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Use cases · Market Research

Category review.
Growth read against the market, not just last year.

The evidence a category review stands on: the category’s size and growth set against the total market, the competitive landscape including private label and new entrants, and the shopper trend driving it. Add your own sales data, and the full review is built around it.

  • SizingWill my market sizing survive the board?
  • SupplierIs the supplier’s growth story true?
  • ShopperWhat is driving the shopper?
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Runs: “Analyze UK premium ready meals: size and growth against total grocery, with the definition used and why, the competitive set including private label, and the shopper trends driving it.” · No account needed.

The short answer

What is a category review?

A category review makes the case for a category’s ranging and strategy to senior buyers and the board. A Market Research Study on the category takes under an hour: size and growth, the competitors, shopper trends and where it is going. Add your own sales data, and Caspr builds the full review around it: share by retailer, SKU productivity and the ranging recommendation.

Last updated Edited and approved by Joy, Founder & CEO

The anatomy

What goes into a category review?

A category review reads one category against three frames at once (last year, the total market and the competing retailer) and ends in a ranging recommendation.

The ranging recommendation
Add, delist, reallocate space or change the category’s role, stated early, with the evidence following.
Size and growth against the market
The category’s growth read against total-market growth, in value and in volume where available. An index above 100 is a share gain, even in a growing market.
Share against the competing retailer
Your banner’s share set against named competing retailers. It is the frame a board challenges first.
The competitive set
Brands, private label and new direct-to-consumer entrants.
The shopper trend
What is changing in how shoppers buy the category, by occasion, format, channel or basket, and whether it is specific to this category.
SKU productivity
Which SKUs earn their shelf space against the category standard. Built on your own sales data.
The three-frame scorecard
Time, market and competitive set side by side in one table, so no figure is read against one frame only.

Every version

Which category reviews can Caspr write?

Most asked

Retail category managers

A senior buyer or category review board decides on the ranging recommendation.

A category review is a retailer’s case for a category’s ranging and role, read against last year, the total market and the competing retailer, for a senior buyer.

What it answers

  • Is the category growing faster or slower than the total market?
  • Which segments are we under-indexed in?
  • Which SKUs earn their shelf space?
  • Who are the new entrants, including direct-to-consumer brands and private label?
  • What should we range, and why?

What it covers

  • Category sales and growth (your data)
  • Share against the total market and named competing retailers
  • Rate of sale
  • Distribution and household penetration
  • Price index against the market

Market Research · $300

Arrives as PowerPoint · PDF

Runs on your own sales data. Add the category’s sales figures and the review is built around them.

It may ask for: for example, this cycle’s licensed panel export, or whether share and distribution should come from Caspr’s own sources.

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Buying boards

The retailer’s category manager or buying board decides whether to adopt, amend or reject the captain’s plan.

A category captain counter-analysis is an independent read of the category a captain’s deck argues for, setting the captain’s claimed figures against licensed and public data with no stake.

What it answers

  • Does the captain’s category-opportunity estimate hold up against independent data?
  • Which of the plan’s recommendations favor the captain’s own SKUs rather than the category?
  • What would the assortment look like if it were built from data with no commercial stake?
  • Where do the two reads agree, and where do they part?

What it covers

  • Category growth credited to the captain’s SKUs: self-reported in the supplier’s deck, licensed in the independent read
  • Share by retailer against the national figure
  • The shopper-incrementality claims, and what cannot be established without your own data
  • The two category-opportunity estimates, side by side and never blended

Market Research · Study · $80

Arrives as PowerPoint · PDF

It may ask for: for example, the captain’s deck itself, so the two reads sit side by side.

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Category managers

The retail category manager decides which shopper trend the ranging case rests on.

A shopper trend analysis establishes what is genuinely changing in how shoppers buy one category, by occasion, format, channel or basket, and whether it leads or trails the market.

What it answers

  • What is actually changing in how shoppers buy this category?
  • Is it a shopper insight specific to this category, or a general consumer trend restated?
  • How current is the evidence behind it?
  • Which competitors or new entrants are already moving on it?

What it covers

  • Shifts in basket penetration and purchase frequency
  • Share gained by new formats and new entrants
  • Online share of the category
  • The trend against its own prior period and against the market’s

Market Research · Study · $80

Arrives as PDF

It may ask for: for example, the specific sub-category or format, rather than the category as a whole.

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Category managers

The retail category manager decides, mid-cycle, whether each SKU is added, delisted or held.

A range review, or line review, decides which SKUs on one shelf segment keep their facings, which are added and which are delisted, against the line’s own productivity standard.

What it answers

  • Which SKUs are earning their shelf space today?
  • Which new SKUs justify a place, and what would they displace?
  • What does the competitive line-up look like at this shelf segment?
  • Which shopper or format trend bears on this line, rather than the category as a whole?

What it covers

  • SKU rate of sale and productivity (your data)
  • Distribution and household penetration for the line
  • Price index within the line
  • A ranging decision against every SKU: add, delist or hold

Market Research · Study · $80

Arrives as PDF · Excel

It may ask for: for example, the specific shelf segment or line under review.

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Revenue growth managers

A retail category manager or a brand’s revenue growth manager decides whether to reprice, repack or change promotions.

A price architecture analysis maps a category’s or a brand’s price ladder by pack and channel, finds the gaps, and shows where promotions lose money.

What it answers

  • Where are the gaps in the good-better-best price ladder?
  • Which pack sizes are missing for a channel or an occasion?
  • Where is promotional return negative?
  • How does the price pack architecture compare with the category’s or the channel’s own standard?

What it covers

  • Competitive pricing: the price index against the market or a named competitor
  • Promotional return and incrementality (your data)
  • Elasticity by SKU, pack and channel (your data)
  • Price realization, with any published vendor benchmark labeled as such

Market Research · Study · $80

Arrives as PowerPoint · Excel

It may ask for: for example, your promotion and elasticity history, or whether to work from category benchmarks alone.

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eCommerce category managers

A marketplace-side or brand-side category manager decides where to close the gap to the category leaders.

A marketplace share analysis reads a brand’s or a category’s position on a marketplace: share of search, Buy Box win rate, price position and assortment gaps against named competitors.

What it answers

  • What is our share of search, and our digital share of shelf?
  • How often do we win the Buy Box?
  • Are sellers holding to the minimum advertised price?
  • Where are the assortment gaps against the category leaders?
  • Where does our price sit against named competitors?

What it covers

  • Share of search and price index, from digital-shelf tools
  • Buy Box win rate, labeled as inferred: no marketplace discloses it
  • MAP compliance, as a count of violations
  • Conversion rate, where you supply it

Market Research · Study · $80

Arrives as PDF · Excel · CSV

It may ask for: for example, whether you manage the category for the marketplace or for one brand selling on it.

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Strategy teams

A strategy or business-unit lead decides which pricing change goes to the board.

A pricing strategy analysis sets out what current pricing costs a business, the alternatives in level, structure or segmentation, and each one’s impact against its own history and the market.

What it answers

  • What problem does current pricing create: eroding margin, lost deals, mispriced segments?
  • What alternatives exist in price level, structure or segmentation?
  • What does each one do to margin, against our own history and against a named competitor’s prices?

What it covers

  • Current margin and price realization (your data)
  • The impact of each alternative, stated as modeled rather than measured
  • Competitor price points, public where posted
  • Pricing by segment, where your data supports it

Market Research · Study · $80

Arrives as PDF · Excel

It may ask for: for example, your current pricing and margin data, to make the comparison specific.

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Not listed?

Describe your own version, and Caspr shows you the report it would build before anything runs.

No account needed.

Where the analysis earns its keep

Where do category reviews go wrong?

Three frames, never swapped.

Against the market, not last year
Sales up 8% is not a share gain if the market grew 12%. Growth is read against time, the market and the competing retailer, together.
Where the category starts and stops
Estimates for UK ready meals ran from $5.75bn to $8.70bn, depending on whether pizza and meal kits were counted. The Caspr Study set out the definitions and recommended the one that fit a retailer.
The supplier’s numbers, read independently
Growth claims in a supplier’s deck are set against independent figures, and the gap is named.

The question this runs

“Analyze UK premium ready meals: size and growth against total grocery, with the definition used and why, the competitive set including private label, and the shopper trends driving it.”

Run the analysis

Before anything runs, Caspr shows you the report it would build and asks what it needs.

Questions

Questions about category reviews

What it is

What is a category review?

A category review is a retailer’s periodic case for one category: how it performs against last year, the total market and the competing retailer, what is driving the shopper, and what to range, delist or give more space. A senior buyer or category review board signs it off, typically every quarter or twice a year.

What should a category review presentation include?

Size and growth against the market, share against the competing retailer, the competitive set, the shopper trend, and a ranging recommendation.

What is the difference between a category review and a range review?

A category review sets the whole category’s role and strategy, and it goes to the board. A range review, also called a line review, works one shelf segment at a time and decides which SKUs keep their facings, which are added and which go. It is faster and narrower, and it feeds the category review rather than replacing it.

How to do it

How do I prepare a category review?

Size the category against the total market. Set out the competitive set, including private label. Name the shopper trend, then argue the ranging case. Caspr does the first three in a Study.

How do I size a category when syndicated reports are too generic?

Describe the subcategory as narrowly as the review needs: premium meal kits in the UK, not food delivery globally. Caspr sizes it from the sources that cover it and states how each figure was built.

How do I explain why a category is growing or declining?

Read the growth against three frames at once: last year, the total market and the competing retailer. Sales up 8% is not a share gain if the market grew 12%. Then name the shopper shift behind the movement, by occasion, format or channel, and say whether it belongs to this category or to the whole market.

How do I combine Nielsen sales data with market context?

Your panel data says what sold. The Study gives the market around it: size, competitors and the shopper trend. Add the panel data, and the full category review joins the two.

What are the alternatives to supplier-funded category research?

An independent read of the same category, set beside the supplier’s. Caspr sizes the category from licensed and public sources, names which of the plan’s recommendations favor the supplier’s own SKUs, and shows where the two reads agree and where they part. The buying board then decides whether to adopt, amend or reject the plan.

Using AI for it

Can I present AI market analysis in a category review?

Yes. It arrives as a finished review: the market sized, the competitors read, the range question argued. The published sources sit behind every figure, as in any independent report. The file is marked on its cover as generated by Caspr.

Is AI research independent enough to challenge supplier data?

No supplier funds or shapes a Caspr analysis. It sets the published sources against each other and says which figure fits your category. The argument rests on the evidence, not on who paid for it.

Cost

What does a published category report cost?

Published category reports carry list prices in the thousands. Mordor Intelligence’s Europe Ready Meals report listed at US $4,750 for a single user on Research and Markets (researchandmarkets.com/reports/5119613, read 24 August 2026). It covers ten European countries at the publisher’s level of definition, so a retailer’s subcategory, banner and shopper are still built by hand.

What does Caspr charge for a category review?

Each version on this page carries its own depth and price on its card, and you see the cost before anything runs. Every version runs today. Most run as a Market Research Study; the full category review is built around your own sales data and goes a level deeper, reading every segment and SKU in full.

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