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Where the CPG Path to Purchase Is Shifting (and How Brands Should Respond): April 2026

78% of CPG shoppers compare prices across multiple channels before buying. 60.9% discover in one place and purchase somewhere else. Is your funnel built for this journey? For most CPG brands, the findings point to the same place: the journey is not broken at awareness. It is broken in the step that follows it.

Based on 2,021 U.S. CPG consumers surveyed in Q1 2026, the data maps exactly where purchase intent leaks — in the validation step shoppers take after discovery, in the value checks that filter nearly every cart before checkout, and in the audience gaps that a single channel strategy will never close.

The shelf still matters. But 70.6% of shoppers who see a product in-store will look for it somewhere else before they buy. If your digital proof does not hold up in that moment, your retail investment is funding someone else’s conversion.

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78% of CPG shoppers compare prices across multiple channels before buying. 60.9% discover in one place and purchase somewhere else. Is your funnel built for this journey? For most CPG brands, the findings point to the same place: the journey is not broken at awareness. It is broken in the step that follows it.

Based on 2,021 U.S. CPG consumers surveyed in Q1 2026, the data maps exactly where purchase intent leaks — in the validation step shoppers take after discovery, in the value checks that filter nearly every cart before checkout, and in the audience gaps that a single channel strategy will never close.

The shelf still matters. But 70.6% of shoppers who see a product in-store will look for it somewhere else before they buy. If your digital proof does not hold up in that moment, your retail investment is funding someone else’s conversion.

What You’ll Learn

  • Why 78% of shoppers comparing prices across channels is a structural problem, not a messaging one — and what it means for how you allocate across retail and digital

  • Where the research step is functioning as a conversion gate, and what it costs when PDPs, reviews, and short-form video are treated as support rather than infrastructure

  • How age and income fracture the path to purchase into distinct journeys — and why one channel strategy cannot serve all of them

  • What the four CPG journey failure modes look like in practice, and the diagnostic questions that tell you which one your brand is operating in

You cannot fix a journey you cannot see. This report shows you where yours is breaking.