A data-first look at changing consumer behavior and what it means for women-built businesses
Who are Buy Women Built:
Buy Women Built is a consumer movement that encourages people to support businesses founded by women. The initiative aims to highlight the importance of buying from women-built brands and showcases a variety of products across different categories such as health and beauty, fashion, home, lifestyle, and food and drink.
The movement was inspired by the idea that while not everyone can invest in or mentor female founders, everyone can choose to buy from them. This simple yet powerful concept has grown into a community of over 2,000 women founders 2. Buy Women Built has partnered with major retailers like Whole Foods and Ocado to make women-built brands more accessible to consumers.
By supporting these businesses, the movement hopes to create a fairer and stronger economy, inspire future female entrepreneurs, and address the gender gap in entrepreneurship.
What’s inside
- Consumer Care: 64% of consumers care about buying from companies that support social issues they connect with.
- Visibility Drives Sales: When shoppers know a product is female-founded, 30% are more likely to buy, but with the Buy Women Built mark, intent increases to 62%.
- Retail Momentum: Buy Women Built brands are growing 10x faster than the total FMCG market in the UK.
- Recognition Gap: Only 30% of people say they’d be more likely to buy if they knew a brand was female-founded, but a further 53% are undecided, suggesting strong potential to shift behavior with clearer messaging and visibility.
- Incremental Sales: In the last year alone, Buy Women Built brands delivered over £90 million in incremental growth.
Find your next growth opportunity
On Thursday, 19th June 2025, Buy Women Built hosted a conference titled “The Power of Saying ‘She Built This!'” at the NatWest Conference Centre in London. The event unveiled new data on the commercial impact of women-built brands and brought together the community, retailers, and changemakers who are reshaping the future of consumer brands in the UK.
NielsenIQ’s Global Small & Medium Business Team Leader presented valuable insights compiled by NielsenIQ and available for you to download in the format of a white paper.
