One of the challenges to growing your business is convincing retailers to introduce what's new –especially when they're comfortable with what they think "works." Compounding this is the limited real estate available on retailer shelves. So how do you effectively communicate with retailers to convince them that introducing "what's new" won't adversely affect "what works"? How do you quickly identify and communicate the changes in consumer purchasing behavior? And how do you gather the firepower you need to back your decisions?

By focusing on space-to-sales demand data to determine just how productive each foot of your limited real estate is. Further, by examining sales productivity per foot and sales per facing metrics, and tracking these trends over time and across different segments, you can see which particular pieces of your category real estate are least effective and ripe for new SKUs. For example, let's say you determine that a certain scent of your shampoo is selling $5/foot/week. In comparison, one of your conditioners is selling $9/foot/week and is the more productive space. You may recommend allocating one of the shampoo facings to the conditioner item.

Now delve further to get a better feel for the hair care segment. How does the space-to-sales data of scent A compare to the space-to-sales of the other available scents you produce? The trend data will be illustrative of consumer preferences over time. Data becomes insight into consumer behavior that can help you increase sales. If scent A simply isn't as productive as your others, then it may be time to think about introducing a new scent to help maintain your total shelf space. You can anticipate your buyer's decision and either minimize the space devoted to scent A, or eliminate it. Then introduce a new scent – making what's old, new. Staying on top of the productivity of your shelf space will ensure that you never get surprised by SKU deletions that could cost your company millions in lost revenue.

The same can be done across the category – comparing the productivity of various brands according to the space they inhabit. The opportunities are endless – and they can help your retailer better utilize category space while keeping customers intrigued with new offerings.

The beauty of demand data is that by tracking changes over time, you can actually see the ROI of your new-SKU decision. If one year ago you changed the space allotted to scent A in order to introduce scent Z, you can examine the sales/foot and sales/facing data for insights into the results of those changes. Insight in hand, you can then adjust the space allotment again –keeping you in sync with consumer purchasing behaviors and preferences. These insights, backed by data, provide you with the tools you need to communicate category growth opportunities to the retailer. A win-win-win situation for you, your customers and retailers. Build better communication that grows better sales, with insights from demand data.  

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