Welcome to 29: Episode 301 — Look For and Close Category Gaps For Success
Day 29 of 30 Days to Prosperity

Begin with the market basket and work backwards. Make it easy for shoppers to find and buy your products wherever they shop.
If you’ve been following this series, then you’re already thinking differently than the average brand. You now understand your consumer, your retailer, your story, your execution, and your competitive landscape at a much deeper level.

And that leads us perfectly into today’s topic—one of the most powerful, highest-leverage strategies in the entire challenge:

Close category gaps by making the shopper’s journey effortless.
Most brands think they understand their competitors.
They keep an eye on innovation.
They watch price points.
They scan promotion calendars at a high level.
But that’s surface-level thinking.

What I’m talking about is developing intimate competitive knowledge—the kind that lets you anticipate their moves, see category patterns before anyone else, and position your brand where growth is inevitable.
And the best part?

Doing this ALSO helps you uncover the gaps, opportunities, and blind spots inside every category you compete in.
This is where your brand begins to stand apart.

Why Category Gaps Matter
Retailers don’t care about “your product.”
They care about:
How well you solve a shopper’s problem
How easily shoppers can find what they need
How the category performs overall
How efficiently their shelves convert traffic into profit

When you’re the brand that brings forward these insights—especially gaps in the category—retailers listen.

Why?
Because you’re helping them win.
Today’s lesson is about showing you exactly how to uncover those gaps and position your brand as the missing link customers are searching for.

Start With Shopper Need States
A need state is the real reason a shopper enters a store.
It’s the problem they’re trying to solve.
It’s the mindset that drives their decisions.
And every category has multiple need states attached to it.

For example:
The Cold & flu need state: remedies, tissues, hydration, comfort foods
Healthy lunchbox: clean snacks, drinks, healthy portable meal solutions
Post-workout recovery: protein, hydration, electrolytes, functional foods

When you understand the need state behind a shopping trip, you unlock the most valuable question you can ask:
How do I make it easier for this shopper to find everything they need—including my product?
This is the heart of closing category gaps.
And it’s where your creativity begins to matter.

Reverse-Engineer the Shopper Journey
Now it’s time for the strategy that separates elite brands from everyone else.
Start at the checkout line… and work backwards.
Look inside the shopper’s market basket.
List every complementary product they purchased along with yours.
Then ask:
Where did they pick up each item?
What path did they take?
How many departments did they have to walk through?
Where were they forced to hunt for something?
What slowed them down?
What confused or frustrated them?

Confusion kills conversions.
Clarity drives sales.
Your job is to map the entire journey and remove every friction point.
This is where category gaps become obvious.
Items that should be merchandised together but aren’t
Categories that lack solution-based signage
Stores that separate complementary products
Departments that don’t reflect how shoppers actually think
Promotions that ignore the full basket and focus on a single SKU
Wherever the retailer is making the shopper work too hard…
you’ve found your opportunity.

Create Collaborative, Basket-Building Solutions
Once you identify all complementary items, there are endless ways to collaborate with other brands and retailers to close gaps and drive category growth.

Here are a few high-performance examples:
1. Cross-Brand Promotional Flyers
Create a one-page flyer featuring every item in the market basket—each brand offering a small incentive.
Shoppers instantly see the complete solution.
Retailers love the category lift.
Each brand gets exposure to new, highly qualified customers.
2. Themed End Caps or Solution Displays
Not the generic holiday displays retailers always do—but something original:
“Healthy Mornings Made Easy”
“Immune Support Aisle”
“Fast Clean Family Dinners”
Your brand becomes the anchor of a larger shopper solution.
3. Multi-Brand Digital or Social Campaigns
Drive traffic into the retailer by collaborating with basket-friendly brands:
shared audiences
shared storytelling
shared education
shared offers
Retailers crave this level of partnership.
4. In-Store Navigation Support
You and the complementary brands can create:
aisle violators
way finding signs
shelf talkers
QR codes for recipes or usage ideas
All reinforcing one thing:
“We make this easy for you.”
And shoppers respond—instantly.

Why This Works So Well
Because this strategy accomplishes everything retailers want:
✔ More foot traffic
✔ Higher basket size
✔ A competitive advantage
✔ Better shopper experiences
✔ Simple execution with big upside
And it does one thing your competitors rarely do:
It puts the shopper first.

When you think like this—holistically, creatively, strategically—you separate yourself from brands that are just pushing units.
You become a problem-solver.
A category builder.
A retailer’s secret advantage.
The brand that makes their job easier.
And retailers reward brands that make them look good.

Here’s a quick example why this works and the impact it can make
Working with a brand recently, we developed a strategy that followed this exact playbook. We merchandised products based on shopper need states within the same category. The result was the category at that retailer outperformed every other retailer nationally AND we grew category sales without using the pricing and promotion lever. This is what being a category leader looks like. We delivered a creative strategy that gave the retailer a significant competitive advantage by leveraging the strength of our brand. It also highlights how we used the strength of our brand to drive more traffic, larger baskets, and greater conversion - the number of shoppers converted to category buyers.

This Is Where All Your Training Comes Together
Everything you’ve learned in the 30 Days series—story, data, shoppers, execution, competition, community, KPIs—now feeds into this:
Becoming the brand that identifies opportunity, closes gaps, and lifts the entire category.
That’s what a true category leader does.
And once you show up this way—consistently—retailers will never see you as “just another brand” again.
They’ll see you as indispensable.

Some final Thoughts
Look for the gaps.
Fill the gaps.
Help the shopper win.
Help the retailer win.
And you will win every time.

Next up:
We’re nearing the final sessions of this challenge, and the strategies ahead will tie everything together so you can execute with confidence, clarity, and consistency—no matter the retailer or the category.
Let’s keep going.

For additional inspiration listen to the following podcast episodes:
Episode 89 Solid Digital Brand Selling Strategy for Success, Madeline Haydon with Nutpods
The Importance With Having A Solid Digital Brand Selling Strategy. Digital strategies give brands an equal voice against their largest competitors, leveling the playing field. The ability to create a connected community united around common needs, beliefs, and values is the most powerful way to amplify your brand’s voice.

Episode 93 Bridging the Gap Between Perimeter & Center Store = Sales Success, Doug Brent with Made In Nature
Profitably Bridging The Gap Between Perimeter & Center Store. Snacking has changed the way people think about meals, sometimes as a meal replacement. Shoppers want healthy options they can trust from authentic brands. Produce is the bridge into center store. Success favors brands positioned to meet shopper's needs.

Episode 258 Proven Strategies To Drive Sales Growth At Retail, Scott Sensenbrenner with Enzymedica
Want a significant sustainable competitive advantage? Retailers want and need actionable insights they can’t get from other brands. Savvy retailers might even reward those brands with incremental opportunities. Become an invaluable retailer partner.

Tip of the day: Begin with the market basket and work backwards. How can you make it easier for shoppers to find and buy your products wherever they shop.

Thank you for listening. This episode has an accompanying video with illustrations and additional information I can’t share on an audio podcast. You can watch it at retailsolved.com/30daychallenge.

You can get the show notes for this episode by going to RetailSolved.com/Session301. Tomorrows episode is Your Retail Partners – Key Trends to Know.

This episode will build on today’s conversation. Thank you for listening. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.