CoverageFirst run · 16 Aug 2026 · the 12 months to that date

Where we have looked, and where we have not

10 squares earn the next research pass. Start with Stone · Stone Tile · Residential.

66 subcategories where we measured demand · 130 of 513 stocked ones we never reached · 10 already carrying an idea

How badly each want is answered

answered worse than comparable wants in the same sectorthe gap is widening1worth the next research passan idea here survived the panelan idea here, not yet testednever measured

WorkplaceSwipe sectors · 1 of 8

Subcategories of want by sector, grouped by category. Arrow keys move between squares; Enter opens one.
Workplace18%Residential25%Hotel8%Education6%Healthcare5%Retail2%Restaurant5%Unattributed31%
Ceramic
Stone
Wood+4
Wallcovering+7
Metal+2+1 unexplored
Glass
Acoustical Solutions
Carpet
Textile+5+1 unexplored
Hardware+1 unexplored
Paint & Surface Coatings+1+1 unexplored
Concrete
Laminate+1+3 unexplored
Felt
Resin+2 unexplored
Flooring+3+1 unexplored
Vinyl
Outdoor
Leather+3 unexplored
Film

Who already serves it

brands already selling here - dark means few, so open ground reads heavy≤1 · 2 · 3–4 · 5–8 · 9+no order history
Brands selling into each subcategory by sector, on the same rows and columns as the demand map. Arrow keys move between squares.
Ceramic
Stone
Wood
Wallcovering
Metal
Glass
Acoustical Solutions
Carpet
Textile
Hardware
Paint & Surface Coatings
Concrete
Laminate
Felt
Resin
Flooring
Vinyl
Leather
Film

Categories we never reached

181,432 products sit in 43 categories we cannot read yet. They are missing from the maps above because we could not break them down finely enough to tell whether anyone was asking, so we do not know either way. This is a gap in what we can see, not proof of a gap in the market.

Subcategories · products

Reading the map

Darker means worse served. A dark square is one where people ask for something and get a poorer answer than they get elsewhere in the same sector. Colour is never about how often a thing is searched - a big category is not automatically an opportunity - and width carries the volume instead. Every square counts at least 25 different customers; anything smaller is left out rather than shown faintly.

We can place 44.7% of what people search for onto a category. The biggest phrases we cannot are plaid, gold, kinetex, farrow ball, cabinets and floral - 8,954 searches for the biggest of them. They are colours and brand names, which the catalogue's own filing system has nowhere to put. Beyond the columns drawn here sit 227 further measured squares across 13 sectors. The biggest is Mixed-Use & Multi-Unit Residential at 5.3% of measured demand, ahead of 3 sectors that do get a column - the columns were chosen before this level of detail existed and are due to be redrawn. 27 more subcategories sit behind the eight-row limit on each category, counted in the "+n" beside each heading.

Across the columns drawn here, 232 squares are closing their gap against 140 widening it. Among the squares dark enough to carry a mark that reverses: 27 closing against 29 widening. The recovery is not reaching the worst-answered wants, and those marks sit on exactly those squares.

44 rows are drawn unpainted, of which 34 mark a want we can honestly say nobody has asked for. The other 10 are quirks of how the catalogue is filed - the same want recorded under a different parent, a use-case row restating a material we already measured, or a category we never managed to break down this finely. Counting every row, drawn or not, 124 are silent, 83 of those are filing quirks, and the row limits keep most of them off the map.