1. Bottles on the shelf are visibly growing larger.

First, look at the actual in-store display. After visiting 7FRESH and Yonghui, a reporter from The Beijing News described a detail: At the 7FRESH supermarket,1.5L Dongfang Shuye and 900mL, 500mL bottles are displayed on the same shelf section. The second and third rows directly in the consumer's line of sight feature large-packaging options.Right next to it, 900mL bottles of ripe fruit are ready. Yonghui Hongkun Plaza is even more direct: the 2L Genki Forest is placed right below its own 480mL regular-size bottles.

This isn't an isolated move by a single brand; it's a full-aisle shift. NielsenIQ data makes the trend clear:

From 2019 to 2023, the sales share of large-format beverages in the 600mL—1249mL range increased from 6.4% to 11.3%; this trend accelerated further entering 2025.As of 2025/6, sales of ready-to-drink beverages with 1L or more capacity reached 18.7% of total beverage sales, up 7.4 percentage points year over year—the fastest-growing segment in the entire beverage category.

New product launches are more aggressive. Between 1 and 4 of 2026, nearly half of the 90+ beverage SKUs launched were non-standard sizes like mini bottles and large formats. In other words, brands now feel compelled to offer a large-size version when launching new products just to get noticed by retailers.

Why now? On the surface, it's a trending meme. At its core, it's driven by three concrete demands converging:Health (treat pure tea and water as "water substitutes"), Value (larger bottles offer lower cost per ml), and Versatility (stays on the desk or at home for hours).Sanjiang's customer profile is typical: the primary buyers of large-sized water are office workers aged 26 to 35, with usage concentrated in offices and homes. Low-sugar and sugar-free teas like Oolong and Jasmine tea sell best, typically priced between 4 and 7 yuan per bottle.

II. First, let's do the math: why large bottles benefit both supermarkets and brands

Consumers feel it's a good deal because the price per 100 ml is genuinely lower. Comparing different sizes of the same product side by side makes the difference immediately clear:

Data Source: Beijing News "Shelf Economics" reporters visited 7FRESH and Yonghui Superstores in 2026 10.

The same product in a larger size can reduce the unit price by nearly 30% or more. For consumers, this is "more for the same price"; for brands, the math works out even better—Producing 1 large bottles costs less than filling 2 small bottles.Saves PET preforms, caps, labels, and minimizes production line start/stop cycles. Packaging materials are the largest cost component in beverages; larger bottles reduce packaging cost per unit volume.

Nongfu Spring's financial report indirectly confirms this. In the second half of 2025, it simultaneously scaled up distribution of large-format red-bottle water in 1.5L, 2L, and 4L sizes (targeting household and foodservice channels to replace tap water for cooking and tea brewing), while also expanding 1.5L shelf space for Oriental Leaf. The result wasOverall gross margin for the second half of the year increased by 3.4 percentage points year-over-year to 60.7%. After launching the 1L family-size NFC juice under 17.5, operating profit margin in the juice business reached a new high of 37.3%.

A note to retail peers: Brand-side margin growth doesn't always translate to your own. For retailers, the true value of large-packaging lies in three key areas:Higher average order value, more stable household and office repeat purchases, and stronger customer traffic retention.A large bottle of tea priced at 9.9 doubles the average order value compared to the 4.5 option, while also driving incremental purchases through "add-on cash-out" bundling.

3. The Biggest Opportunity: Large Packaging Is the Best Entry Point for Private-Label Beverages

This "water drinking" trend has a key advantage for supermarkets:Young buyers focus on price and taste, rarely considering the brand.36K reported it plainly: "They only care about price, not the brand."

This is precisely the battlefield where retailer-owned brands excel. Retailers are already taking action:

The logic is clear:Beverages have short decision chains, high repurchase rates, and strong social sharing potential, while large packaging further dilutes brand premium.Entering the market with private label or channel-specific SKUs for supermarkets is far easier than directly competing with Nongfu Spring and Genki Forest on the mainstream 500mL sizes.

4. However, not all categories are suited for "scaling up."

Don't blindly switch all SKUs to larger sizes just because you see a trend. Our real-time offline monitoring data clearly breaks down the trajectory of large-packaged products across three categories, revealing significant divergence:

The rule is simple:High-frequency, everyday-use categories (plain water, unsweetened tea) perform increasingly well in large bottles; sampling-focused or flavor-driven categories (fruit juices, carbonated drinks), where taste after opening matters, require caution with large sizes.Genki Forest emphasizes that larger sizes are intended for sports hydration, family gatherings, and sharing with friends—not all products should simply be made bigger.

5. A Reality Check: Big bottles may boost market share, but not necessarily easier business.

If you only look at trending topics, it seems like the golden age of selling water is back. But when you examine the industry as a whole, the reality is quite the opposite—Packaged water is experiencing a decline in both volume and price.

According to NielsenIQ data, in the first half of 2026, China's packaged drinking water market saw a year-over-year decline in sales volume of 4.9% and a drop in sales value of 7.3%. At the company level: China Resources Beverage (parent of C'estbon) reported a 7.86% year-over-year decline in packaged water revenue; Master Kong saw a 4.9% decline; even Nongfu Spring's drinking water grew only marginally by 2.1%. In the second quarter, offline carbonated beverage sales fell 12.23%, ready-to-drink juice sales dropped 14.84%, while only sugar-free ready-to-drink tea bucked the trend with an 16.1% increase.

Why are water sales booming, yet water companies aren't profitable? Because the price war has reached its extreme. With 3–4 times the volume for just $1 more, and young consumers driven solely by price, once a 1 product becomes the norm, prices rarely recover. C'estbon missed out on market share—losing about 10% in some regions—by not fully committing to the price war in 2024.

A quote from an industry insider worth jotting down:Large bottles drive market share, but not necessarily easier operations. The focus of business is shifting from "selling water" to "managing drinking scenarios," testing supply chain efficiency, delivery capabilities, and channel coverage.Why do Nongfu Spring's large-pack formats drive volume? It's not just about switching to bigger bottles. The success comes from a complete ecosystem: community self-service water cabinets, instant retail, and distribution through households and foodservice channels.