Free virtual shelf test: will shoppers see your pack?

A virtual shelf test shows your pack on a realistic shelf next to competitors and measures whether shoppers notice it, how fast, and what on the pack they look at. Traditional shelf tests recruit shoppers and use eye-tracking; this one uses predicted attention and 1,000 synthetic shoppers, so it runs in seconds and costs nothing.

A virtual shelf test is the method: your pack on a realistic digital shelf next to competitors. The difference is who looks at it. Many virtual shelf tests from research agencies show the shelf to a panel of real people, recruited for each study. The Shelf Test uses 1,000 synthetic shoppers instead: simulated shoppers who differ in eye height, glance time and walking pace, and look where predicted attention leads them.

That makes it free and fast enough to screen many options. A real panel or eye-tracking is still the way to validate the final decision.

Yes. Sign in with your email (a one-click link, no password or card) to use the full demo, and test one pack of your own each week, free.

Each synthetic shopper starts looking at their own eye height and makes a fixation about every quarter second, choosing where to look in proportion to predicted attention, preferring short eye movements and not returning to spots already seen. They differ in eye height (women and men, about 1.35 to 1.80 m), in how long they give the shelf (70% to 130% of the mission time) and, in the aisle, in walking pace. A shopper notices the pack if any fixation lands on it.

With 1,000 runs, a result like "65% of shoppers notice the pack" is precise to about ±3 points (95% confidence). With 300 runs it would be about ±5. So a gap of more than about 3 points between two options is a real difference, not noise. This is the precision of the simulation, not its accuracy against real shoppers.

Honestly, we can state its precision, not its accuracy against real shoppers. With 1,000 shoppers a result is precise to about ±3 points, and the runs are seeded, so the same settings always give the same answer. The engine predicts visual attention; it does not read words, recognise faces or know a brand.

Treat it as a screen: narrow ten ideas down to two, then put the two in front of real shoppers. More on the tools and how they work in Konverta Lab, and on the evidence in How accurate is predictive eye tracking?

No. It predicts bottom-up visual attention; it does not read words, recognise faces or know a brand. Use it to screen designs, shelf positions and shopper materials early and cheaply, then validate the big decisions with eye-tracking or shopper research.

Shelf strip, shelf talker, wobbler, shelf-ready tray, bay header and digital shelf-edge strip on the shelf, plus an aisle blade and floor graphic in the aisle walk-by. Each is added one on top of the next, so you see the incremental attention each one adds.

The free demo lets you upload your own pack art each week. Putting your products on your real shelves, against your real competitors and with your shopper materials, is a custom build for your category. Email [email protected].