Paint & Stain Market Share Insights: Top Brands & Retailers (Q4 2025)

According to OpenBrand’s Q4 2025 market data, retail leadership in the paint and stain market is far more concentrated than in most durables categories. Home Depot is the leading retailer for paint purchases with 58.5% of unit share, Lowe’s takes 35.4%, and Ace Hardware rounds out the measured field at 6.1%. Two retailers account for roughly nine in ten units sold.

Concentration this tight changes what growth looks like. In a fragmented category, a brand can win by adding doors. Here, national distribution effectively means two accounts, so assortment position, planogram depth, and promotional calendar alignment inside those accounts carry most of the weight.

For brands, that raises the stakes on every line review. For independents and regional chains, the opening is service, color expertise, and contractor relationships rather than price.

For more paint and stain retailer insights, including retailer leakage, conversion trends, and shopper behavior data, download the full infographic.

Unit share tells you who sold the paint. Draw rate looks at how many consumers a retailer brought in regardless of where they ultimately purchased, and close rate shows how many of those shoppers converted. In coatings, those two numbers separate sharply.

Home Depot both draws the most shoppers and converts nearly four in five of them. Sherwin-Williams draws only 14.5% of shoppers but closes 83.1%, the strongest conversion rate in the category. The opportunity for Sherwin-Williams would be to increase their traffic, which would then increase their share.

Lowe’s has the second-largest draw and the weakest close among the top three, which is where its unit share leaks away.

Want deeper insights into retailer conversion and shopper leakage trends? Download the infographic for the full breakdown.

A high draw with a soft close is a merchandising problem, not a traffic problem. Shoppers who reach the aisle and leave without buying are usually blocked by:

• color matching and tinting wait times
• out-of-stock sheens or base sizes
• unclear price-per-gallon comparisons across container sizes
• weak staff guidance on prep and coverage

Sherwin-Williams shows the ceiling. Specialist service converts intent at a rate mass retail has not matched.

Retail competition becomes clearer when a retailer loses a sale and someone else captures it. OpenBrand’s proprietary retail leakage analysis tracks exactly where those shoppers land.When Home Depot does not close a paint or stain shopper:

• Lowe’s captures 50% of those lost shoppers
• Sherwin-Williams captures 18%
• Walmart takes 12%, Menards 7%, and Ace Hardware 6%

Half of every shopper Home Depot loses walks into a Lowe’s, which makes these two retailers direct substitutes in the consumer’s mind more than any other pair in the paint and stain market.

The leakage pattern explains why competitive pricing and promotion between the two home centers moves category share so quickly. It also explains the outsized value of Sherwin-Williams capturing 18.1% of Home Depot’s lost shoppers: those consumers are already in project mode and are trading up to service rather than shopping down on price.

Who leads paint market share by brand in Q4 2025? The top 5 leading brands in the paint and stain market include BEHR, Glidden, Valspar, Sherwin-Williams, and PPG.

The unit-to-dollar spread is where the strategy shows. Glidden converts 17.9% of units into only 11.4% of dollars, while Valspar and Sherwin-Williams both index higher on dollars than units. Brands outside the top five still account for 15.9% of units, so fragmentation below the leaders remains meaningful.

For more insights into top paint and stain brands, share trends, product launches, and competitive positioning, download the full infographic.

BEHR leads on both units and dollars, which is the strongest position in the category and reflects the value of owning the dominant retailer’s premium shelf. Glidden is running a volume-and-access strategy at a lower average selling price. Valspar and Sherwin-Williams are running mix strategies, capturing more dollars per unit sold.

At the SKU level, the winners confirm it: Glidden’s 5-gallon Pure White Base leads all SKUs at 4.4% unit share at a $25 average price, ahead of BEHR’s 1-gallon Ultra Pure White at 3% and a $47 average.

Brand-level leakage shows who wins a shopper when the category’s top-drawing brand does not close the sale. When BEHR loses a shopper, Sherwin-Williams captures 36.4% of them, Glidden takes 18.4%, Valspar 16.1%, Benjamin Moore 6.8%, and all other brands split 12.2%.

BEHR’s closest competitor by leakage is the highest-priced national brand rather than the closest-priced one, which suggests its lost shoppers are trading up on service and color expertise instead of hunting a lower price.

Demand still sits at the bottom of the price ladder, but the ladder itself moved up during the second half of 2025.

Nearly 58% of units sold for under $100 per ticket. At the same time, category average net price per gallon climbed from $48.47 in July to a $55.23 peak in November before settling at $54.02 in December, while average discount depth narrowed from 23.8% in October to 19.3% in December.

Price matters, but it is not what consumers say decides the brand.

The leading trigger for entering the market is routine maintenance or minor repair at 44.7%, followed by redecorating at 27.6%.

Quality, brand name, and prior ownership all rank ahead of competitive price, which puts coatings in rare company among value-concentrated durables categories. A failed paint job costs a weekend, not just a return. That gives established brands real pricing latitude and makes repeat purchase the most efficient growth lever in the category:

• 34.9% of buyers name prior ownership as a reason to buy again
• maintenance-driven demand means shorter, more frequent purchase cycles
• shelf adjacency to primer, tape, and applicators reinforces the same brand choice

Shelf and innovation data separate the leaders further. OpenBrand tracked 5,217 total category placements across retailers in Q4 2025:

• Glidden holds the largest share of shelf at 15.7%, followed by Rust-Oleum at 10.4% and BEHR at 8.5%
• Glidden also led product debuts with 23% of all new items in the category
• Benjamin Moore, Prestige, Minwax, and Varathane each accounted for 5% to 7% of debuts
• BEHR launched 4% of category debuts, despite leading share

Two strategies are visible, and they are close to opposites:

• flood the shelf and the launch calendar to hold access and entry-tier volume, which is Glidden’s approach
• concentrate on fewer, higher-value items and let brand equity carry conversion, which is closer to BEHR and Sherwin-Williams

Shelf share and market share are not tracking together here. Glidden nearly doubles BEHR on placements and debuts and still trails it by 13 points of unit share, which is a signal for any category manager evaluating how much space entry-tier lines should hold.

Older consumers still carry this category, which sets it apart from most home improvement segments. OpenBrand’s census-balanced MindShare data shows Baby Boomers and Gen X together accounting for more than 61% of purchases.

In-store overwhelmingly remains the top sales channel for paint purchases, accounting for 93% of all sales in Q4 2025. Only 7% of purchases were made online, among the lowest digital penetration of any category OpenBrand measures.

Homeownership tenure drives coatings demand, so the age skew is structural rather than a temporary swing. It also reinforces why the channel stays physical: color matching, tinting, and sheen decisions are hard to make on a screen. Millennials at 25% are the group to watch. As they take on more maintenance projects, brands that establish preference now inherit decades of repeat purchases in a category where 35% of buyers cite prior ownership.

The latest paint and stain market data describes a category with stable demand and very little room to maneuver.

• Retail share is concentrated, so brand growth runs through two accounts and their line reviews
• Half of Home Depot’s lost shoppers go to Lowe’s, making promotional response between the two the fastest lever on share
• Net prices rose while volume stayed under $100 per ticket, pressuring entry-tier units
• Quality and brand name outrank price as brand selection drivers, protecting established players
• Shelf presence is not converting to share for every brand, which makes assortment productivity the sharpest question heading into 2026

Together these forces define the current direction of the paint and stain market and where the greatest opportunities for growth may exist moving forward.

Which retailer has the highest paint market share?

According to OpenBrand’s modeled MarketShare data, Home Depot leads paint and stain retailer unit share at 58.5% in Q4 2025, ahead of Lowe’s at 35.4% and Ace Hardware at 6.1%.

What are the top paint brands right now?

BEHR, Glidden, Valspar, Sherwin-Williams, and PPG lead the category, with BEHR holding 31.1% unit share according to OpenBrand’s Q4 2025 MarketShare data.

How much do consumers spend on paint and stain?

According to OpenBrand’s Q4 2025 MarketShare data, tickets under $50 account for the largest share of units at 32.7%, average net price landed at $54.02 per gallon in December, and average selling price by brand ranges from $48 for PPG to $78 for Benjamin Moore.

What is driving paint and stain purchases?

According to OpenBrand’s MindShare consumer survey data, routine maintenance or minor repair is the leading purchase trigger at 44.7%, while quality product at 46.6% is the top reason consumers choose a brand.