Monitoring New Product Launches to Spot High-Potential Products

With evolving consumer preferences, fierce competition, and constantly shifting market dynamics, businesses that stay on top of product innovation gain a clear edge. Tracking new product development (NPD) allows companies to identify emerging opportunities, assess competitor strategies, and align internal development efforts with real-time market shifts.

Identifying winning innovation is essential

In a crowded market, knowing which innovations truly resonate is crucial. Over 97,000 FMCG products were launched in the e-commerce space across key categories and markets during 2023-2024, tracked by Euromonitor’s Innovation system. Around 75% remained available for purchase after 48 months, albeit to varying degrees, underscoring the difficulty in quickly identifying true disruptors amid the noise.

While many factors contribute to evaluating NPD success, there are some initial steps that can help narrow the focus to products worth deeper analysis. SKU count, reflecting variations in packaging size, format, and other product attributes, is an early indicator worth watching. Out of FMCG products launched in 2023-2024, only 3% featured more than 20 SKUs. SKU count reflects the number of consumer segments targeted, and the breadth of retail ambitions. It signals the underlying brand’s strategy, whether it's scale, testing the market, or product positioning.

However, SKU count alone doesn’t define success. Tracking post-launch performance, particularly expansion across retailers, markets, and categories, provides a clearer picture of which products are gaining traction and worth monitoring and uncovering what’s driving their momentum.

Analysing early expansion patterns can help identify standout launches

Companies can learn from successful launches which can be identified by looking at early expansion patterns. A deeper understanding of category-specific NPD dynamics is also critical for benchmarking performance and setting realistic expectations for new product launch success.

Sun care recorded a 19% year-on-year increase in new product launches in 2024 versus beauty and personal care’s 3% average. Almost 75% of new sun care launches in 2023 were still active at the end of 2024, indicating product traction. This reflects growing consumer awareness of the importance of year-round sun protection and signals continued growth potential.

Two thirds of the 2023 sun care product launches still active as 2024 closed expanded beyond their original retailer during the first year. Nevertheless, only 8% realised wider expansion, entering more than four retailers.

Looking at the geographical expansion of the new sun care launches, over half expanded beyond their launch country but just 7% reached 4+ international markets within the first year. Such findings help spotlight true success stories and reveal opportunities for growth and cross-market penetration. Achieving scale is clearly challenging, but there are valuable lessons to be learned from brands that do so.

Focusing on the right products for deeper insight

In sun care, new product expansion has largely been driven by well-established brands with strong retailer relationships. Companies are actively renovating their brand portfolios, with 95% of sun care launches being sub-brand introductions, underlining how renovation supports sustained growth by refreshing existing brand equity and reaching new consumer segments.

For instance, innovation from Asia Pacific, particularly South Korea, is gaining global traction through brands such as Beauty of Joseon, which has capitalised on the growing K-beauty wave. Its Ginseng Moist Sun Serum rapidly expanded from its 2023 Singapore launch at NTUC FairPrice to 20 countries across the globe and 58 retailers, with 66 SKUs as of April 2025. The product taps into growing consumer demand for multifunctional sun care that protects while improving skin texture, tone, and coverage. Its formula, featuring trending ingredients like ginseng and niacinamide, resonates with consumers seeking high-performance, skin-benefit-driven solutions.

Tracking early retailer and country expansion and identifying products with high SKU count offers valuable insight into whether a new product is building genuine market momentum or just benefiting from short-lived hype. Retailer adoption acts as a vote of confidence, while early geographic growth signals operational readiness and brand momentum. Strategic, sustainable expansion often indicates a high-potential innovation, while scattered or stalled expansion can reveal early warning signs. In a crowded market, analysing and benchmarking expansion patterns is a powerful way to spot brands worth watching and learning from.

Euromonitor’s Innovation solution helps to quickly discover where new products first appear online, and which are expanding rapidly across retailers, countries and categories. Contact us here to see which new products have been gaining ground in your category.