Have you ever felt your products are lost like a pinch of salt in the sea? Well, you are not alone!
We are in the world of online shopping, where visibility is everything. Hence, mastering your Digital Share of Shelf is no longer an option—it’s essential.
Let’s dive in to understand what DSoS means, why it matters, how to measure it and explore the ways you can improve it!
What Is Digital Share of Shelf?
Digital Share of Shelf (DSoS) is the metric that measures your brand’s visibility in the online marketplaces. It indicates the amount of space your products take up in search results compared to competitors, helping you assess how well your brand is positioned in the digital space.
Monitoring this metric allows you to gain a better understanding of your market presence and optimize your visibility on the digital shelf.
Share of Shelf Vs Digital Share of Shelf
Let’s break it down:
- Share of Shelf refers to the physical space a brand occupies on the shelves of retail brick-and-mortar store. It measures how much attention your brand could get compared to the competitors.
- Digital Share of Shelf (DSoS), on the other hand, refers to the space a brand occupies in the search results and product listing pages, compared to competitors.
While both metrics aim to measure the brand’s visibility, Share of Shelf focuses on physical stores, whereas Digital Share of Shelf is focused on digital space.
Importance of Measuring Digital Share of Shelf
It’s not just about numbers!
Measuring and Analyzing your share of digital shelf helps you in numerous ways, which include:
- Tracking and Understanding how visible your products are across all the digital sales channels.
- Benchmarking your brand’s performance against the competitors to identify areas of improvement.
- Understanding how well your marketing efforts are working to make data-driven adjustments.
- Optimizing your product listings to improve search rankings thereby boosting visibility.
- Continuously refining your strategies to enhance your market presence and stay competitive over time.
Key Factors Affecting Digital Share of Shelf
There are a range of factors that could affect your Share of Digital Shelf. Here’s what to focus on:
Product Listings
Well-optimized product titles, accurate and detailed descriptions, and clear product visuals greatly influence your products’ search visibility.
Platform Algorithms
Each eCommerce platform operates with its own set of algorithms to showcase the listings. Adapting to platform-specific algorithms will significantly impact your digital position.
Pricing
eCommerce platforms often prioritize products that are most likely to sell, hence they always favor reasonably priced products.
Product Reviews and Ratings
Positive feedback increases the credibility of your product listings, which inturn boosts the visibility. Whereas negative reviews could push your listings lower in the search results.
Stock Availability
Platforms often do not list the out-of-stock products on the listing pages, which reduces their visibility.
Promotional Activities
Discounts, Seasonal sales and limited time offers attract more customers. Lack of promotional activities might result in missed opportunities to capture the attention of customers.
Advertising Spend
Paid Ads and sponsored listings will place your listings in much higher and prominent positions, increasing the visibility.
Competitor Activity
Actions by competitors like price adjustments, new product launches, and promotional campaigns might shift the customer attention and affect your visibility.
How to calculate your Digital Share of shelf?
Ready to Calculate your DSoS? It’s easier than you think!
Here’s a simple step-by-step guide:
Define the Product Category and Keywords
Identify the specific product category or the keywords for which you want to calculate your DSoS.
Perform a Search
Go to the specific eCommerce platform where you sell and search for your product category or selected keyword.
Find the Total Number of Listings
Count all the products that are displayed on the listing page, including both your products as well as the competitor’s products.
Count Your Product Listings
Identify how many of your products show up in the search results page. This should include both organic and sponsored listings.
Apply the formula
Use this formula to calculate your Digital Share of Shelf:
DSoS = (Your Product Listings/Total No.of Product Listings)*100
Yes, That’s the percentage of the Digital shelf that your product occupies.
The Goal?— make it higher!
For example, if you see there are 250 products displayed in the search results and 30 of them are yours, your Share of Digital Shelf would be:
DSoS= (30/250)*100 = 12%
This means you occupy 12% of the digital shelf space available for that specific product category or search query.
Impact of this metric on eCommerce success
Digital Share of Shelf plays an important role in eCommerce success. Why?— Because it directly influences the search visibility thereby affecting the purchasing decisions.
Let’s be honest—who scrolls after the first page of search results? Hence, it is much more important to get your listings out there. By comparing your DSoS with your competitors, you can adjust your strategies gaining a competitive edge in the market.
In Simple: the more visible you are, the more likely customers are to click, buy, and return.
More Visibility = More Clicks = More Sales
A higher Digital Share of Shelf doesn’t stop with helping to improve the clicks and purchases. Rather it contributes to brand recognition, which builds customer trust and loyalty – the key to achieving long-term success.
How to Improve Your Digital Share of Shelf?
Now that you have understood how crucial DSoS is, Let’s find ways to improve it.
Optimize Product Listings
As per research, 81% of shoppers research online before buying in-store. Hence, ensure that your Product listings are well-optimized with clear product titles, detailed descriptions, and high-quality visuals shot from various angles. Make your listings SEO- optimized and use keywords that match with what your customers are searching for. The more appealing your listings, the higher the chances of ranking at the top.
Effective Pricing Strategy
Too high?— People might skip it, Too low?— might doubt the quality. Find your sweet spot.
Check what others are charging and adjust your prices, if needed. Competitive pricing is a major factor influencing your Share of Digital Shelf. Price your products reasonably compared to your competitors, so that you could attract the attention of more customers.
Stock Availability
Out of stock = Out of sight
Always ensure that your products are in stock across all the platforms and they are ready to ship. Because eCommerce platforms will de-prioritize the products that are out-of-stock as customers are less likely to buy them. Replenishing your stock consistently to avoid missing out opportunities.
Leverage Advertising
Even a small ad budget could help you get noticed! Paid Ads are one of the most effective ways to boost your DSoS. Smartly invest in sponsored listings, and display ads to place your listings in high-visibility spots. This will help you reach the customers who are more likely to buy your products.
Brand Consistency
It is important to maintain a consistent brand image across all the platforms, as it helps you build trust and brand recognition. This will help you get more interactions and eventually sales.
Promotions and Discounts
Products with ongoing discounts or special offers are often highlighted by eCommerce platforms, as they have the more potential to make a sale. Hence, running regular promotional campaigns could help your brand stand out during high-traffic times.
Monitor Customer Reviews
Encourage your customers to leave a feedback—Believe me, it’s worth it!
Customer reviews play a crucial role in determining your product’s ranking and visibility. A study found that at least 4 in 5 (82%) consumers trust product ratings and reviews. Positive reviews could hint the platforms that your products are of high quality and are worth showcasing. Promptly address any negative reviews, so that they don’t affect your reputation.
Customer Engagement
Engage with your customers directly, and respond to their queries promptly. A happy customer is more likely to leave a positive review and become a repeat customer. This will help you gain visibility through both platform algorithms as well as word-of-mouth.
Optimizing for Mobile
More than 62% of global e-commerce sales are expected to come from mobile devices in 2027. Hence it has become important to optimize your listings for mobile screens. Make your product listings load quickly, and easy to navigate, offering a smooth purchase experience. If your listings are not optimized for mobile, user engagement will decline which eventually leads to decreased DSoS.
Know the Competition
Yes, They are watching you; you better watch them too!
Regularly monitor your competitors, their pricing, promotional strategies, and product offerings. Understanding your competitors will help you improve your Digtial Share of Shelf, ultimately gaining a competitive edge in the market.
Use Digital Shelf Analytics
Leverage Digital Shelf Analytics tools to gain insights into your product performance across the sales channels, monitor and keep track of the prices of both your and competitor products, and understand customer sentiment. By monitoring these metrics, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your Digital Share of Shelf.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, Digital Share of Shelf is not just about visibility. It is the indicator of your brand’s online presence and competitiveness. By understanding and optimizing this metric, you can significantly enhance your eCommerce success.
To achieve a higher DSoS, you should optimize your product listings, align with platform algorithms, leverage advertising, understand your competition, and maintain a strong customer engagement. You could use Digital Shelf Analytics to gain data-driven insights into your marketplace performance.
By continuously monitoring your Digital Share of Shelf and refining your strategies you could make the path to long-term success.
Ready to own the digital shelf? See How DigiSense could help you!
FAQs
Share of Shelf refers to the amount of space a brand or product occupies on the shelves of the retailers compared to competitors.
Digital Shelf is the online space where the products are listed for sale. This includes eCommerce platforms, own websites as well as social media platforms.
On Amazon, Share of Shelf refers to the percentage of your products visible on the search results through both paid and organic listings compared to competitors.
To Calculate your Digital Share of Shelf, divide your product’s visibility by the total visibility of all products in the category.
DSoS = (Your Product Listings/Total No.of Product Listings)*100
