The blind spot on the store shelf

Over the course of my career, I've visited hundreds of grocery stores and stopped perhaps more often than most to look at what's really on the shelves.

At first glance, the ranges seem full of products that are each more different than the last. New flavours, eye-catching packs, more protein, less sugar and all kinds of wellbeing promises.

When you look at the range one category at a time, the picture starts to change. The packs are different, but most of the products ultimately serve the same purpose and target the same consumers.

Many new launches are a new version of something already on the shelf.

The store shelf doesn't only tell you what consumers want. It also tells you how the offering has been built up to now.

This distinction matters. If consumer needs are interpreted only through the current range and actual purchases, part of the market inevitably remains invisible.

Sales and customer data tell you a lot

I'm a big fan of sales and customer data myself. For years, I've used them to develop ranges and businesses, identify customer groups and make better decisions.

At its best, data helps you see things that would otherwise be left to opinions and assumptions.

Companies and retailers have accurate information on what is bought, where, how often and at what price. Customer data also gives insight into what kinds of customers buy the products and what else ends up in their basket.

Even that doesn't give a fully complete picture. Not all purchases can be linked to an identified customer, and the identified buyer isn't necessarily the end user of the product. A customer profile tells you a lot, but part of its interpretation is still based on assumptions.

Sales and customer data also share one essential thing: both start from a purchase that has already happened and from a product that has been in the range.

The category easily steers thinking

When the next product or range decision is being built, attention understandably turns to current winners.

If a certain feature, flavour or pack size sells, new versions of it are made. The risk seems lower because there is already evidence of demand.

Development is often category-led. You look at what works in this particular category and how you could make a slightly new version of it.

At the same time, emerging trends are pushed into as many categories as possible. Protein, naturalness, low sugar and gut health are brought into new products because consumers are known to be interested in them.

The trend itself may be right, but that doesn't mean every execution is.

The product's "user interface" may be left unconsidered. What situation is the product made for? How is it used? What need does it solve, and for whom?

If you try to pack every emerging trend into the same product and appeal to as many customers as possible, the result may not feel right for anyone.

Everything for everyone too often means that, in the end, the product isn't especially meaningful to anyone.

The blind spot lies in what isn't bought yet

The biggest gap comes from what can't yet show up in current data.

Sales and customer data don't tell you what the consumer would have wanted to buy but couldn't find. Nor do they show the moments when a consumer walked past the shelf because none of the options felt right.

There can be a real need in the market even if no current product is generating sales from it yet.

If the range is developed only through actual sales and current customer profiles, the existing market can be made ever more efficient. At the same time, the needs, uses and consumers that fall outside it may remain invisible.

This is exactly where the blind spot on the store shelf lies.

Looking beyond the current market

Sales and customer data shouldn't be replaced. Alongside them, you need information that doesn't start from the current range or purchases already made.

By listening to consumers, you can understand what they expect from products, what stops them from buying and where the current offering fails to meet their needs. At the same time, trends and products emerging around the world can give clues about what may be coming next to your own market.

But trends don't arrive in every market at the same time, and a solution that works elsewhere won't automatically work in Finland.

That is exactly why, at Fixea, we combine consumer insight and global trends with a company's own data.

Not because current data is wrong, but because no single view tells the whole story.

If you look for the next growth only in what is already being bought, you easily end up finding more of the same.

Commercially yours,
Harri Saalasti
Co-founder