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Effective category management with shopper data analysis

Find the most valuable shoppers, increase sales, improve market share, and enhance the shopping experience with category management research. You’ll gain deep insights into category diagnostics, shelf management, and assortment optimization.

Shopper consumer intelligence - Category management - Intro

How category analysis supports smarter decisions

Want to optimize product assortments, pricing, and promotions? It’s essential to gain a really clear understanding of consumer needs and market trends. Accurate category intelligence plays an essential role for retailers, brands, and manufacturers, enabling you to implement a category management strategy that truly puts shoppers first.

Discover valuable FMCG shopper insights with YouGov’s category management services. A holistic view of purchasing behavior helps you optimize performance across categories, to enhance shopper engagement, and reveal growth opportunities.

Why

Leading category management solutions

Confidently drive measurable category growth and optimize product placement with unmatched data, tools, and expertise. Access clear, actionable insights, rooted in reliable data to fine-tune assortments, pricing, and shopping experiences.

How

Gain shelf control

Objective, real-life shopper insights support joint value creation between retailers and suppliers. Get a rich perspective, alongside POS and loyalty data, that analyzes shopper behavior patterns across multiple brands, retailers and channels.

What

Ace the aisle with category insights

Meet constantly evolving shopper expectations with real growth opportunities, drive penetration, improve loyalty and retention, and refine your strategy with consumer-centric category management datasets and reports.

Category management case studies

What influences purchasing decisions? What makes an effective shelf layout? What’s the best assortment for each category, channel, and retailer? Learn from the best with our success stories.

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Unilever
Vion
CCEP
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"This essential information helps us deepen our existing relationships with retailers and to build new ones. Crucially, it helps us stay close to the shoppers who buy our tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumbers."

Colin Lansbergen

View case study

Meet our experts

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Linda van Rijn
Global Shopper Lead
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Stefan Schemann
Product Director

Category management FAQs

How does YouGov define the category from a shopper’s perspective?

YouGov will uncover how shoppers group products based on behavior and perception, ensuring your category management structure aligns with how people actually shop.

What role should the category play in the retailer’s strategy?

It plays a really important role. You can align your category management plans with retailer priorities by understanding the category’s role in driving traffic, basket size, or loyalty.

Which purchase decisions shape behavior in the category?

This is where you can get really smart with your category intelligence. We identify what drives shopper choice, including price, brand, format, and when – helping you influence decisions at each step.

What’s driving performance in the category?

YouGov’s accurate data reveals which products, brands, or shopper groups fuel value growth and why.

Which shopper segments offer the most potential?

Things just got really interesting. We profile the most valuable shopper groups and uncover how to reach and retain them effectively.

How effective are promotions at driving true growth?

One thing’s for sure, you want any discounts to attract new shoppers and increase demand, rather than cannibalize regular sales. We measure if promotions create real uplift or just shift volume, so you invest in what works.

How will YouGov find the pricing sweet spot in your category?

By pinpointing price sensitivities to help you strike the right balance between shopper value and profitability.

How can the assortment be improved?

YouGov’s category management solutions show which SKUs drive penetration or duplication, helping you optimize for efficiency and growth.

How should the shelf be structured to reflect shopper needs?

Category intelligence helps you build shelf layouts based on how shoppers browse and decide – making it easier to convert.

How do you track the impact of your category management strategy?

By measuring performance against KPIs like loyalty, value, and frequency, so you understand exactly what’s working.

Trust YouGov’s category management services

Leading retailers, brands and manufacturers rely on YouGov to make smart, seamless, data-driven decisions. Answer your burning category questions confidently with the help of YouGov’s experts, pioneering technology and the most accurate shopping insights from our representative household panel.