Sena sizes the demand behind each gap from what buyers wanted and settled away from.
Market gap analysis looks for demand the market has yet to serve and names what to build for it. Three patterns produce gaps that turn out to be empty.
The gap appears as white space on a chart with two axes. Different axes produce different gaps, and the axes come from whoever drew the chart.
The gap takes its size from a share of a category total. That figure describes the whole category, and the gap is a slice of it that has yet to trade.
The analysis returns one gap for the business. The format or price point missing in one country is often well served in the next.
Sena is the decision AI with access to real-world data. It records what buyers across the category took home and what they wanted and settled away from, so a gap arrives with the demand behind it already counted.
Buyers state what they looked for and what they took instead, so the gap is described by the people standing in it.
The gap takes its size from how many buyers in that market reported the same unmet want, dated.
Captures confirm the gap is absent from outlets, so an unavailable product separates from an unlisted one.
Market gap analysis looks for demand a market has yet to serve and names what would serve it. The term carries two readings, and one of them is the reason most gaps close on inspection.
A market gap is a want the category leaves unserved: a format, a pack size, a price point or an attribute buyers reach for and settle away from. The gap is real when buyers can be counted in it. Drawn as an empty square on a chart, it is a hypothesis about a gap.
| Question | What it returns | Who decides on it |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the space? | A region of the market, sized and dated. | Strategy teams choosing where to play. |
| What fills the space? | A format, pack, price point, or attribute. | Product teams choosing what to build. |
Both run on the same evidence, and they return different objects. A space sized at market level tells a strategy team the opportunity is real, and naming the pack size is a separate step.
Four methods are in general use, and they differ in what they can size.
Plot the category on two attributes and read the empty regions. Cheap, fast, and it returns candidates with zero demand behind them.
List what every product in the category carries and find the combinations absent. Thorough on supply, silent on want.
The generic form of the exercise, comparing where a business is against where it intends to be. It names internal gaps, and a market gap is a separate object.
Ask category buyers what they looked for and record what they took instead. The gap arrives with a count of buyers already attached, per market.
The two work in sequence, and competition between them is a misreading. A market-level read, or a positioning map, produces a list of candidate spaces quickly. Each candidate then needs a specification: which format buyers in that market asked for, what they bought instead, and how much they paid. Candidates surviving that step are gaps worth building for, and the rest are empty squares.
Four collected inputs size the demand-side gap, applied per market.
| Input | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Stated preference | What buyers looked for, what they took instead, and the reason. |
| Receipts | What the same buyers paid for in the end, dated, so a want reads against a purchase. |
| Store captures | Whether anything in the outlet addressed the want on the day. |
| Geo-verified photos | The empty facing photographed where it sat, placed and timed. |
The team's own numbers form a separate row. Category volume, listing data, product records and pricing history join through 250+ integrations, so the internal map and the counted demand read together.
Three questions sit outside a gap-analysis template, and each one decides whether the gap is worth building for. A gap with a count is a target, and a gap missing one is a hypothesis. The substitute names the price and the standard the new product has to beat.
A gap closed in half the markets in scope is a different opportunity from a gap open in all of them.
Real people share what they buy and prefer, under explicit consent. Sena captures it directly at the source, so every figure traces back to where it came from whenever a number comes under question.
Stated want and consented purchase arrive from the same buyers, and every figure carries the market and the day.
Each candidate gap carries a count of buyers reporting the want, so the list gets ranked before anything gets built.
What buyers took instead names the price and the standard a new product has to clear.
The count holds per market, so the gap gets built for where it is widest.
A gap carries weight only as far as the count behind it. Sena builds every figure on this page from real-world signal captured when the question needs it, from a buyer describing what they looked for through to the receipt showing what they took.
Records what buyers took home across the category, so a stated want reads against the purchase that followed it.
Reads what each outlet held off images captured in real stores, confirming whether anything addressed the want that day.
Signal arrives from the consumer network under explicit consent. What a buyer looked for comes from that buyer.
Category volume, listing data, product records, and pricing history join over 250+ integrations, so the internal map sits beside the counted demand.
Every figure holds its market and its capture date, so a build decision opens back onto the buyers counted in the gap.
Sena sets past category maps, concept archives, and pricing records beside the market they came from, covering every cycle the category has been scanned in.
Four teams read the same counted gap, and each one needs a different cut of it before they can act.
The build decision. Needs a count of buyers behind each candidate gap.
The range. Needs the gaps ranked by market before a slot gets assigned.
The entry price. Needs what buyers paid for the substitute they settled on.
The map. Needs the demand count against the empty cells they identified.
The same counted want, put in whatever unit each category leaves unserved.
Which pack, format, or price point buyers asked for that the shelf held zero stock against.
Which specification at which price buyers looked for and settled away from.
Which pack size or claim the counter was asked for and had zero stock of.
Which plan and handset pairing buyers wanted and the market had yet to offer.
One mechanism, applied per market and per category. Each step is documented, which is what carries a build decision through an investment review.
Real contributors across the markets named state what they looked for in the category and what they took instead, under explicit consent.
Sena reports how many buyers in each market reported the same unmet want, with the substitute they bought and the price they paid.
Store captures check whether any product in the outlet addressed the want, so an absence separates from an oversight.
Most gap analysis produces candidates from a map and sizes them from a share of a category total, so the gap and its size both come from inside the business. Sena counts the buyers.
| Capability area | Typical setup | Sena |
|---|---|---|
| Where the gap comes from | Empty regions on a chosen chart. | Wants buyers reported and settled away from. |
| How the size is set | A share of a category total. | A count of buyers reporting it, per market. |
| The substitute | Assumed. | Named by the buyer, with the price paid. |
| Whether supply exists | Checked against a product list. | Checked in the outlet, photographed, and dated. |
| Market resolution | One gap for the business. | A count per market, since the gap closes unevenly. |
| The entry price | Set from internal cost. | Set against what buyers paid for the substitute. |
| Evidence in a review | A chart and a percentage. | Open any count onto the buyers behind it. |
Three situations where a count changes which gap gets built for.
Take the gaps a positioning map produced and attach a count of buyers to each, per market, before a build slot gets assigned.
Read what buyers in the gap paid for what they settled on, and set the entry price against that figure.
Check outlets in the market for anything addressing the want, so an unlisted product separates from an out-of-stock one.
A counted gap is where a build decision starts. The four decisions below are what a product team asks around it.
Every product decision Sena answers, in one place
Where the space sits
Sizes the opportunity at the market level, one altitude above the specification this page names.
Explore white space analysis 02The want, ranked
Ranks the attributes buyers state decide the choice across the whole category.
Explore voice of the customer 03Which line fills it
Decides whether a line goes against the gap and what the range gives up for it.
Explore product portfolio management 04How to enter it
Chooses the launch type and the market order once the gap is sized.
Explore product launch strategyThe remaining decisions
The walkthrough takes one category in one market, records what buyers looked for and settled away from, and counts the buyers behind each unmet want while the team watches.
Tell us the category and the market, and we will count the buyers in the gap.