Resources
How shoppers behave, how categories grow, and what the data on the shelf is telling us.
Featured
How to win the retailer sell-in
Promotions at 31.3% of grocery sales and own label past half of volumes. What to prepare before this autumn's sell-in, and what to say when the buyer pushes back.
Shelf & Category Strategy · 17 September 2026
Shelf & Category Strategy
Virtual shelf testing vs in-store trials: cost, speed and evidence compared
Virtual shelf testing delivers shopper evidence in days from a simulated fixture built on real planogram data; an in-store trial delivers sales evidence in months from live stores.
16 September 2026
Retail Operations
Conversational analytics for retail: asking your shelf data questions in plain language
What separates trustworthy conversational analytics from a chatbot, and what it changes for retail category teams.
15 September 2026
Retail Operations
What is planogram compliance, and why does it matter for category growth?
The gap between the planned shelf and the actual shelf is the cheapest category growth available to brands and retailers.
20 August 2026
Retail Operations
What is a retail data AI platform? A guide for CPG brands and retailers
What the category does, how it differs from BI and planogram tools, and what to ask when evaluating one.
18 August 2026
Newsletter
What's In-Store: August Update
Hello, welcome to our August newsletter, diving into the most interesting things we've spotted from the world of retail and CPG over the last month.
1 August 2026
Company News
VST is now Vazen: the retail data AI platform
Same company, same team, same nine years of category evidence. Wider frame.
30 July 2026
Newsletter
What’s In-Store: July Update
Hello, welcome to our July newsletter, diving into the most interesting things we’ve spotted from the world of retail and CPG over the last month.
1 July 2026
Shelf & Category Strategy
Can supermarket shelves talk? How Vazen won two awards at IIEX Europe 2026
Vazen took both the Audience Favourite Award and the Industry Impact Award at the Insight Innovation Competition.
30 June 2026
Shelf & Category Strategy
AI is ready to transform category management. The real question is your data.
What we told the panel at IGD’s Future of Category Leadership 2026.
25 June 2026
Newsletter
What's In-Store: June Update
Hello, welcome to our June newsletter, diving into the most interesting things we’ve spotted from the world of retail and CPG over the last month.
1 June 2026
Shelf & Category Strategy
Retail in 2026: The Practical Shifts Leaders Say Matter Most
We asked a group of senior leaders across grocery retail and FMCG one question: what is the biggest, most meaningful shift happening in retail this year, and why does it matter?
12 May 2026
Newsletter
What's In-Store: May Update
Hello, welcome to our May newsletter, diving into the most interesting things we’ve spotted from the world of retail and CPG over the last month.
1 May 2026
Company News
What's In-Store April: Key Learnings
A roundup of our key learnings from April's What's In-Store Event
27 April 2026
Newsletter
What's In-Store: April Update
Hello, welcome to our April newsletter, diving into the most interesting things we’ve spotted from the world of retail and CPG over the last month.
1 April 2026
Newsletter
What's In-Store: March Update
Hello, welcome to our March newsletter, diving into the most interesting things we’ve spotted from the world of retail and CPG over the last month.
1 March 2026
Shopper Behaviour
How shoppers make alcohol decisions, and what it means for CPG strategy
Beer, Wine & Spirits is one of the most context-driven categories in grocery. Shoppers rarely enter the aisle thinking in brands or SKUs. They arrive with an occasion, a mood, or a constraint in mind - tonight, the weekend, guests, gifting, unwinding, moderation.
2 February 2026
Shelf & Category Strategy
Top 5 Shelf Execution Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
The executional blind spots costing brands sales at the shelf.
1 February 2026
Newsletter
What's In-Store: February Update
Hello, welcome to our February newsletter, diving into the most interesting things we’ve spotted from the world of retail and CPG over the last month.
1 February 2026
Shopper Behaviour
How shoppers make petcare decisions, and what it means for CPG strategy
Petcare is one of the most purposeful categories in grocery. Shoppers arrive with specific missions - caring for a puppy, managing health concerns, rewarding behaviour, supporting an ageing pet. They navigate with intent, and they expect the aisle to make sense.
13 January 2026
Newsletter
What's In-Store: January Update
Stepping into 2026, slowly remembering how to “do work”. January’s here, and with it comes the latest slice of interesting things happening around the world of retail.
2 January 2026
Newsletter
What's In-Store: December Update
December’s here! And with it, a packed out newsletter featuring some of the interesting things from the world of CPG mostly falling into two camps important on the minds of both shoppers and the wider industry right now - AI and Health.
1 December 2025
Shopper Behaviour
From Crisis to Caution: How Shopper Behavior Is Evolving in 2025
What UK shopper behaviour in 2025 really tells us about value, confidence, and choice.
4 November 2025
Newsletter
What's In-Store: November Update
If you’re reading this on Monday, Halloween will have been and gone (sadly, given the wealth of excellent in-store displays), and we now canter towards the end-of-year holiday season.
3 November 2025
Company News
What's In-Store 2025: Key Learnings
A roundup of our key learnings from 2025's What's In-Store Event
27 October 2025
Company News
Vazen partners with Co-op to unlock planogram data for suppliers
For years, planogram data has existed quietly in the background of grocery retail - essential, operational, but rarely accessible to the people who need it most.
1 October 2025
Newsletter
What's In-Store: October Update
Read on for September’s interesting things including Kraft Heinz’s decoupling, Whiny Baby’s acquisition, more CPG, and a podcast featuring ME (and others).
1 October 2025
Shelf & Category Strategy
What Is Shelf Testing - and Why It’s Replacing In-Store Trials
From opinion to evidence: testing shelf decisions before they go live.
17 September 2025
Newsletter
What's In-Store: September Update
A happy Labor Day to those in North America! At the time of writing from the UK, I can say it’s not just the “unofficial end of summer”, as I look out onto another day of rain. Anyway, I’ll be back in Minneapolis and Bentonville for most of September - let me know if you’re around.
1 September 2025
Retail Operations
The AI Opportunity Hiding in Your Planogram Data
The hidden cost of ignoring shelf data, and the upside of fixing it.
5 August 2025
Newsletter
What's In-Store: August Update
I’ve been in Bentonville for most of July having fun and drinking some excellent coffee. Thanks to everyone who took the time to really delve into what’s driving US retail with me. Good to be back in the UK for summer and getting out to some stores. Safe to say that I’m pretty out of touch with the Children’s Health industry.
1 August 2025
Newsletter
What's In-Store: July 2025 Update
Read on for the interesting things happening in retail and CPG last month, including an anti-competitive ingredients purchase, “Fridge Cigarettes”, and the wildest set of Celebrity CPG launches I think we’ve ever featured (warning; do not read with your breakfast).
1 July 2025
Newsletter
What's In-Store: June 2025 Update
Positives and negatives from the month of May for UK retail. Where we’ve seen positives (hopefully!) in trade deals with the US and the EU that should help ease complexity and cost pressures on the industry, cyber security divisions are on red alert after hackers infiltrated systems at M&S, Co-op, and, Harrods.
2 June 2025
Company News
Vazen Is Heading Stateside
We've opened our first U.S. office in Bentonville, bringing our shelf-first approach to one of the most important hubs in global retail.
1 January 2025
Shopper Behaviour
Over half of the UK label themselves concerned about the rise in cost-of-living
We’re approaching the worst recession in decades. Following on from a pandemic (or potentially into the next stage of it), supply-chain…
1 August 2023
Retail Operations
Unlock the Value of Planogram Data: A New Frontier for Retailer and CPG Collaboration
Over the past two decades, the value of shared data at the retailer-CPG interface has been proven time and again. Data-driven retailers…
4 July 2023
Product Updates
Introducing: Coplan
Imagine as a CPG brand if you could zoom into any grocery store and view where your product is and what it’s sat next to.
1 July 2022
Shopper Behaviour
Shopper Behavior in Inflationary Times: Brands vs Supermarket Private Brand
Note: this article is an extract from a workshop by Vazen. If you’d like to book a workshop for your brand or category, please get in touch…
23 February 2022
Shelf & Category Strategy
Testing times: 6 themes from Vazen testing in 2021
Most years are dynamic in CPG strategy, but this year has been one of the busiest. If 2020 was defined by ‘stay at home’ orders and a rush…
3 January 2022
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