NIQ Expands Shopper Experience Platform to Improve Product Discovery in AI-Powered Shopping

New optimization capabilities and NIQ’s CONTENT Framework help brands strengthen product visibility, relevance and performance across retail and AI-powered shopping channels

NielsenIQ (NYSE: NIQ)today announced new optimization capabilities for its Shopper Experience Platform, supported by its CONTENT Framework, a seven-pillar approach to evaluating and improving product content. Together, they enable brands to evaluate product content and imagery against retailer requirements and category expectations, identify gaps, and prioritize improvements that strengthen product discovery across retailer sites, search engines, and AI-powered shopping channels.

A product can be accurate, complete, and retailer-compliant yet still be difficult for shoppers to find, understand, or choose. This challenge is growing as AI assistants, retailer algorithms, and recommendation engines play a larger role in shopping. According to NIQ's Consumer Outlook: Guide to 2027, 55% of global consumers report having been influenced by AI tools or assistants when making household and grocery purchases, while 65% report being influenced by products recommended or ranked on retailer and shopping platforms.

As a result, brands need content that is not only accurate and compliant but structured to help shoppers and the technologies influencing their decisions discover, evaluate, and differentiate products.

The CONTENT Framework gives brands and retailers a shared way to identify content gaps and prioritize improvements across seven pillars:

• Complete
• Optimized
• Normalized
• Trusted
• Enriched
• Nurtured
• Traceable

“Brands work hard to get their product content right. The challenge is making sure it helps people find and choose their products, especially as more shoppers turn to AI for advice," said Marsha McGraw, Global Head, Partnerships & Verticals, NIQ. "Our customers want to know where to focus and what will make a difference. We're helping them spot gaps in their content and prioritize improvements that make it easier for shoppers to understand what a product offers and whether it meets their needs."

New capabilities within the Shopper Experience Platform help brands apply the CONTENT Framework across their product portfolios. The platform evaluates product information and digital assets, including imagery, against retailer requirements and category expectations. It then identifies missing, inconsistent, or insufficient content, helping teams prioritize improvements that can strengthen product discovery, shopper understanding, and digital shelf performance.

For example, when a shopper asks an AI assistant to identify a high-protein, minimally processed snack, clearly and consistently described ingredients, nutritional information and other important attributes help the assistant evaluate which products match the request. The Shopper Experience Platform can help brands identify when that information is missing or insufficiently represented, giving teams a clearer view of where content requires attention.

As part of The Full View™, the Shopper Experience Platform connects product content creation, optimization, and syndication with measurement. This gives customers a clearer path from identifying content gaps to prioritizing improvements and measuring impact, helping them understand not only whether product information is complete, but how effectively it supports discovery and shopper engagement.

The CONTENT Framework guide is available online: https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/education/2026/understanding-the-content-framework-a-guide-to-better-product-content/.

The new Shopper Experience Platform capabilities are now available in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland.

FAQs

What is NIQ announcing?
NIQ is introducing new optimization capabilities within its Shopper Experience Platform, supported by its seven-pillar CONTENT Framework. Together, they help brands and retailers evaluate product content, identify gaps, and prioritize improvements across retailer, search and AI-powered shopping channels.

What customer problem does this solve?
Product content can be accurate, complete, and retailer-compliant but still lack the imagery, attributes, or context needed to help shoppers find, understand or choose a product.

The CONTENT Framework defines the elements of effective product content, while the platform capabilities help customers identify specific gaps and prioritize improvements based on product category and retailer requirements.

What is the CONTENT Framework?
The CONTENT Framework is NIQ’s methodology for evaluating whether product content can support discovery, comparison, and recommendations across digital and AI-powered shopping experiences. It assesses content across seven pillars: Complete, Optimized, Normalized, Trusted, Enriched, Nurtured and Traceable.

The framework is an NIQ methodology. It is not an independent certification or formally adopted industry standard.

What new Shopper Experience Platform capabilities are being introduced?
The expansion includes:

• Content Health+ Retailer Specific Content, which evaluates product content against retailer requirements and category expectations.
• Connect Max Asset Auto Analysis, which uses automated analysis to assess product assets, including imagery.

Together, these capabilities help customers identify content and asset gaps that may affect product discovery and performance. They do not guarantee placement in search results or AI recommendations, which remain under the control of retailers, search engines and third-party AI platforms.

Where and when will the capabilities be available?
The new Shopper Experience Platform capabilities became available on October 22, 2026, in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland.

The CONTENT Framework guide is available at The CONTENT Framework: AI-Ready Product Content.

About NIQ
NielsenIQ (NYSE: NIQ) is a leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete and trusted understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. By combining an unmatched global data footprint and granular consumer and retail measurement with decades of AI modeling expertise, NIQ builds decision systems that help companies turn complex data into confident action.

With operations in more than 90 countries, NIQ covers approximately 82% of the world's population and more than $7.4 trillion in global consumer spend. Through cloud-based platforms, advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, NIQ delivers The Full View™, helping brands and retailers understand what consumers buy, why they buy it, and what to do next.

For more information, visit NIQ.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements regarding the anticipated benefits, availability, functionality and impact of NIQ's Shopper Experience Platform capabilities and CONTENT Framework, as well as anticipated consumer behaviors, market trends and industry developments. These statements reflect current expectations and projections based on available data, historical patterns, and various assumptions. Words such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "believes," "forecasts," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future outcomes and are subject to inherent uncertainties, including the parties' ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the collaboration, the timing and scope of data integration, changes in consumer preferences, economic conditions, technological advancements, and competitive dynamics. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. While we strive to base our insights on reliable data and sound methodologies, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances, except to the extent required by applicable law.

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