The playbook for winning over price-conscious consumers

But none of those gains are easily earned. Brands in 2026 are finding that growth requires careful courting of price-conscious and value-driven customers, all without eroding already-tight margins with deep discounts or investing in costly acquisition tactics that may not pay off.

Carly Chenault, a retail consultant who runs the Retail Roundtable newsletter, said the biggest change is brands are seeing is people being more cautious about what they’re buying, and why.

“We’re seeing a fundamental shift from traditional discounting to value articulation,” she said. “When people talk about consumers being price-conscious right now, it’s not just that they’re cash-strapped. They’re also equity-conscious. They’re not just asking, ‘How much can I save?’ They’re asking, ‘What does this solve in my life? Do I actually need this product at all?'”

In turn, brands across sectors are becoming more intentional about how they talk to customers, where they show up and what price points make sense at a time when the larger economic picture can make it challenging for any business to thrive.

Modern Retail spoke with half a dozen retail executives to hear what they’re focused on to stand out to shoppers in a competitive and stressed landscape.

Omnichannel opportunities

For some brands, the road to growth means showing up in more physical stores. Not only can this drive trial and sales, but it can also serve as an awareness driver.

Pretty Litter, a cat litter company that started as a direct-to-consumer brand back in 2015, is now in 10,000 doors across the U.S. and Canada. It’s targeting a 20% increase in door count over the next 12 months. General manager Jessica Hauff said the goal is to increase household penetration, and so it has to think bigger than DTC. “We can no longer just focus on driving traffic to our DTC business. We have to think bigger than that, and more broad.”

Pretty Litter first rode the wave of “premiumization” in pet care, but the category is now seeing a trade-down into mainstream and private label. On shelf, it can be challenging for the pricier, silica-based product to compete, Hauff said. To help preserve its share, Hauff said the brand is scouting out end caps, retail media opportunities and potential in-store demos.

Barrière, a vitamin and supplement patch company, sells a month’s supply at $12.98 to position itself as  “little luxury” that also meets a daily need, said co-founder and CEO Cleo Davis-Urman. The four-year-old brand already sells in Walmart, Ulta and Hudson News, and the company has seen a 500% growth in repeat wholesale orders year over year. This February, it launched in Target stores and online.

“We’re prioritizing these high-frequency routine shopping locations over things that are necessarily more experiential- or destination-related,” Davis-Urman said. “We’re not asking them to make a special trip, and now, we’re not even asking them to pay for shipping.”

But scaling up in retail means more manpower and resources from an operational side to support the launch. Davis-Urman said the brand used to do more in-store demos, but that’s harder to do when there are more doors selling the product. “One of the challenges is being able to service all of these retail partners with that same level of attention and education and really feeling like we can support them,” she said. “We’ve had to grow our team, and we’ve had to invest in more robust marketing strategies that can be scaled.”

Michael Wieder, co-founder, president and CMO of baby products company Lalo, said the company’s year-old partnership with Target has been an asset at a time when parents are price-conscious but still want what’s best for their kids. It has four new launches coming to Target this year, two of which he says will be priced lower than market leaders.

Overall, he said, expanding into retail helps the brand reach new customers and serve them in a new way. “We see strong adoption of things like online ordering with in-store pickup and same-day delivery, and you can’t achieve that without that physical presence,” he said.

Transparent, practical messaging

In response to a more intentional shopper, some brands are ratcheting up the information they’re putting out about their products. Hauff from Pretty Litter said the current climate has affected the way the brand talks about itself. When it launched, the big selling point was the health-monitoring features, as the product changes color based on the acidity levels in the cat’s urine, which can indicate infections. But now, marketing focuses as much or more on the day-to-day value, like how the litter lasts longer than cheaper clay litters and how the formula is 80% lighter than clay, making cleanup easier.

“We came on the scene as kind of category disruptors with the health monitoring technology,” she said. “Now we focus more on why this is the best [product] for the day-to-day practical part of my life and how it helps manage the ugly parts of cat parenthood.”

Companies may also be seeing customers spend more time in the intention and research phase. At Lalo, messaging often focuses on the multi-functionality of the products — like how a high chair can be converted to a booster seat or a play chair.

“It’s something we’re constantly thinking about,” Weidner said. “We want to deliver the right amount of value to the customer.”

Liz Teran, chief parent officer at smart baby monitor company Owlet, said the company sees that people are doing extra research before making a purchase — and this tends to work in its favor. Its hero product, the FDA-cleared Dream Sock, which monitors a baby’s oxygen levels, is priced at $299 and can be considered a premium product. But the company focuses on the hospital-grade technology that the device has and how that’s been verified.

“We’re taking time to really invest in those messages around clinically-backed and scientifically-proven,” she said. “A more researched purchase works well for us, but it does mean we have to invest in those lifecycle programs and ensure that we’re bringing people back, and it takes a little bit more thoughtful effort.”

Sensitive pricing and discounting strategies

Chenault from Retail Roundtable, who is also the vp of retail for the Area 15 entertainment complex in Las Vegas, said one of the biggest mistakes brands can make is to do “race to the bottom” discounting.

“Consumers aren’t willing to pay a premium just because you say so,” she said. “But they are willing to pay what something is worth — and you don’t have to jump into the discount playbook right away.”

Chenault said Area 15 will deploy flash sales or bundled deals to offer more value to customers without putting on a percent-off strategy. She also pointed to add-ons that brands can provide, like Revolve’s tailoring services or fast shipping. “There are so many things you can do to add value before customers buy,” she said.

At Lalo, Wieder said the company knows parents are craving quality in the form of better-for-you materials or plastic-free products that traditionally cost more money to make. In response, the company has worked with its manufacturers and suppliers to find a middle ground that still feels accessible.

“How do we live in this space where we’re getting better quality, better non-toxic standards — the standards we want to stand by — without pricing ourselves out?” he said. “I’m not paying 10x or 5x the opening price point. I’m trading up just a little bit to get that quality, but I’m not breaking the bank to do it.”

Owlet has drawn the line at not raising prices, Teran said. But the company did have a conversation going into 2026 about the economic pressures parents are facing, the effect of tariffs and what may need to change. “It was critically important to me that we go into this year with a commitment of not raising prices,” she said.

Teran from Owlet said one of the company’s latest launches, a video monitor that costs under $100, was specifically priced to be more accessible. It also dropped the price of its hero product, a bundle of its sock and monitor, by about $20. But it has kept the price of the Owlet sock at $299.

“We decided we’re so committed to every parent and every baby having access to this technology that, at a minimum, we’re maintaining,” she said. “And in some cases, we were able to eat at the margin a little bit to offer parents something that we know they need.”

Chelsea Moore, co-founder and CEO of curated gifting company BoxFox, said the company is frequently thinking about how to deliver the most value it can without raising prices. The company can face higher costs if MSRPs increase from vendors, but it can offset those costs with a large volume of private-label manufacturing and packaging. “It would be remiss to not acknowledge this is not a hard time for normal people and normal consumers,” she said.

To help drive sales at its current price points, BoxFox is planning additional photo and video shoots to showcase its contents. “We are going to be doing a lot more video content and photography content to demonstrate what you’re getting when you order this.”

Much of the company’s current customer base consists of brides or people gifting to brides, but Moore sees opportunity in reaching consumers earlier, like at the college level, before they hit other life milestones. At the same time, she said the company remains committed to the individual and corporate gifting strategies that have fueled its growth for 12 years.

“We want to double down on focusing on the product and not go nuts chasing crazy things,” Moore said. “At the end of the day, our product offering and the core service we do is our real value, and we need to serve that to the best of our ability.”