Beneath your product list sits a row of dropdowns that set the shop around your products: which store, which fixture, how stocked the shelf looks, what respondents can see, and what they can put in their cart. This article covers those settings and the choice between Shopping and Findability modes. The shelf itself—sections, shelves, and where each product sits—is built in the shelf editor; see How to Arrange Products on the Shelf.

Learn more about Shelf Test in our Lighthouse Academy course!

In This Article

• Setting Shelf Basics
• Using Findability Mode
• Setting Full Screen Parameters
• Building the Shelf Itself
• Shelf and Section Limits
• Download Shelf Image

Setting Shelf Basics

Below the last product in your list, work left to right along the row of dropdowns.

1. Click the first dropdown to select the store your Shelf Test appears in.
2. Click the second dropdown to select the shelf type your products display on: Regular shelves, Display refrigerator, Counter refrigerator, Air curtain refrigerator, or Pallet.
3. Click the next dropdown to select whether products appear in Full stock, Typical stock, Low stock, or No perspective.
4. Click Product Settings to choose whether product names and/or prices are shown.
5. Click Cart Settings to set how the cart behaves:
   • Show cart—shows respondents a running total of what they've selected and lets them add, remove, and change quantities.
   • Max #/product—the most units of any one product a respondent may add.
   • Max #/cart—the most products a respondent may add in total.
6. Click Visual Settings for the screen parameters: N/A, Zoom, Blur, and Full Screen (with Shelf start and Require horizontal scroll). See the next section.

On club store (Costco, Sam's Club) questions with the Pallet shelf type, a further dropdown sets the display's pallet layout—up to three pallet sections, each with one display shelf, one shelf, or two shelves (for example, Pallet + 1 display shelf or 2x Pallet + 1 shelf). Every other fixture gets its shelves in the shelf editor instead. See Club Store Shelves Reference.

⚠️ Note: Not every shelf type is available at every store. Changing the store always re-selects that store's first shelf type, and if the new fixture holds fewer products than you've placed, you're warned before any placed products are removed. No perspective shows one row of products—products behind the first row aren't visible until a respondent picks one up. All products must have a price when Show product prices is enabled.

Using Findability Mode

Choose how respondents select products in your Shelf Test. In Shopping mode, respondents can add products to their cart. In Findability mode, selecting a product records the response and automatically advances the respondent to the next question. This keeps respondents from changing their selection after they click.

1. Above the product list, click the Shopping Mode dropdown.
2. Select Findability Mode.

If you want to hide prices during the exercise, uncheck Show product prices under Product Settings, as described in Setting Shelf Basics.

Setting Full Screen Parameters

Click the Visual Settings dropdown to find the available customizations.

• Check N/A to allow respondents to advance without selecting any products.
• Check Zoom to present a zoom control to non-mobile respondents.
• Check Blur to blur all product images except the one the respondent is hovering over, so they can focus on a single product at the shelf.
• Check Full Screen to display a shelf of up to double the standard width. When respondents reach this question, the shelf expands to fit their screen and they scroll left and right to see its full width.
• Click the Shelf start dropdown to choose where respondents begin: Left, Center, Right, or Random.
• Check Require horizontal scroll to make respondents scroll through the entire shelf before moving on.

💡 Tip: Full Screen is recommended for a shelf wider than 13' 4", to optimize the screen for both mobile and desktop respondents. Choosing Random for Shelf start means some respondents begin on the left, some in the center, and some on the right. Respondents don't need to see the entire shelf before they start adding products to their cart.

Building the Shelf Itself

Sections, shelves, shelf heights, section widths, hanging shelves, stacking, and product placement all live in the shelf editor. Click Arrange above your product list to open it. On a club store pallet, Arrange opens a pallet view where products are placed automatically.

In the editor you can:

• Add, remove, and resize sections—separate runs of shelving, side by side, each with its own width and shelves.
• Add and remove shelves, and set each one's height, style (Sitting shelf or Hanging shelf), and stacking.
• Place products by dragging them onto a shelf, or fill the shelves automatically with Auto-arrange.
• Set the alignment of products across the shelves—Left, Center, Right, or Shelf-flex—and whether each product shows one price tag per facing or one per product.

The store and shelf type dropdowns appear in the editor's header as well, so you can change fixture without closing it. Full instructions are in How to Arrange Products on the Shelf.

Sitting Shelves and Hanging Shelves

Every shelf is one of two styles, and you switch between them in the Style dropdown on the shelf itself. This is a different control from the Fixture dropdown at the top of the editor — Fixture sets what kind of unit the whole section is, Style sets what each individual shelf inside it does.

Sitting shelves are available everywhere. Hanging shelves are the limited one: only some store and fixture combinations offer them, and where they aren't offered, the Style dropdown lists Sitting shelf on its own. The fixture itself is still available — it's only the hanging option on its shelves that isn't.

Shelf and Section Limits

A shelf is at least 4" tall and a section at least 1' 0" wide. Each store also sets a minimum total height for its shelving: 12" for most, 10" at Publix and CVS, and 20" for counter refrigerators.

Shelves are numbered top to bottom within a section, then section by section from left to right. If the first section has four shelves, they're shelves 1–4, and the top shelf of the second section is shelf 5.

💡 Tip: Keep a Shelf Test to three sections or fewer. Beyond that, the shelf may not render correctly on some Android devices—either reduce the shelf or exclude mobile respondents from the survey.

Download Shelf Image

Once your Shelf Test is configured, you can download the shelf image for your records or further use.

1. Click Download image above your product list. The image renders and opens in a new browser tab.
2. Right-click the image and select Save As to save it to your device.

Related Articles

• How to Arrange Products on the Shelf
• How to Program a Shelf Test
• Club Store Shelves Reference
• How to Bulk Upload Shelf Test Assets
• How to Build a Findability Test