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By Mike Black · September 17, 2025 · Curated by George's Blog
"Pinning" is a dirty word in #ecommerce. But it's a competitive reality you must keep a close eye on, especially if you're buying #retailmedia.
👇 Below is an example of potential pinning behavior visualized in the dairy category on a major #grocery retailer.
The top line shows the organic rank for a national brand product over time.
Notice how it fluctuates? That's normal. Organic rank should fluctuate over time as sales and in-stock rates change.
The bottom line shows private label. Notice how it doesn't change.
This is an extreme example, but geberalky we see that private labels tend to have less organic volatility across different categories.
Profitero+ recently analyzed 3.6k CPG keywords at Walmart US and Tesco UK and found that the organic rank of private label products on page 1 fluctuated 8% less than national brands over the course of August ‘25.
8% may not seem significant but across thousands of SKUs and keywords it compounds into a meaningful share of traffic.
🗝️ KEY TAKE AWAY
Get in the habit of using #digitalshelf data to track daily item-level organic rank vs private label and national brand competitors overtime.
If you suspect pinning, flag it in your #retail #JBP conversations so you get fair share of shelf reflective of your media and #content investments.
Transparency is the best policy.
For more ways to combat private label threats on the digital shelf, check out our latest blog post (linked in comments below).