Health and Non-Health Determinants of Consumer Behavior toward Private Label Products—A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the international literature on consumer behavior toward private label (PL) products, guided by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) method. We searched for peer-reviewed studies published until January 2021 in the Scopus and Web of Science databases using two main search terms, namely, “consumer behavior” and “private label,” which have several synonymous terms, such as “store brand,” “private brand,” and “own label.” A total of 44 eligible studies were selected for the analysis. We formulated research questions regarding the most studied categories of PL products, the non-health factors determining consumer behavior toward PL products, and the frequency of including health aspects in the choice of PL products. The following were analyzed in the studies included in the systematic literature review (SLR): general data and study design (authorship, year of publication, location, characteristics of the sample, and research category), research specifications (factors/variables, hypotheses, and measured parameters), and general findings (findings and practical recommendations). We found that most of the studies had analyzed dairy products as PL products, and the main non-health selection factors used were lower price and price–quality ratios. Health aspects were considered in only four of the analyzed studies, which focused on the evolution of PL products from low-cost products to sustainable brands with significant added value in terms of quality and health aspects.