Category Benchmarks 2025 has arrived

Our at-the-fixture research is back for another year, and of course, it’s better than ever. With over 6,000 responses across 8 retailers, we have a wealth of insight you won’t want to miss.

What can you expect?

Our expanding category reach…

1. Our research has expanded from 82 categories in 2021 to 90 in 2023 to now reaching 102 categories across the store. From make-up to fresh red meat to vegan and vegetarian deli and so many more, if you have a category in-store, we’ve got you covered.

2. Our new categories include:

• Deli & sandwich filler

• Vegan and vegetarian deli & picnic

• Olives, humous, guacamole & flavoured dips

• Milkshakes, yogurt drinks & iced coffee

• Food-to-go: hot drinks

• Ready to cook vegetables

• Ready to eat fruit

• Nicotine cessation

• Make-up

• Sports nutrition and hydration

• Hot chocolate & malt

• Pet food: small animals

• Breaded chicken

• Sports & energy drinks

• Wellness drinks

3. Our dashboard has been updated for you to explore and interact with. The ability to put your category directly beside your competitors allows you to analyse exactly where your category sits in relation to others. At a time where costs are high and growth is hard fought, understanding how shoppers view your category compared to others will be essential to drive any growth.

4. We will release a series of top line reports covering essential topics, starting with brands and private label.

We know it’s a tough time for both businesses and shoppers alike. Costs continue to rise, and with the introduction of factors like GLP-1s, some categories will struggle over the coming years. Leveraging category benchmarks to gain a comprehensive view of the market landscape empowers more strategic and informed conversations with retailers.

Bryony Perkins, Senior Insight Analyst

Whilst we won’t deep dive into every category on ShopperVista, we would love to chat to you and your team about your category. Please reach out to your account manager, one of the ShopperVista team or [email protected] to find out what we offer.

What category benchmarks covers

Shoppers for each category answer questions while they are making their product choice in real time.

We explore what goes into their product choice, including:

• Level of pre-planning

• The importance of price, quality and taste

• Brand vs. private label

• Stock availability and ease of locating a product

• Where they found it in-store

• Importance of health and sustainability factors

We receive over 6,000 responses all with at-fixture images to help us see what shoppers are seeing in the moment.

How it is done

Phase one: (~3 minutes) Pre-screener to ask respondents about their intention to purchase at least one of the sub-categories during their next in-store shopping trip.

Phase two: (~15 minutes) In-store mobile survey to be completed by shoppers while visiting large format supermarkets (Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Tesco, Waitrose, M&S, Aldi & Lidl).

For quality control purposes, we require respondents to take a photo of:

• The product they have chosen

• Where they found the product (the fixture)

• Their receipt

Examples from the shopper lens:

ShopperVista subscribers can find out more in our first report Category benchmarks: the role of private label. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]