Digital Shelf Analytics: The Key to Optimizing Your Retail Media Strategy

“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion”

W. Edwards Deming

For marketers, a single actionable data point can uncover new opportunities, drive smarter decisions, or refine a campaign that wasn’t reaching its full potential.

Those insights are critical for success in an increasingly competitive retail media environment. Understanding not just what’s happening but why it’s happening enables marketers to optimize campaigns in ways that yield stronger results.

For example, as a retail media marketer, what if you knew your product was frequently out of stock or losing the buy box to a competitor? You could instantly pinpoint why your ads aren’t converting as expected and adjust your strategy accordingly. Or, what if you had real-time insights into your competitors’ stock levels? You could take advantage of market gaps when they run out of stock, ramping up your ads to capture their customers. 

Standard media metrics like ROI and CPC are no longer enough. Non-media insights are game-changing for any retail media team because they allow you to optimize your advertising efforts based on real-world conditions.

By addressing key factors like product availability and competitive dynamics, you can fine-tune your programs to ensure they perform at their peak.

Introducing digital shelf analytics

Marketing campaigns have traditionally depended on core performance metrics like return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per acquisition (CPA), and click-through rate (CTR) to drive optimization. These media metrics are essential for measuring ad performance, whether they reach the right audiences, and the campaign’s overall effectiveness. 

However, retail media is unique in that it blends the worlds of both media and retail. To build an effective retail media strategy, marketers must look beyond standard advertising metrics and consider the slew of critical retail factors influencing a campaign’s success.

This is where digital shelf analytics become indispensable. These metrics help marketers track key insights such as product availability, buy box status, and competitor activities. With these retail-focused insights, marketers can better understand the real-world factors influencing their ad performance and respond more effectively to changes in the market. Digital shelf analytics are like having your own team of robot monitors always on, tracking these crucial data points for you, and flagging exactly where and when you need to step in. 

Even more actionable, digital shelf analytics can seamlessly integrate into retail media management platforms like Skai. By incorporating digital shelf analytics alongside traditional media metrics, brands can gain a complete, 360-degree view of their campaigns. 

Digital shelf analytics for GreenElle Solutions

The best way to illustrate how digital shelf analytics work is by using real-world examples. 

To do this, we’ve created a fake brand, GreenElle Solutions, which specializes in eco-friendly cleaning products. The brand has just activated its digital shelf analytics integration within its retail media management platform. 

Let’s explore how GreenElle Solutions is now using these insights to fine-tune its approach and drive better outcomes.

Product signals

In retail media advertising, it is critical to ensure that your products are ready for sale when customers are searching. Key factors like product availability, visibility, and fulfillment directly impact the success of your ads. Even the best-targeted ads can fall short if your product isn’t in stock or properly displayed. By focusing on these retail fundamentals, you can ensure that your ads reach the right audience and are positioned to drive conversions.

Product Availability tracks whether your products are in stock and ready to be fulfilled. Ensuring product availability prevents missed sales and builds customer satisfaction.
GreenElle Solutions realized their all-purpose cleaner was low in stock in the late morning. With digital shelf analytics, they can automate the pausing of ad campaigns until inventory bounces back..

Buy Box Status tracks whether your product is the default “add to cart” option. Winning the buy box increases the likelihood of conversion, as your product becomes the most convenient choice for shoppers.
GreenElle Solutions noticed that their eco-friendly dish soap frequently lost the buy box to a competitor offering a lower price. By leveraging digital shelf insights, they implemented a targeted strategy to monitor buy box promotions, quickly identifying wins and losses. This proactive approach helped them regain the buy box, significantly boosting conversions.

Critical Content Issues track incomplete or incorrect product listings that may affect your visibility. Accurate and optimized product listings ensure customers get the information they need, improving search rankings and conversion rates.
GreenElle Solutions discovered that several listings lacked key details like usage instructions. Using digital shelf analytics, they quickly identified and corrected these content gaps, increasing completed purchases.

Competitive signals

Competition in retail media advertising is intense, with brands constantly battling for the same shoppers. To stay ahead, it’s essential to know how your brand compares to competitors in areas like pricing, stock levels, and product visibility. Monitoring competitive signals allows you to adjust your ad strategies quickly, seize opportunities, and stay agile in a rapidly shifting market.

Competitor Brands track competitors selling within the same category or using the same keywords. Understanding your competitors allows you to differentiate and position your brand effectively.
GreenElle Solutions identified a new competitor aggressively targeting their core eco-friendly keywords. With digital shelf analytics, they adjusted their bidding strategy to focus on long-tail keywords emphasizing their unique sustainability features, maintaining their market position.

Competitor Products track the number of competing products in your category or using similar keywords. Knowing how crowded your category is lets you differentiate and highlight your unique selling points.
GreenElle Solutions saw a sudden influx of new competitors in the eco-friendly cleaning space. With digital shelf analytics, they quickly updated their product listings and increased ad spending on top-performing keywords to stand out.

Competitor Availability tracks when and how often competing products are out of stock. Knowing when competitors run out of stock presents an opportunity to capture their potential customers.
GreenElle Solutions noticed that a top competitor frequently ran out of stock on their popular disinfectant. By ramping up promotions during these times, they were able to capture additional market share.

Brand signals

In retail media advertising, a strong brand presence is key to building customer trust and increasing visibility across channels. Brand signals offer critical insights into how your brand is perceived by both consumers and competitors. These metrics help you gauge brand health in the digital space, ensuring your brand remains competitive and stands out in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Share of Voice (SOV) tracks how visible your brand is compared to competitors in a specific category. Higher visibility leads to more traffic and conversions.
GreenElle Solutions’ organic share of voice was trailing behind competitors. With digital shelf analytics, they improved their SEO and optimized their product pages, boosting their organic rankings and increasing overall visibility.

Average Position tracks how often your product appears in top search results. A higher ranking in search results increases click-through rates and conversions.
GreenElle Solutions noticed that their all-purpose cleaner was consistently ranked below competitors. By increasing their ad budget for top-performing keywords, they improved their search position and drove more traffic to their product page.

Share of Position tracks how your products rank compared to competitors for specific keywords. Monitoring share of position helps you refine your strategy to improve rankings and gain more visibility.
GreenElle Solutions saw its products consistently ranking lower for certain keywords. Using digital shelf analytics, it revamped its product descriptions and ran targeted ad campaigns, significantly improving its rankings.

Unify retail media management and digital shelf analytics in Skai

Integrating digital shelf analytics into Skai’s campaign management platform offers unparalleled efficiency for retail media marketers. With these insights built directly into the platform, you’re no longer burdened by pulling data from separate analytics tools or relying on another team to implement changes. This real-time visibility into key factors like stock levels, competitor activity, and product positioning ensures your campaigns stay agile and responsive.

By bringing these critical insights into the same space where your campaigns are managed, digital shelf analytics become part of the fabric of your daily workflow. This unified approach ensures your campaigns are operating at their full potential. With all your data in one place, you can fine-tune every aspect of your strategy without the typical delays caused by siloed tools or teams.

Ultimately, brands embracing this integration level will gain a competitive edge in retail media advertising. By combining Skai’s powerful platform with real-time insights from digital shelf analytics, marketers can make smarter, faster decisions and maximize the impact of every ad dollar spent. The result is a holistic, data-driven approach that drives both short-term conversions and long-term growth.

Skai clients can learn more about our digital shelf analytics integrations by reaching out to their client success team.

For others, please schedule a brief demo of Skai’s Retail Media solution to chat with our team about how digital shelf analytics can help your brand optimize campaigns, improve product visibility, and drive more impactful results across your retail media efforts.