quality options available through private label offerings. According to a 2016 report by the Private Label Manufacturers Association, private label sales reached an all time high of $118.4 billion in 2015.

Brandless eliminates the "brand tax" by focusing on quality and affordability. It will advertise on social media instead of traditional more costly methods of advertising. It will push those savings to its consumers. It also will partner with nonprofit Feeding America to donate a meal to a person in need every time an order is placed.

Tina Sharkey and Ido Leffler, co-founders of Brandless explained that Brandless "puts purpose into every product and message shared, and models a new kind of relationship between people and the companies built to serve them—directly, with integrity, transparency, authenticity, and democratized access.”

Brandless is available both with or without a subscription. The $36 annual subscription lowers the free shipping threshold from orders over $72 to orders over $48. Shipping is otherwise $9 per order.