The Role of Clarity in Consumer Behavior

Best Practices for Visual Clarity in AYTM Shelf Tests

• Use high-resolution images: All product packshots should be clear and crisply rendered on screen at the default zoom level consumers will use.
• Ensure consistent lighting and angles: Crooked or differently lit items make shelves look artificial or distract from comparisons.
• Match scale accurately: If one bottle looks double the size due to image scaling, it alters shopper perception unfairly.
• Remove excessive white space: Tight cropping around your product image ensures better alignment on the virtual shelf.

Don’t Let Tools Undermine Your Intentions

What Makes a Shelf Look “Real” in Research?

• Competitive context: Always place your product next to legitimate competitors, not generic placeholders. This allows you to evaluate your product under realistic market pressure.
• Category cues: Structure the shelf so brands are organized in a typical retail pattern (e.g., by type, brand block, price tier). This anchors consumer expectations.
• Shelf dimensions: Avoid stuffing too many or too few products onto one shelf – the density of items should reflect a typical aisle or online scroll environment.
• Realistic mix: Incorporate store brands, niche players, and market leaders. A well-rounded test set balances brand familiarity with emerging challengers.

The Danger of Over-Controlled Setups

How Professionals Can Improve Shelf Design

When designing your shelf test stimulus in a virtual environment like AYTM, one of the most important – but often overlooked – aspects is selecting the right competitive set. The products surrounding your concept will heavily influence how consumers perceive, compare, and ultimately choose between options in an online shelf test.

This step isn’t just about random inclusion of products in the category; it’s about strategic selection that mirrors what consumers would encounter in the real world. That means understanding not only category leaders and common brand choices, but also price tiers, formats, packaging types, and even emerging products competing for the same consideration space.

Why Competitive Context Matters

Imagine testing a new shampoo bottle launch in a virtual shelf containing only outdated packaging or brands from another region. The results wouldn’t reflect actual store behavior. Realistic competitive context allows for:

• More accurate simulation of consumer decision-making
• Better insights into price elasticity and brand switching behaviors
• Stronger signal when evaluating visual standout and shelf appeal
• Increased confidence in performance data before launch

For example, a fictional brand launching premium sparkling water may want to include both mass and premium competitors – such as LaCroix, Spindrift, and San Pellegrino – to see how it stacks up on clarity, appeal, and value perception.

Tips for Choosing the Right Competitors in AYTM

Here are some best practices to guide your selection process:

1. Mirror products that appear in real-life shopping:** Use recent planograms, retail audits, or ecommerce pages to recreate the actual shelf landscape.

2. Include direct and adjacent competitors: Your stimulus doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Include key players from the same segment, plus possible substitutes (e.g., flavored water vs. soda).

3. Match price and packaging variety: Present a mix of price points and sizes (e.g., single serve, multi-pack) to mimic consumer choices.

4. Don’t clutter the shelf: While realism matters, too many products can overwhelm participants. Aim for balance between context and simplicity.

Selecting the right competitive set in your AYTM virtual shelf setup is a foundational piece of running meaningful shelf test research. It reinforces why clean product stimulus, realistic design, and thoughtful context must all work together to deliver true consumer insights.

Effective shelf test stimulus lives at the intersection of great design and strategic intent. In a virtual shelf testing tool like AYTM, the clarity and persuasiveness of product visualizations depend not only on beautiful packaging, but also on how well the visuals are optimized for research realism.

For many teams, especially those used to running concept development or product marketing in silos, the challenge lies in aligning creative and research functions. Good creative alone won’t produce effective stimulus – and vice versa.

What the Best Shelf Test Stimuli Have in Common

Whether you're testing on AYTM or similar DIY market research platforms, strong stimuli share common traits:

• Clean imagery consistent with real-life product appearance
• High contrast and legibility of brand name, claim, and product type
• Packaging scaled accurately relative to competitors for virtual shelf placement
• Relevance to consumers – visuals evoke product purpose quickly

Consider a fictional snack company launching a new protein bar. Using a pack design approved by marketing, the research team could struggle if the printing shadows obscure the flavor callout or if the bar isn’t aligned correctly on the virtual shelf. To consumers in the test, it may read as unclear or generic – which leads to underperformance unrelated to actual interest.

Integrating Creative and Research for Effective Shelf Testing

Stimulus development should be a collaborative process that brings together packaging design, consumer insights, and behavioral research principles. Here’s how businesses can bridge the gap:

• Map research objectives to visual needs: If testing concept perception, make sure unique selling points are easily readable. If testing brand recognition, prioritize logo placement and design consistency.

• Adjust for virtual conditions: Designs viewed on mobile or desktop may require tuning for size and resolution. A fourth pane detail may not be noticed if it appears too small in the AYTM shelf layout.

• Educate creative partners on shelf test context: Designers should understand that this isn’t about creating “ad-ready” visuals – it’s about mimicking what consumers scan in under 2 seconds in a digital aisle.

By treating shelf stimulus as a cross-functional creation – not just a visual asset – organizations can dramatically increase the accuracy and relevance of product performance data captured through virtual shopper studies and concept testing.

While DIY market research platforms like AYTM offer powerful tools for quick testing, getting the most out of them often requires more than just access – it takes the right expertise. That’s where SIVO’s On Demand Talent professionals come in.

These seasoned consumer insights experts help brands bridge the gap between internal capabilities and high-quality execution. Whether your team is new to shelf testing or scaling a concept across categories, On Demand Talent can guide the process to ensure your stimulus achieves clarity, realism, and business relevance.

Expert-Level Support, Only When You Need It

Unlike hiring permanent roles or relying on generic freelancer platforms, On Demand Talent gives you flexible access to the exact insights professional your team needs – with deep experience in shelf testing and virtual research design.

Here’s how they can help:

• Stimulus design strategy: Align visuals and messaging with research objectives to ensure meaningful results.
• Competitive context planning: Ensure the right mix of real-world competitors is represented to drive valid comparisons.
• AYTM setup and execution: From selecting shelf layout formats to optimizing image placement and shopper tasks, On Demand professionals ensure nothing gets lost in translation.
• Upskilling internal teams: Experts can coach your team on how to get more from DIY platforms, including AYTM testing best practices and stimulus optimization techniques.

This kind of support is particularly valuable in today’s market, where teams are expected to do more with less – managing timelines, budgets, and the rise of DIY tools. With On Demand Talent, you get scalable support from professionals who don’t need training wheels – they come ready to deliver clarity and results from day one.

With SIVO’s flexible talent network, teams can tap into deep category and tools experience – from retail to CPG to healthcare – and build long-term insight capability without the long-term hiring cost.