Many businesses track growth by looking at traditional metrics like total sales or new customer acquisition. But these metrics only tell part of the story. Share of wallet – or the proportion of total category spend that a customer devotes to your brand – offers a deeper way to understand loyalty, opportunity, and brand health in competitive environments.

What is 'Share of Wallet'?

Simply put, share of wallet reveals how much of a consumer’s spending in a specific category is spent with your brand versus your competitors. For example, if a customer spends $100 a month on snack foods and $25 goes to your brand, your share of wallet is 25% in that category.

Why It Matters More Than Ever

In crowded markets where customer attention is limited, gaining incremental increases in wallet share is often more cost-effective than acquiring entirely new buyers. It helps answer key questions like:

• Are customers loyal, or spreading spend across multiple brands?
• Are we capturing enough of our existing customers’ potential?
• Where could we grow by shifting spend from competitors to us?

Understanding and increasing wallet share can lead to more targeted promotions, smarter innovation, and better ROI from marketing spend. It becomes a strategic tool, not just a metric.

From Data Point to Growth Lever

When paired with powerful consumer insights tools, wallet share analysis can show exactly where opportunities lie. But knowing that you’re only capturing 30% of a shopper’s category budget isn’t useful unless you can find out why – and what to do about it. That’s where many businesses hit an internal wall. They may have the data, but lack the time or in-house skills to translate it into concrete actions.

This is where On Demand Talent becomes a game-changer. These professionals help connect the dots between consumer spend behavior, competitive positioning, and strategic decisions. Rather than relying solely on general tools or overburdened teams, companies can flexibly bring in deep expertise where and when it's needed most – without blowing their budget.

In today’s data-rich but time-strapped environment, growing share of wallet has become both a smart strategy and a practical necessity. The key is understanding not just the what, but the why – and putting that insight to work with clarity and speed.

At its core, Circana diagnostics is a powerful tool for retail spend tracking and category spend trends, helping businesses understand how shoppers behave across brands, products, and retailers. It offers a detailed view of what consumers are buying, where they’re buying it, and how spending behavior shifts over time. But for many teams, the full value of this tool lies not just in what it tracks – but how it's used.

Breaking Down Shopper Spend with Circana

Circana gives insights teams access to layered data on purchase behavior, which allows them to:

• Measure wallet share across competitive sets
• Track shifts in brand loyalty or retailer preference
• Identify gaps or missed opportunities in the shopper’s path
• Compare performance by channel, price tier, or occasion

For example, category spend trends might reveal that households are increasing purchases in premium pet food – but your mid-tier brand hasn’t seen a lift. With this kind of signal, you can ask: Is there a product need you're missing? Are promotions reaching the right audience? Is packaging influencing brand perception?

Uncovering the 'Why'

This is where many teams run into challenges. Circana diagnostics excels at providing the 'what' – detailed purchase patterns across shopper segments – but summarizing the 'why' often involves complex interpretation. Without guidance, teams can get stuck in dashboards or overlook hidden opportunities.

Common Challenges When Using Circana Diagnostics

Based on conversations with insights teams, a few common hurdles emerge:

• Too much data, too little time – causing delays in decision-making
• Lack of internal expertise to connect spend data to strategy
• Difficulty building compelling stories or tailored recommendations from the reports

Even strong teams can struggle to activate findings from DIY market research tools when under pressure from tight timelines or organizational changes.

How On Demand Talent Makes Data Work Harder

This is where On Demand Talent can bring immediate impact. By tapping into consumer insights experts who are already fluent in Circana and similar tools, organizations can:

• Shorten the time from analysis to action
• Turn raw retail data into strategic guidance for marketing, merchandising, or innovation
• Train internal teams on how to better leverage DIY platforms like Circana

For example, an experienced On Demand Talent professional might notice that your expanding product line is gaining trial but not repeat purchases – and guide your team toward packaging updates or loyalty programs to address the issue. These insights often remain hidden when data is reviewed only in standard dashboards.

Whether you’re looking for help with a specific Circana report or building a long-term approach to wallet share growth, partnering with skilled market research support gives you both speed and strategic depth. At a time when budgets are tight and shopper behavior is changing fast, making the most of your consumer insights tools – and the expertise needed to use them – is essential.

Common Challenges When Interpreting Circana Data

On paper, Circana diagnostics offer a powerful window into where, how, and why consumers are spending. But in practice, turning that wealth of data into simple, strategic insight often proves more difficult than expected – especially for teams newer to DIY consumer insights tools.

Even though Circana provides access to advanced wallet share analysis and retail spend tracking, interpreting the data in a way that drives action takes more than just a login and dashboard. Insights professionals often run into roadblocks such as:

Overwhelmed by Data Volume

Circana platforms surface massive volumes of data across brands, categories, and retailers. Without prior experience interpreting category spend trends in this environment, it’s easy to get lost trying to make sense of all the signals. Finding the “so what” becomes a challenge when every view offers a different narrative.

Misreading Shopper Behavior

Tools like Circana track consumer spend behavior with impressive granularity – but understanding what drives it requires context. The difference between a short-term promotion and a true loyalty shift isn’t always clear from the charts alone. Teams without experience in customer behavior analysis risk jumping to conclusions that don’t reflect what's really happening on the ground.

Difficulty Isolating Opportunity Areas

Identifying where share of wallet can realistically be expanded – whether by brand, banner, or category – demands both precision and pragmatism. Many teams struggle to separate low-hanging fruit from “interesting but irrelevant” data points. This often leads to initiatives that appear promising but fail to scale.

Time Constraints and Skill Gaps

Many insights teams are already operating with limited capacity. Adding another high-powered tool like Circana into the mix can stretch resources even thinner, especially if team members aren’t fully trained on extracting strategic value from it. Without the right expertise, valuable opportunities can be easily missed or delayed.

In short, while Circana is an excellent tool for retail strategy and shopper diagnostics, simply having access isn’t the same as using it effectively. That’s where the right support can make all the difference – particularly when looking to grow share of wallet with confidence.

How On Demand Talent Translates Data into Actionable Insights

When insights teams are struggling to move from data to decisions, On Demand Talent brings the extra lift needed to bridge that gap. These experienced professionals don’t just understand consumer insights tools – they know how to apply them strategically, helping teams extract clear direction from complex diagnostics.

Whether you’re navigating Circana for the first time or trying to deepen your wallet share analysis, On Demand Talent can help you unlock its value faster. Here’s how:

Zooming In on the Right Metrics

One of the toughest parts of tools like Circana is figuring out where to start. On Demand Talent professionals can quickly assess your business questions and isolate the most critical indicators – from category leakage to brand switching behavior – that signal wallet share opportunities or risks.

Connecting the Dots Across Data

It’s rarely a single chart that tells the full story. These experts are trained to spot patterns and read between the lines, stitching together multiple reports to surface actionable themes and diagnose shopper dynamics in a way that supports execution across marketing, merchandising, and innovation teams.

Customizing Insights for the Organization

Not every team needs the same dashboard or level of detail. Fractional insights pros can tailor Circana data into formats and frameworks that make sense for decision-makers, helping elevate insights from interesting to impactful. They’ll often create tiered or scenario-based reporting so that stakeholders at all levels can act with clarity.

Building Internal Capability Alongside Execution

Unlike temporary contractors or one-off consultants, On Demand Talent offers a collaborative approach. As they solve immediate problems, these professionals also help build your team’s confidence and skill in using the tools long-term. They train, coach, and empower – translating complex diagnostics into common language and capability.

For example, a fictional mid-sized retail brand brought in an On Demand Talent lead to enhance their use of Circana after struggling with inconsistent wallet share reporting. Within weeks, the expert built clear templates tied to business KPIs and trained the internal analysts, enabling faster, more aligned strategic decisions across teams.

In a world where time and budget constraints are common, having flexible expert support can be the key to unlocking value today – without slowing growth tomorrow.

When to Bring in Expert Support for Wallet Share Growth

It’s not always immediately clear when your team needs outside help. But in the fast-moving world of retail analytics and category spend trends, waiting too long can mean missed opportunities or reactive strategy. So, when should you bring in expert support like On Demand Talent to boost your wallet share strategy?

You’re Using DIY Tools, But Stuck on Strategy

If you’ve invested in powerful consumer insights tools like Circana Diagnostics but struggle to turn the data into a plan of action, it’s time to tap in outside expertise. Many teams collect the right metrics but hit a wall when it comes to interpreting them through a growth lens.

Team Capacity is Maxed Out

Whether due to lean staffing models or unexpected project surges, bandwidth gaps are common. On Demand Talent allows you to scale up your insight engine quickly – leveraging seasoned professionals ready to contribute from day one, without the delays of hiring or training.

You’re Testing New Retail Strategies

Moving into new channels, expanding into adjacent categories, or launching loyalty programs are all times when deep wallet share knowledge is critical. These moments benefit from experts who can interpret shifting customer behavior and guide strategic pivots based on real spending data.

Your Existing Insights Aren’t Driving Action

If stakeholders aren’t making confident decisions based on current consumer insights, the problem might be in the translation – not the tools. Professionals who understand both the technical side of data and the language of strategy can close that gap, improving research ROI and internal adoption.

You're Building Long-Term Research Maturity

Research teams don’t grow overnight. On Demand Talent helps organizations develop smarter, more capable insight functions – not just by doing the work, but by teaching while doing it. These experts contribute to internal upskilling, tool mastery, and sustainable insight models.

The key benefit? With On Demand Talent, you’re not choosing between flexibility and expertise. You get both – in a way that supports your future growth just as much as today’s urgency.