TLDR
A Shop! ANZ and Vypr survey of 200 Australians found nine in ten have bought a product because it was on promotion, and 91% say they would switch brands for a better offer. Price, value or cost-of-living pressure drives 42% of brand switches, putting every loyalty program in the market under direct pressure.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The numbers
Nine in ten Australian grocery shoppers have bought a product because it was on promotion, and 91% say they would switch brands outright for a better offer.[1] Put those two figures side by side and you have a fairly clear picture of what brands are working against.
The numbers come from a survey of 200 Australian consumers, weighted to age and gender, commissioned by retail industry association Shop! ANZ and consumer insights platform Vypr in September 2025.[2] Vendor-commissioned research carries its own caveats, and the figures should be read in that context. The direction is consistent with official data, though: the Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rising 3% in the year to June 2025.
Forty-three per cent of shoppers have gone out of their way to a different store or a different channel specifically to access a promotional deal.[1] That is active deal-seeking, not passive deal-taking, and it changes where brands need to show up.
Forty-eight per cent of respondents said price heavily influences what they buy.[1] Forty-two per cent named price, value or cost-of-living pressure as their reason for switching brands or retailers.[1] Price is the primary decision-making variable for a large share of Australian shoppers, and brand equity is not overriding it.
Carla Bridge, General Manager of Shop! ANZ, said value propositions need to hold up consistently across every channel. Bridge said Australian shoppers may find an offer through a website, app, catalogue, email or social media, but it still gets validated at the shelf.[3]
What it means for loyalty spend
Retailers and brands have been pouring money into loyalty programs and membership schemes at the same time a clear majority of their customer base has said it will leave for the next deal on shelf. The market structure makes this harder to solve. Coles and Woolworths together hold roughly 67% of grocery supply, which compresses genuine price competition and pushes promotional activity into the role it now occupies: one of the only levers that can reliably shift purchase behaviour.
Sam Gilding, Chief Revenue Officer at Vypr, said there is a temptation to judge a promotion on the volume it moves in the week it runs, but the real test is what happens in the weeks afterwards. Gilding said if a brand is recruiting shoppers heavily and then losing them to the next offer on shelf, it is funding a cycle rather than building a base.[3]
Gilding said if a product does not justify itself once the offer comes off, the brand has bought a transaction rather than a customer.[3] That framing shifts the question from whether the promotion worked to what the brand actually built with it.
Gilding also said promotions are changing some of the most fundamental shopping decisions Australians make, from the brands they choose to the retailers they visit, and that loyalty can no longer be taken for granted.[3] The survey covered 200 consumers weighted to age and gender and was published by Shop! ANZ and Vypr in September 2025.[2]
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What share of Australian shoppers have bought a product on promotion?
Why are loyalty programs under pressure in Australia?
How concentrated is the Australian grocery market?
What does Vypr's CRO say brands should measure after a promotion?
James Dore is founder and editor of Prompt the Market and Strategy Director at Bushnote, a Sydney strategy, SEO and AI search agency. He has a background in strategy, media and financial services, and led consumer product marketing at MONEYME. He writes on AI search, answer engines, technology policy and media economics.
