Shelf Share vs. Market Share: The Insight Brands Are Missing

Most brands obsess over market share-and for good reason. It tells us whether we’re winning or losing in the category. But there’s a quieter metric sitting behind every sale, one that has far more influence over what actually happens in-store: shelf share.

Shelf share is simply the amount of space your brand occupies on the shelf. But in reality, it’s much more than that. It’s visibility. It’s presence. It’s your chance to be chosen in the split second a shopper glances at the category. And that moment decides everything.

Think about how people shop. They don’t analyse every SKU. They don’t compare every facing. They often go with what they see first or what looks familiar and well-presented. If your product is lost in the corner, out of stock, or overshadowed by competitors, your market share suffers long before the numbers show it.

This is where many brands unknowingly lose the battle. On paper, they’ve negotiated the right facings, planned the perfect planogram, and invested heavily in execution. But retail floors tell a different story. Shelves shift through the day, stock-outs quietly shrink visibility, and competitor brands often take up more space than planned. The difference between the intended shelf share and the actual shelf share becomes a blind spot that directly impacts performance.

FieldEye helps brands close that gap. Instead of relying on delayed audits or manual checks, field teams simply take a photo of the shelf. In seconds, FieldEye’s AI breaks down facings, competitor presence, missing SKUs, pricing accuracy, and planogram deviations. What was invisible becomes instantly clear.

This doesn’t just help teams catch issues-it helps them fix them immediately. A missing SKU gets restocked. A misplaced product gets corrected. A competitor’s encroachment gets addressed. Store by store, region by region, shelf share becomes something brands can finally control.

Here’s the truth:

Market share tells you how you performed. Shelf share tells you why.

Brands that understand and act on shelf share consistently win more shoppers, lose fewer sales, and create stronger visibility across every retail touchpoint.