How does your product content compare to the competition? Now you can find out.
Every week, I speak with brands who ask the same question:
"Our content scores look good, but are they good enough?"
Until now, eStore's content audit showed how your products performed against your own targets. What it couldn't tell you was how that performance stacked up against the rest of your category.
Were your six images per product leading the pack, or falling behind? Was your video coverage impressive, or was every competitor already doing better?
In short: Content Benchmark is a new eStore feature that provides monthly competitive intelligence on product content performance across your category. By analysing up to 1,000 products per retailer, it reveals exactly where your brand leads or lags on images, videos, and SEO optimisation compared to competitors. This enables brands to prioritise content investment where it will have the greatest competitive impact, discover retailer content capabilities, and build evidence-based cases for retailer negotiations.
What problem does Content Benchmark solve?
Content Benchmark addresses a critical blind spot in digital shelf analytics: context. Knowing your products have an average of six images tells you very little without understanding what "good" looks like in your category.
This feature helps brands answer questions that were previously impossible to address with data:
- How does our image count compare to category leaders?
- Which competitors are using video most effectively?
- Are we maximising the character limits retailers allow for titles and descriptions?
- Where should we focus our content optimisation investment for maximum impact?
The insight transforms content optimisation from guesswork into decision-making.
How does Content Benchmark work?
Content Benchmark provides three levels of analysis, each designed for different decision-making needs.
Category-level benchmarking
The default view compares your brand's average performance against the category median and two competitive thresholds:
- Top 50%: The minimum performance needed to match half of products in your category
- Top 20%: The threshold for category-leading content performance
For example, if your brand averages six images per product and the Top 20% threshold is eight, you have a clear, data-driven target for optimisation.
Brand-level comparison
Drill into specific competitors to understand exactly where you lead and where you trail. The brand view displays average performance with minimum and maximum ranges, revealing not just what competitors achieve on average, but the full spectrum of their content quality.
Brand selection is customisable through our organisation settings, allowing you to define your competitive set once and see consistent comparisons across all analyses.
Product-level detail
Click any bar in the brand view to see the underlying product data. This reveals exactly which products are driving competitor performance, with direct links to view each product in the live retail environment.
What content metrics does Content Benchmark track?
The feature tracks six core metrics that directly impact digital shelf performance:
Image count: Average number of images per product, benchmarked against category medians and top performer thresholds. More images typically correlate with higher conversion rates.
Video presence: Percentage of products with video content. Video remains underutilised across most categories, representing a significant competitive opportunity.
SEO title optimisation: Percentage of products containing category keywords in their titles. Keywords are drawn from your existing eStore search monitoring configuration.
SEO description optimisation: Depth of keyword inclusion in product descriptions, measured across multiple thresholds to distinguish basic from comprehensive optimisation.
Title length: Character count benchmarking to identify whether you're maximising available space for search-relevant content.
Description length: Character count analysis revealing whether competitors are providing richer product information.
How does Content Benchmark reveal retailer capabilities?
One of the most valuable but often overlooked aspects of Content Benchmark is retailer capability mapping. The feature analyses category data to identify:
- Maximum number of images supported by each retailer
- Whether video content is displayed
- Character limits for product titles
- Character limits for product descriptions
This information comes from observing what the best-performing products in each category actually achieve, providing practical capability data that many retailers don't publish in their seller documentation.
How often is Content Benchmark data updated?
Content Benchmark data refreshes monthly. Each update captures a fresh snapshot of up to 1,000 products per retailer, focusing on the most visible products in each category to ensure the benchmarking reflects competitive reality.
The monthly cadence balances data freshness with the practical reality that content optimisation is typically a strategic, planned activity rather than a reactive one.
How do I access Content Benchmark?
Content Benchmark is available in the eStore platform under Landscape > Brand Insights > Content Benchmark.
If you're an existing eStore client, speak to your Customer Success manager about activation. If you're exploring what eStore can offer your brand, this is exactly the kind of competitive intelligence that sets us apart: moving beyond measuring your own performance to understanding your position in the market.
Key Takeaways
- 📊 Content Benchmark provides monthly competitive intelligence on product content performance across your category
- 🔍 Three analysis levels (category, brand, product) enable both strategic planning and tactical investigation
- 🎯 Top 50% and Top 20% thresholds provide clear, data-driven optimisation targets
- 📹 Track six core metrics: images, videos, SEO title, SEO description, title length, and description length
- 🛒 Discover retailer content capabilities including maximum images, video support, and character limits
- 💡 Customise your competitive set to ensure consistent, relevant benchmarking across all analyses
- 📈 Use competitive evidence to strengthen retailer negotiations and justify content investment
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Content Benchmark?
Content Benchmark is an eStore feature that provides competitive intelligence on product content performance. It compares your brand's content metrics (images, videos, SEO optimisation, title and description length) against category benchmarks and specific competitors, revealing where you lead or lag in your market.
How many products does Content Benchmark analyse?
Content Benchmark analyses up to 1,000 products per retailer, focusing on products with the highest visibility in each category. This sample size provides statistically robust benchmarking whilst ensuring the analysis reflects the competitive products shoppers actually encounter.
Can I choose which competitors to benchmark against?
Yes. Through the Brand Display Configuration in your organisation settings, you can define a custom competitive set. Once configured, these competitors appear consistently across all Content Benchmark analyses, and you can even assign specific colours to each brand for easy visual identification.
How does Content Benchmark identify retailer content capabilities?
Content Benchmark analyses the maximum values observed across all products in each category to infer retailer capabilities. For example, if the highest image count observed on a retailer is ten, we report that as the maximum supported. This provides practical capability data based on real-world usage.
Does Content Benchmark work with my existing category structure?
Yes. Content Benchmark uses the same categorisation you've configured in eStore. Brands with detailed category hierarchies can analyse benchmarks at granular levels, whilst those with simpler structures still receive comprehensive category-wide insights.
How does Content Benchmark help with SEO optimisation?
Content Benchmark tracks keyword inclusion in product titles and descriptions using the same keywords you monitor for search visibility. It reveals what percentage of competitor products include these keywords and how thoroughly, helping you identify SEO gaps and opportunities.
When will Content Benchmark data be updated?
Content Benchmark data refreshes monthly. Each update provides a complete new snapshot of competitive content performance, ensuring your benchmarking reflects current market conditions.
Is Content Benchmark available for all retailers?
Content Benchmark covers approximately 95% of the retailer portfolio in eStore. A small number of retailers, primarily mobile apps and platforms with technical collection challenges, are excluded to ensure data quality and cost efficiency.
What's next for Content Benchmark?
We're continuously enhancing Content Benchmark based on client feedback. Coming soon:
Keyword territory analysis: Discover which keywords your competitors emphasise most in their product descriptions, revealing their SEO strategies and identifying gaps in your own keyword coverage.
AI-powered content analysis: Future enhancements will leverage AI to assess content quality dimensions beyond simple metrics, including description persuasiveness, readability, and image content analysis (lifestyle imagery, product-in-use shots, and more).
We're treating this launch as version one and actively seeking feedback. If you have ideas for metrics, analyses, or capabilities that would make Content Benchmark more valuable for your brand, please share them with your Customer Success manager.
See Content Benchmark in action
Video placeholder: Filip Zok demonstration coming Q1 2026
Ready to understand how your content stacks up against the competition? Speak to your Customer Success manager about activating Content Benchmark, or contact our team to learn how eStore can transform your digital shelf analytics.
References and Further Reading
eStore Resources
- Digital Shelf Analytics Platform: Learn about our complete digital shelf monitoring capabilities
- eCategory Management: How strategic category insights strengthen retailer relationships
Related Topics
- Why the Extra 4% Matters: The impact of data accuracy on digital shelf decisions
- Content Compliance in 2025: Regulatory requirements shaping product content strategy
Filip Zok, Chief Experience Officer
December 2025
