I agree that this term was meant for online businesses but we can see the same concept happening with brands as well.

You build your image around a good product/service (ex. Fast food being cheap, tasty, and a source of calories) but then once your brand is an established go-to (i.e. McDonald’s, Oreo, Apple, whatever) you do the work to make that product cheaper to produce, even if it means a marginal decrease in quality, and prop it up behind the facade of the brand.

What we are reaching now is the point where companies are trying to toe that line of not losing customers but still making sales. But customers are starting to see that drop in quality, and with their purchasing power being squeezed, they’re taking notice. So we have a couple words for it that are becoming more popular. Shrinkflation is an example, but overall I think it still ties back to the concept of what enshittification meant. Build a brand, get the customers, cut your expenses, hope most of them don’t notice.

There are a lot of people saying “but enshittification means websites” but the fact is, it describes a business model that a lot of companies are following that ends up in a shitty product. It may not be what the word exactly meant but unless someone gets another term that fits popularized, it still fits and it’s not inaccurate to use.