Making decisions about your product assortment strategies isn’t something you can do blindly. Knowing your own products isn’t enough: to build a product assortment that sells, you need to know what’s on your competitors’ shelves —both physical and digital—how much space their products take up, whether they’re available, and how they’re positioned. It’s this visibility that distinguishes an informed choice from a gamble.

Whether you work fora brand-name company ora retail chain, product assortment is the primary business lever at your disposal: it determines what consumers can buy, at what price, and in comparison to what. QBerg provides you with a comprehensive overview to manage it, both in-store and online, with the same level of data detail.

Why Product Data Alone Isn’t Enough

A buyer or category manager knows their products inside and out: SKUs, margins, and turnover rates. But the product assortment doesn’t exist in isolation—it shares shelf space with competitors, where every decision about the product lineup is measured by how it stands out. Without a clear picture of the competitive landscape, we lack the answers to the questions that really matter:

• display share — how much physical and digital display space each brand or category occupies relative to the total;
• On-shelf availability — which of the competitors’ products are actually in stock and which are out of stock;
• product range depth — how many variants, sizes, and price points each player offers;
• Placement — where and how a product is displayed, and what comparison price is shown next to it.

In strategic terms: a gap in a competitor’s product assortment is an opportunity to gain market share; a new product from a competitor that is gaining shelf space is a signal to watch for before it translates into market share. Display share is the leading indicator that allows the Category Manager to take action as the shelf landscape shifts, rather than after the fact.

Physical and digital bookshelves, viewed through the same lens

Today, product assortment is a game played on two tables simultaneously, each with its own dynamics. Physical retail stores have limited display space: every new item that comes in displaces another, and inventory turnover influences decision-making. The digital shelf, on the other hand, is virtually infinite and updates much more quickly, but precisely for this reason, it makes it harder to understand where competitors’ efforts are truly focused.

That’s why you need to analyze both worlds together. With retail monitoring (QPoint Store), you get a snapshot of the product assortment and shelf prices in stores; with e-commerce monitoring (QPoint Web), you track assortments, prices, and availability on retailers’ and pure-players’ websites. This combination reveals how product lines and market presence shift from one channel to another.

From Visibility to Assortment Management

Once you have the full picture, data turns into concrete decisions. The product assortment strategies you can develop with QBerg address specific needs:

• Fill gaps in your product lineup — identify price ranges or product categories where your offerings are underrepresented compared to the market;
• streamline underperforming products — identify products that take up space without generating value and free up margin for new products;
• Keep an eye on the latest developments —see in real time which new models competitors are introducing and at what launch price;
• Defend your shelf space — understand where you’re losing shelf space and to whose benefit, including private-label brands.

When the category is driven by what consumers search for online, the Share of Keyword (QPoint SOK) adds a valuable dimension: it measures brands’ organic visibility on retail sites, indicating where digital demand is concentrated and, therefore, where it makes sense to focus product offerings.

Who Needs It

• Category Managers and Buyers in Retail — to build and review the product assortment with a comprehensive view of the competitive shelf.
• Trade Marketing and Sales in the Industry — to use data to demonstrate the value of their product offerings and negotiate display space.
• Sales Directors — to guide product line strategies across categories and channels with a holistic perspective.

Product assortment monitoring is one aspect of broader competitive monitoring: prices, promotions, and product range are factors that must be analyzed together to gain a true picture of the market.

The same method, category by category

The logic behind analyzing a product assortment is always the same—visibility, availability, product range, and placement—but the key factors vary from sector to sector. This is what makes the method applicable to any product category.

• FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) — here, what matters is turnover, product depth by package size, and the rise of private labels: the product assortment holds its ground by maintaining a strong presence in high-turnover package sizes and identifying where private labels are gaining display space.
• Electronics and durable goods — the pace is dictated by new model launches andproduct obsolescence on the shelves: the key is to understand which new products are coming in, in which price ranges, and how quickly competitors are updating their product lines compared to you.
• Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacy — spanning over-the-counter products, self-medication, and veterinary products, the product range focuses on the breadth of recommended offerings and on covering emerging categories, where private label products are also gradually gaining a foothold.

Products and market dynamics change, but the principle remains the same: analyze your own product lineup alongside that of your competitors, on an equal footing, to make decisions based on comparable data.

Q&A

Q: What is display space, and why is it important for the product assortment?

A.: It is the percentage of total display space—on physical shelves or digital shelves—occupied by a brand or category. It indicates where retailers are focusing their offerings and where your product line is strong or weak compared to competitors.

Q: Do you monitor the product selection both in stores and online?

A.: Yes. We track product ranges, prices, and availability both in physical stores and on major Italian e-commerce sites, so you can analyze both channels using the same metrics and identify customer shifts between them.

Q: Is this service useful for industry or for distribution?

A.: Both. The industry uses it to defend and expand its market share; retailers use it to optimize their product assortment and maintain a presence in the most strategic categories.

Build your product assortment based on data, not on impressions
Tell us your category: we’ll show you how QBerg captures images of your competitors’ shelves, both in-store and online.