Trend report: Dependability becomes new marker

Euromonitor International’s top consumer trends for 2027 put consistency, availability and provable claims at the centre of what shoppers will pay for. No longer judging value on price alone, consumers want to know whether the product they buy today will still be on shelf, taste the same and cost what they expect next month.

Euromonitor International’s Top Global Consumer Trends 2027 report identified five behavioural shifts from a survey of more than 40,000 consumers in January and February 2026 and a separate survey of industry professionals. 

Euromonitor International head of innovation, Ali Angus, said, “Value is evolving into confidence that the products and services people rely on today won’t let them down tomorrow, in quality, cost or availability. Brands should make dependability a core part of value propositions.”

Five trends for 2027

TREND 1: Shelf Assured

Euromonitor found 72 per cent of consumers worry about rising prices of everyday items, and 54 per cent only buy from brands they trust completely, but that trust is fragile. Stockouts, unannounced reformulations and shrinking packs are missteps the report says can knock a brand off the shopping list. 

Meanwhile, the industry said supply pressure is not easing, with 78 per cent telling Euromonitor rising raw material costs hit their company in the past year and 81 per cent saying the same of geopolitical conflict. In May, the Australian Food and Grocery Council reported year-on-year rises of 39 per cent in Brent crude, 22 per cent in container freight, 52 per cent in soybean oil and 67 per cent in urea, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz flowed through to energy, packaging and farm inputs. ANZ research released last month found cocoa prices have more than doubled since February to around $8300 a tonne, with sugar up about 45 per cent.

The report’s response for suppliers is flexibility: diversified and regional sourcing to keep trusted products available without eroding the customer relationship. Some Australian manufacturers are investing in exactly that. Mondelēz marked 50 years of its Scoresby confectionery plant in June with an $8 million packaging upgrade, part of $30 million invested at the site since 2022, citing confidence in local manufacturing and the need to adapt formats faster. In October, Bega Group committed about $110 million to expand yoghurt, cream cheese and milk-based beverage capacity at Morwell and Tatura.

Shrinkflation is the trend’s sharpest edge for brand owners, and the report notes retailers are quick to steer disappointed shoppers to private label. Its example is M&S promoting a larger own-label festive tin as branded tins downsized. In Australia, the pressure is regulatory as well as commercial. Treasury ran a targeted consultation in May on Unit Pricing Code reforms, with proposals backed by consumer groups including mandatory notices when a product shrinks.

Euromonitor also found that only 16 per cent of new FMCG brands launched online became inactive within their first year, though failure rates were higher in categories including chocolate, sweet biscuits, salty snacks and energy drinks. Its advice is to map consumer reliance against supply risk and protect the products people return to most.

TREND 2: Mode-Switching

The report describes consumers moving between intense self-optimisation, deliberate recovery and planned indulgence, rather than holding a fixed health identity. In food, the optimisation end is protein. The number of food and drink SKUs with high-protein claims sold online globally exceeded 220,000 in 2025, and had reached nearly 200,000 by the third quarter of 2026.

Australian results are showing the same pull. Bega Group told the market in August that demand for protein was expected to keep rising in FY27, after higher-protein products drove growth in its yoghurt business.

Euromonitor said the counterweight is strategic indulgence. Its advice is to build portfolios that let consumers switch between modes without leaving the brand: health products that feel like treats and premium experiences without complexity. One of its examples is Australian. Nestlé’s KitKat “Have a Break” platform ran a commuter campaign here encouraging people to treat their daily journey as protected downtime, positioning an indulgence brand as part of recovery.

TREND 3: Reluctant Reliance

Use of generative AI for daily activities rose from 71 to 81 per cent of consumers in a year, and AI referrals to retailer product pages grew 376 per cent between January 2025 and July 2026, but trust has not kept pace. Only 19 per cent of consumers consider GenAI an extremely trustworthy shopping source, falling to 12 per cent for health advice, and Euromonitor said unease was especially visible in Australia.

The line consumers draw is between assistance and autonomy. Woolworths is a local example of that boundary in practice. Its upgraded Olive assistant, built with Google’s Gemini and rolling out from July, plans meals, turns a photo of a handwritten list into a basket and flags specials, but customers review and approve every item before checkout.

For manufacturers, the implication is that AI tools increasingly sit between the shopper and the shelf. The report advises showing the factors behind recommendations, such as price, ingredients and reviews, which puts more weight on accurate, complete product data supplied to retailers.

TREND 4: Future Tense

Only 26 per cent of consumers have money readily available for an emergency, and Euromonitor says propositions built on deferred benefits are losing pricing power. Its data on claims is the most actionable finding for food marketers. Between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, global sales of FMCG products carrying concrete, verifiable-now claims grew 33 per cent, against 18 per cent for products with generic claims.

The verifiable claims include “N g protein”, certified organic, certified vegan and kosher, while the generic group includes natural, healthy, premium, wholesome, sustainable and responsibly sourced. The report advises auditing portfolios for claims that cannot be substantiated and retiring them.

Australian regulators are already testing claims. The ACCC has continued its free-range egg enforcement, with Victorian producer Doreen Egg paying $39,600 in penalties in June for labelling caged eggs as free range.

The report also flags organised boycotts. Among politically and socially active consumers, 25 per cent boycott brands that do not share their beliefs and 30 per cent deliberately buy from those that do.

TREND 5: Peer Powered

Nearly half of consumers say being active in a community is important to them, and 72 per cent trust recommendations from friends and family, compared with 46 per cent for advertising. Euromonitor argues communities are purchase networks as much as social ones, and that 43 per cent of consumers want to engage with brands to influence product innovation. However, Euromonitor warned against “confusing attention with connection”. 

Across the five trends, the common thread for food and beverage manufacturers is reliability: products that stay available and consistent, claims that can be checked at the point of purchase, and a clear role in the routines and communities consumers already have. Euromonitor’s tactics for 2027 include auditing portfolios for fragility, building supply flexibility, and leading with value consumers can validate within one purchase cycle.