Earn Your Pet Product’s Place in a Retailer’s Assortment Using Data

For retailers with brick-and-mortar stores, sales and shelf space are inextricably linked. That’s why they place so much emphasis on maintaining a well-balanced assortment; they continually assess and fine-tune their inventory to maximize sell-through.

This is especially true for neighborhood pet retailers and superstores that distinguish themselves from online competitors. But before adjusting their assortment, these retailers will want assurance from pet product manufacturers that any changes they make will lead to an increase in sales.

To convey confidence that your pet product will be a revenue-generating addition to retailers’ assortments, you must first demonstrate that your product has a strong growth potential within its category and among consumers. The right data can help.

Whether you’re selling to a retailer for the first time, or justifying your current shelf position during a line review, here are three ways that data can show why your pet product should be part of a retailer’s assortment:

#1. Discover Your Category’s Potential

How well your product’s category is performing will directly affect how willing retailers are to add your pet product to their assortment. For example, if the market for organic dog treats has grown by double digits for several consecutive months, a neighborhood pet retailer is likely to increase the number of products they carry in that category. Analyzing RMS data can help you identify similar category growth opportunities, even before retailers spot those trends themselves.

PRO ADVICE: Tracking category-level performance in addition to individual product sales means you can identify trends that will help you break into a retailer’s assortment. By using RMS data based on retailer POS information, you can compare monthly, quarterly or yearly sales volume for categories and subcategories and see where growth or declines are happening. 

#2. Show How Your Product Impacts Basket Size

Even when consumers visit specialized stores like neighborhood pet markets, they rarely buy just one product per visit. Understanding the variety of items in a shopper’s basket and how it relates to per-trip spend can give you an edge when convincing retailers to add your pet product to their assortment.

PRO ADVICE: A combination of RMS data and consumer panel data shows the total composition of consumers’ shopping baskets per trip. By analyzing what else consumers buy when they purchase your product, you can demonstrate how the average basket size increases with your product in the assortment – and make a compelling case for inclusion.

#3. Define Your Product’s Potential

Category growth trends and your product’s impact on basket size are reliable indicators of future performance. But advanced analytics provides an even richer picture that will further boost retailers’ confidence in your pet product. An assortment optimization analysis with predictive analytics shows your retail partners how well-positioned your pet product is for success.

PRO ADVICE: Assortment and space optimization (ASO) provides a nuanced and complete projection of how your pet product will perform as part of a retailer’s assortment. With model diagnostics based on current distribution, category and segment data, you can create and analyze assortment scenarios with and without your product. This type of modeling shows retailers exactly how your product would impact their assortment and generate revenue.

How Nielsen Can Help You Break into Retailers’ Assortments

With Nielsen data, emerging pet product manufacturers like you can make conclusive arguments to retail partners about why your products deserve to be in their assortments. RMS data highlights category and segment trends, while basket analysis shows how your product influences consumers’ other purchases on the same shopping trip. An assortment and space optimization analysis provides both granular and complete projections of your product’s future performance to support your long-term success.