What if a Brand Fails Digital Shelf Analytics?

Not using Digital Shelf Analytics (DSA) or using the wrong approach—or only parts of it—can have significant costs for a brand, affecting its visibility, sales, customer experience, and overall competitiveness in the digital marketplace.

Let’s dive into specific facts and downsides. Additionally, we’ll outline the key data to track and analyze, along with actionable steps to address each issue.

1. Revenue Loss from Decreased Visibility

• Lower Search Rankings: Without DSA, brands are less equipped to optimize for search algorithms, reducing visibility on e-commerce platforms. This could directly lead to decreased clicks and sales.

• Missed Opportunities: If a product isn’t discovered easily, it fails to reach potential customers, leading to lost sales and lower conversion rates.

What data to track:

Listings in categories and search results with relevant keywords. Your products need to appear prominently with good positioning. 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results on Google, and the situation in Retailers’ Digital Shelves isn’t much better.

Actions:

• Optimize content for keywords in search.

• Negotiate with retailers to include products in relevant categories.

• Supply retailers with new models.

2. Competitive Disadvantage

• Slow Response to Competitor Moves: Competitors that use DSA can quickly adapt their strategies (pricing, content, promotions) based on real-time insights. Without this, your brand risks falling behind, losing market share to more agile competitors.

• Outdated Strategies: Brands without DSA may continue outdated practices, missing emerging trends and new customer behaviors that competitors can capitalize on.

What data to track:

• Pricing and promotions for direct competitors.

• Ratings and reviews.

• New product listings.

Actions:

Quickly react to major shifts in competitors’ data, analyzing how they impact your brand.

3. Pricing Inefficiencies

• Price Wars: Without clear insights into competitors’ pricing strategies, brands may engage in aggressive pricing that erodes profit margins without increasing sales.

• Suboptimal Promotions: Limited visibility into the effectiveness of promotions can lead to wasted spend on ineffective campaigns, with no clear path to optimize them.

What data to track:

Prices, promotions, and out-of-stock statuses.

Actions:

• Adjust pricing strategies in line with competitors.

• Avoid advertising products with poor pricing or stock issues.

• Increase advertising when competitors face stockouts or have less competitive pricing.

• Steer clear of direct price wars.

4. Stock and Inventory Risks

• Stockouts and Overstocking: Without DSA to provide real-time stock insights, brands risk stockouts (losing potential sales) or overstocking (increasing holding costs and potential markdowns).

• Supply Chain Inefficiencies: Failure to anticipate demand changes based on digital performance insights can lead to delays, affecting the entire supply chain and customer satisfaction.

  
  

What data to track:

• Out-of-stock (OOS) and backorder statuses.

• Stock levels and sales.

Actions:

• Replenish products flagged as OOS.

• Supply the correct quantity of goods, considering sales trends, promotions, and current stock levels.

5. Poor Customer Experience

• Inconsistent Product Content: Brands may fail to maintain accurate, high-quality product information across channels. This can confuse customers, increase returns, and reduce trust.

• Unaddressed Customer Feedback: Without analyzing ratings and reviews, brands miss valuable insights into customer sentiment, leading to dissatisfaction and lower loyalty.

What data to track:

• New reviews and unanswered reviews.

• Content quality on product pages.

Actions:

• Respond to customer reviews, addressing issues raised.

• Update product pages with accurate information.

6. Higher Marketing Costs

• Ineffective Ad Spend: Marketing campaigns may be less targeted and less effective, leading to wasted advertising dollars and lower ROI.

• Missed Personalization Opportunities: Lack of insights from DSA means brands can’t tailor marketing campaigns to consumer behaviors, missing out on potential revenue from personalized promotions.

What data to track:

Sales performance of advertised products.

Actions:

Identify low-performing products/campaigns and correlate inefficiencies with competitor actions, positioning, pricing, or ratings.

7. Loss of Brand Equity

• Reputation Damage: Inconsistent online performance, inaccurate listings, and negative customer reviews can damage brand perception, making it harder to regain trust.

• Missed Engagement: Lack of insights into what content engages customers can lead to weaker brand loyalty and customer relationships, impacting long-term brand equity.

What data to track:

• Reviews and ratings.

• Sales performance as a proxy for loyalty and engagement.

• Conversion rates, if available.

Actions:

Perform comprehensive analysis on products with declining metrics.

8. Operational Inefficiencies

• Slow Decision-Making: Without data-driven insights, decision-making becomes slower and more reliant on assumptions, leading to inefficient strategies that don’t align with market realities.

• Higher Labor Costs: Teams may spend more time manually collecting and analyzing data, leading to higher labor costs and slower execution of strategies.

Actions:

Ensure all departments actively use digital shelf data.

9. Reduced Market Share

• Losing Ground to Competitors: Without DSA, brands risk losing market share to competitors that are better positioned, more visible, and quicker to respond to trends and customer needs.

• Limited International Expansion: Brands looking to expand internationally need DSA to understand local market dynamics. Lack of this insight can result in weak launches and low performance in new regions.

Actions:

Regularly review DSA-related processes to identify more efficient methods.

10. Inability to Scale Efficiently

• Missed Growth Opportunities: Without DSA, it’s harder to identify which products or categories drive growth, hindering the ability to scale efficiently and strategically.

• Resource Allocation Issues: Brands may allocate resources to low-impact areas, reducing overall productivity and growth potential.

Actions:

Start leveraging digital shelf analytics today.

Conclusion

The costs of not using DSA—or using it incorrectly—aren’t just financial. They include missed opportunities, strategic missteps, and weakened competitiveness in a fast-evolving marketplace. In a data-driven world, failing to leverage DSA could set back any brand aiming to remain relevant and profitable.