Distribution gets the product to the outlet; retail execution decides what happens to it there. Availability, placement, facings, pricing, the promo display that was paid for — these are the conditions that convert coverage into sales, and they are invisible from head office. The traditional answer is a checklist the rep fills from memory. The honest answer is that a shelf claim without evidence is an opinion — and opinions do not settle share-of-shelf targets or promo-compliance payouts.
Merchandising as structured work, on every visit
In xMatix, merchandising is typed in-outlet activity on the visit, not a free-form note: availability checks against the outlet's must-stock list, facing counts, planogram checks, price and display audits — each with its own structure, each attaching to the geo-verified visit, each captured offline like everything else in the field app. What gets executed is what was assigned, and what was found is on the record.
The shelf photo becomes a measurement
Where the stakes justify it, Sense Vision turns the shelf photo itself into the data: reps photograph the shelf — offline capture, like the rest of the visit — and the vision pipeline recognises products and facings to produce measured share of shelf and planogram compliance scores. The same shelf is scored the same way in every outlet, results carry their photographic evidence for audit, and new SKUs are taught from photos rather than waiting on a vendor ticket.
How the measurement is defined
Share of shelf is a ratio, and the denominator is a commercial decision: share of facings (the brand's front-facing units over the category's total) is simple and pack-size-blind; linear share (shelf centimetres over category centimetres) is what a retailer negotiates on. xMatix reports facings share from the photograph and keeps the category boundary fixed per fixture definition, so the number is comparable across outlets and cycles — the full definitional traps are in the glossary (what is share of shelf?). The most useful read is share against fair share: a brand holding 15% of facings on 25% of category sales has a measured, arguable case for space — outlet by outlet, with the image attached.
Consistency is the product
The value of measured merchandising is comparability: share-of-shelf in one beat versus another, planogram compliance before and after a trade programme, the outlets where a paid display never went up. Human-scored checklists drift with the scorer; a vision measurement does not. Where judgement is still needed, the photo is attached to the score, so a dispute is a look, not a revisit.
From measurement to consequence
Shelf metrics join secondary sales and coverage on the same dashboards, which is what makes them actionable: the outlet with collapsing facings and collapsing offtake gets a different intervention than the one with great shelf and no sales. Trade spend tied to shelf conditions — display rentals, planogram commitments — settles against measured compliance, the same way scheme claims settle against order evidence.
Common questions
What is share of shelf and why measure it?
Share of shelf is the proportion of a category's visible shelf space your brand occupies, usually counted in facings. It is the retail battle in a single number — you pay for it in trade terms and win or lose it visit by visit — and it correlates directly with offtake. Measuring it consistently is what makes it manageable rather than anecdotal.
How is share of shelf calculated?
As the brand's facings divided by the category's total facings on the fixture, from the shelf photograph — with the category boundary held constant so the ratio means the same thing in every store. Read against the brand's share of category sales, it shows where space is under- or over-weighted, which is the negotiation that pays for the measurement.
How does shelf recognition from photos work?
Reps photograph the shelf during the visit; the Sense Vision pipeline recognises products and counts facings to compute share of shelf and planogram compliance. Photos are captured offline with the rest of the visit and processed when the device syncs, and every score keeps its source image as evidence.
Can it handle new products and pack changes?
Yes — new SKUs are taught from photographs of the product, so a pack change or launch is a data update, not a project. Recognition confidence is visible, and low-confidence results route to review rather than silently contaminating the metric.
Do merchandising tasks work without Sense Vision?
Fully — structured availability checks, facing counts, price and display audits run as typed visit activities with photo attachments, offline, with or without the vision pipeline. Vision adds measured consistency on top; it is not a prerequisite for disciplined merchandising.
How do shelf metrics connect to trade spend?
Display rentals and planogram commitments can settle against measured compliance instead of claimed compliance — the payout references the scored visits and their photos. Money follows evidence, in both directions.