What is a key characteristic of the saturation stage of the product life cycle?

During the saturation stage of the product life cycle, sales reach their peak and growth stops. This stage occurs after the growth phase, where a product has successfully captured a significant share of the market and consumer demand stabilizes. At this point, most potential customers who would buy the product have already done so, and the market becomes saturated.

As competition increases, companies may find it more challenging to sustain sales volume and may need to shift their strategies, such as adjusting pricing or enhancing marketing efforts. This plateau indicates that the product has maximized its market potential in its current form, leading to potentially lower profits and necessitating innovations or product variations to stimulate renewed demand.

The other stages, such as growth or decline, exhibit different sales characteristics. For example, sales significantly increase during the growth stage and rapidly decline in the decline stage, which further clarifies why the answer indicating that sales peak and growth stops is the defining trait of saturation.