An end cap (also called end-aisle or gondola end) is the shelf at the end of a gondola run. Thanks to its accessibility and visibility it usually attracts more attention than the aisle itself, which is why retailers use it for promotions and launches, and why brands pay for it. But not every end cap earns its price: it depends on the category and the position.
Shoppermotion measures every end cap one by one in its end caps performance report: traffic penetration (the share of store trips that passed it), engagement rate (the share of those trips that stopped in front of it), time to visit (how early in the trip shoppers reach it) and attributed sales of the promoted product by exposed shoppers.
Our end caps intelligence series adds time-related KPIs: time to visit and dwell time in front of the end cap show how impulsive the product is. End cap conversion takes into account not only sales but also the foot traffic that generated them: in one example, a product with lower sales and traffic had a higher conversion rate because it returned a higher increase in sales for less traffic.
Position matters as much as content. In a shampoo promotion in Shanghai, placing it on a secondary aisle end cap instead of the busier main aisle increased qualified traffic by 14%, and a secondary end cap is also cheaper for the manufacturer. As retail media inventory, each end cap can be listed on the in-store rate card with its verified audience.