See what shoppers wanted but walked out without buying.
Shelf Signal puts a small QR or NFC tag by the product. A shopper scans it to check stock here, at another store or online, ask for a size, or get help. Every scan is logged, so you finally get a report of the demand that disappears inside your stores.
- A shopper scans a tag and checks stock, finds another store, orders online or asks for help in the phone browser — no app to install
- Each scan is logged as an intent signal: product, store, what they wanted (stock, size, price, help) and time
- A weekly report ranks the products shoppers looked for and couldn't buy, per store, with a CSV export
The worldwide average retail out-of-stock rate is about 8.3% — roughly one in twelve items a shopper wants is missing from the shelf — per the Gruen, Corsten and Bharadwaj study of 71,000+ consumers across 29 countries.
Source: researchgate.netWhen an item is out of stock, about 31% of shoppers buy it at another store and about 9% don't buy it at all, so the retailer loses the sale outright on roughly four in ten stock-out encounters.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgYour website measures intent. Your shop floor doesn't.
Online, you know what shoppers searched for, which products they viewed, what they added to the cart and what they abandoned. Inside a physical store, almost all of that is invisible. A shopper picks up a product, can't find their size, looks for a member of staff, gives up and leaves — and nothing about that is recorded anywhere.
The cost of that blind spot is well documented. Items are out of stock on the shelf far more often than most retailers think, and when they are, a large share of shoppers simply leave rather than buy a substitute. That lost demand never shows up in your sales data, because a sale that didn't happen leaves no trace.
Shelf Signal turns the moment of interest into a measurable signal. The shopper gets something useful immediately — stock at another branch, an online order, a size request, a call for help — and you get a record of what they were trying to buy. It sits on top of your existing stores and ecommerce; there is no new hardware and no app for shoppers to download.
Without it
- QR and link platforms (Bitly, Uniqode, Flowcode and similar): These generate codes and count scans well, and some add landing pages and campaign reporting. What they report is how…
- Retail navigation and staff-call apps: Point products exist for in-store wayfinding or for calling an associate from a fitting room. Each solves one slice.…
- Manual audits and mystery shopping: Shelf audits and mystery shoppers sample availability on the days they visit. They are periodic and expensive, and…
With Shelf Signal
- A shopper scans a tag and checks stock, finds another store, orders online or asks for help in the phone browser — no app to install
- Each scan is logged as an intent signal: product, store, what they wanted (stock, size, price, help) and time
- A weekly report ranks the products shoppers looked for and couldn't buy, per store, with a CSV export
- Stock check across the chain
- Lost-demand capture
How it works
- 1
Request a pilot
Tell us how many stores and products you want to start with. We set up your account and build your first batch of tags within 3 business days.
- 2
We make the tags
You get print-ready QR labels and, where you want them, NFC stickers for shelves, displays, fitting rooms or product tags. Each one is linked to a product or a location. Staff stick them on; there is no hardware to install.
- 3
Shoppers scan and get help
A scan opens a mobile page: stock here, at another store or online, a size or notify-me request, product details, or a call for a staff member. It runs in the phone browser, so shoppers never download anything.
- 4
You read the intent
Each scan is logged with the product, store, intent and time. A weekly report and a live dashboard show the products shoppers looked for and couldn't buy, which stores have the most unmet demand, and where help was requested.
Features
Stock check across the chain
A scan tells the shopper if the product is here, at a nearby store, or online, using your inventory feed. When the pilot isn't yet connected to your systems, we load a simple spreadsheet so you can test the experience first.
Lost-demand capture
If the item or size isn't available, the shopper can be notified when it returns, be pointed to another branch, or order online. Each of these is recorded as a recoverable lost sale with the product and store attached.
Size and variant requests
Shoppers pick the size or colour they wanted. You see exactly which variants generate demand in which stores, separately from what was actually on the shelf.
Call for help, measured
A "get help" tap logs the product, location and time. The report shows where and when shoppers ask for assistance most, so you can staff fitting rooms and departments to match real demand.
Shopper intent log
Every interaction is stored as product, store, intent type and timestamp. No login, no app, no personal profile — just the signal. Export the full log as CSV at any time.
Per-store and per-product reports
A weekly email and a live dashboard rank products by unmet demand and stores by lost-sale signals, with day-of-week and time-of-day patterns.
QR and NFC, print-ready
The same destination works as a printed QR label or an NFC sticker. You get files sized and tested to scan reliably in store lighting, with your colours and logo.
Private by design
Shoppers aren't tracked as individuals: no app, no account, no cookies required and no personal data stored about who scanned — only the aggregate interaction.
A look inside
What you see day to day: the working view and the monthly summary.
Who it's for
Fashion and footwear chains
Sizes and colours sell out constantly and shoppers leave when theirs is gone. See which size runs are costing you sales, store by store, and recover them to another branch or online.
Electronics and appliances
High-consideration products where shoppers want specs, comparisons and stock before deciding. Give them the answer at the shelf and learn which products draw interest but don't convert.
Home, furniture and DIY
Big ranges, frequent out-of-stocks and shoppers who need dimensions, variants and delivery options. Turn a missing item on the floor into an online order instead of a lost trip.
Multi-location retailers and franchises
10 to 500 stores with an ecommerce operation and a lot of SKUs. One dashboard shows which stores and products leak the most demand.
Works with
- Shopify and Shopify POS
- Square and Lightspeed POS
- Google Merchant Center store inventory feeds
- CSV and spreadsheet product and stock import
- Webhooks and Zapier for notify-me and lead events
- Email and SMS for back-in-stock alerts
- Any web link, PDF or product page for product details
Pricing
Founding-customer pricing, locked while your plan stays active. Plans are billed monthly and cancel any time. Every plan includes QR and NFC tag files, the shopper experience, the intent log and CSV export, and the weekly report. We make your first tags and onboard your account within 3 business days. Pricing scales with store locations, not with the number of scans — a successful campaign never costs you more in traffic.
Single Store
$49 per month
One location, or a 30-day proof in a single flagship store
- 1 store location
- Up to 150 tagged products
- Stock, notify-me and get-help interactions
- Shopper intent log with CSV export
- Weekly report for the store
- Print-ready QR and NFC tag files
- Email support within one business day
Chain
$199 per month
A growing chain running the full lost-demand playbook
- Up to 10 store locations
- Up to 2,000 tagged products
- Find-at-another-store and order-online recovery
- Size and variant demand capture
- Per-store and per-product dashboards
- Inventory feed connection (Shopify, POS or CSV)
- Up to 5 team logins
Network
$499 per month
Multi-region retailers and franchise networks
- Up to 50 store locations
- Unlimited tagged products
- Region and franchise groupings
- Scheduled destinations and promotions by store
- Full CSV and webhook export of all signals
- Priority onboarding and support
- More than 50 stores: talk to us
Compared with the alternatives
- QR and link platforms (Bitly, Uniqode, Flowcode and similar)
- These generate codes and count scans well, and some add landing pages and campaign reporting. What they report is how many times a code was scanned, not what the shopper was trying to buy or whether the product was even available. Shelf Signal is built around the retail intent and the stock answer, not the scan count.
- Retail navigation and staff-call apps
- Point products exist for in-store wayfinding or for calling an associate from a fitting room. Each solves one slice. Shelf Signal connects the slices — stock, size, help, recovery — into one record of unmet demand per product and store.
- Manual audits and mystery shopping
- Shelf audits and mystery shoppers sample availability on the days they visit. They are periodic and expensive, and they don't capture what an individual shopper wanted. Shelf Signal measures continuously, from the shopper's own action, at no extra cost per visit.
- Doing nothing
- The default today: lost in-store sales leave no record, so the problem stays invisible and unbudgeted. A pilot's whole job is to put a number on it before you decide whether it's worth solving.
What changed
- The worldwide average retail out-of-stock rate is about 8.3% — roughly one in twelve items a shopper wants is missing from the shelf — per the Gruen, Corsten and Bharadwaj study of 71,000+ consumers across 29 countries. Source: researchgate.net
- When an item is out of stock, about 31% of shoppers buy it at another store and about 9% don't buy it at all, so the retailer loses the sale outright on roughly four in ten stock-out encounters. Source: en.wikipedia.org
- IHL Group's 2024 matrix estimates out-of-stocks cost retailers about $1.2 trillion worldwide, roughly 4% of revenue for the average retailer. Source: ihlservices.com
- Google now shows store-level product availability ("in stock nearby") in many countries, so the data needed to send a shopper to the right branch increasingly already exists in retailers' feeds. Source: support.google.com
Your first week
Request, tag, scan, read. Most pilots have tags on the shelf and the first signals arriving within the first week.
- Day 1: Request a pilot and tell us your first stores and products; your account is set up within 3 business days.
- Day 2–3: We build your QR and NFC tag files linked to your products and locations, and send them print-ready.
- Day 4–5: Your team puts the tags on shelves and displays and tests them with two phones; the dashboard goes live.
- Day 7: You read the first intent report — the products shoppers looked for, the sizes they wanted, and where help was requested.
Security and data
- Product, store and interaction data are stored on cloud servers, encrypted in transit and at rest, with daily backups retained for 30 days.
- Every shopper page and redirect is served over HTTPS with certificates managed for you.
- No app, account or cookie is required of shoppers, and no personal data about who scanned is stored — only aggregate interaction records.
- Any email or phone number a shopper gives for a back-in-stock alert is used only for that alert and deleted on request.
- Your account data and the full signal log are exported or deleted on request within 30 days.
Questions
Is this just a QR code generator?
No. The QR or NFC tag is only the trigger. The product is the shopper experience it opens (stock, size, help, recovery) and the record of what shoppers wanted but couldn't buy. A generator stops at counting scans; we start where it stops.
Do shoppers need to download an app?
No. Everything runs in the phone's web browser from a scan or an NFC tap. There is no app, no account and no sign-up for the shopper.
Can it show our real stock?
Yes, when it's connected to your inventory. We can read stock from Shopify, your POS or a Google Merchant Center feed, or from a CSV you upload. For a quick pilot you can start with a simple spreadsheet and connect the live feed once you've seen the experience work.
The "scan to reveal the price" idea — does that prove purchase intent?
It is a measurable signal of interest, not proof of intent to buy. We report it honestly as curiosity or interest in a product or offer, and never present a scan as if it were a confirmed purchase decision.
What if we don't have an ecommerce site?
You still get the in-store value: stock across branches, size and variant demand, help requests and the unmet-demand report. The "order online" recovery step is simply switched off until there is a site to send shoppers to.
Is the shopper data privacy-friendly?
Yes. Shoppers aren't identified. We don't require an app, an account or cookies, and we don't store personal data about who scanned — only the aggregate interaction (product, store, intent, time). A shopper who gives an email for a back-in-stock alert is consenting to that one message.
How fast can we run a pilot?
A single-store pilot can be live within a few days: we build and send the tag files, your team puts them up, and the dashboard starts filling as shoppers scan. Connecting a live inventory feed usually takes a little longer and can follow the first results.
What happens after the pilot?
At the end you have a number: how many shoppers looked for products they couldn't buy, and the recoverable demand behind it. If it's worth it you roll out to more stores on a plan scaled by locations; if it isn't, you've learned that cheaply. We don't lock you into a long contract to find out.
Ready when you are
Tell us about your setup. We confirm by email and get you running within 2 business days.
Request service