Quality appears besides price

Prices, Promotions, Brand/PL, Channels

In 2025, an average household spent more (5.6%) on FMCG than a year ago, the increase was around the same level as food inflation. The basket size was higher, and the buying frequency did not change significantly compared to the previous year which shows that the growth of the FMCG market is driven mainly by price.

Behavior Change Fall 2025 study shows that while price sensitivity remains high in Hungary, there is a moderate rebound in quality orientation and willingness to spend. Almost 2/3 of shoppers still buy what is necessary and state that they pay particular attention to price but proportion for both statements show a slight decrease compared to the previous years. The proportion of shoppers who think that in the next period will spend less on everyday goods also decreases.

Promotions and private labels continue to pay a strong role in Hungarian shopping preferences. Most of the shoppers look out for promotions and almost 6 out of 10 shoppers prefer to shop for private labels compared to well-known brands. Brand preference however shows a small increase, a trend that appears in most CEE countries. Value share of the private labels on the Hungarian FMCG market grew until 2023 but in 2024 the growth stopped, and share of PLs remained stable in 2025.

Choosing retailers Hungarians show a strong preference for discounters: turnover and market share of the channel show a growing trend in 2025 but the growth rate is slower than in the previous periods. Most of the shoppers nevertheless plan to continue to shop at discounters and 15% of them say that they will shop more at this channel in the next 6 months.

Drugstores and the online channel were able to grow as well with online being the most successful channel in terms of growth. While the online channel gains momentum in the previous years, almost 2/3 of Hungarian shoppers still prefer to buy their everyday products offline, and less than 10% of them are open to shop online more in the next period.

Methodology:

YouGov Shopper Hungary is built on continuously collected data from 4,000 households, representing the country’s total population.

YouGov Shopper offers access to a wealth of expertise and quality consumer panel data. We help the world’s most recognized FMCG & Retail brands to deliver superior customer experiences at every stage of the shopper journey. Learn more about YouGov Shopper.

YouGov Shopper not only providing the shopping data of Hungarian households, but continuously monitoring the behavior and attitude of individuals as well. Insights on Behavior Change are derived from an ongoing online survey based on a nationally representative sample of 750 respondents.