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§ 03 · Category & shopper insight

Retail & FMCG

Read the trade-down before the till does.

Shopper behaviour shifts faster than panel cycles. Cadence reads the value-vs-premium rotation from search, attention and mood — early, and receipted.

The question this desk brings

“Is the consumer trading down, and where is attention moving across grocery and value?”

What Cadence reads for you — now

  • Search-intent and attention across the grocery, discount and value set, week by week.
  • The thrift-vs-status balance and the savings-intent macro context.
  • Comfort signals in what the country watches and plays — the emotional backdrop to spend.
Example read

France, this window: discount-grocery search is softening YoY (Intermarché −30%, Auchan −21%) even as the mood stays defensive — a rotation, not a uniform trade-down. Pair value messaging with warmth.

Data we’d add for this sector

Sector-specific layers we can fold in — public, scrapable, API (free or via tools we hold) or datasets we already own. The signal stack extends to the question.

Shelf price & promo tracking Scrape supermarket sites / Trolley-style aggregators — real value-at-shelf and promo intensity, the hard edge of the trade-down read.
Amazon Best Sellers Via SearchApi — category-level demand ranking, refreshed continuously.
Footfall / location panels Placer.ai-class (paid) — physical store visitation; the one demand layer worth costing if shopper-mission work demands it.

Want this read for your market?

The France edition is open in full as the proof of craft. The same stack, cut for your desk, is one commission away.