Blog · Industry
Explore sales, product mix and channel performance for your consumer-goods business. Bring the data you own into dashboards and work with an AI analyst on questions and reports specific to your brands, products and routes to market.
Shopper analytics uses deidentified transaction exports to compare basket composition and repeat buying. Work through basket values, category attachment, and repeat-purchase rates while keeping the observation window and customer coverage clear.
Oct 25, 20266 min readAn alcoholic beverage ratio comparison needs a dated peer group and a stated averaging method. Work through illustrative US producer margins, inventory turns and debt ratios while keeping distributors outside the producer average.
Oct 24, 20266 min readAn FMCG dashboard brings store coverage, promotional results and product margin into one commercial review. This worked US consumer goods example shows the layout, source exports, reconciliation checks and a spending change that affects the decision.
Oct 24, 20266 min readAn omnichannel dashboard compares channel sales while counting customers consistently across the business. Build one from order exports with shared customer identifiers, then check overlap and repeat purchases using a worked example.
Oct 24, 20265 min readRevenue growth management analytics compares the commercial levers behind CPG net sales. Work through pack sizes, realized prices, promotion deductions and distribution with a reconciled sales example.
Oct 24, 20266 min readBuild a CPG operating plan from units, invoice prices, trade spending and product costs. Work through a plan-versus-actual contribution bridge and test a supplied promotion scenario.
Oct 23, 20265 min readCompare food forecasts with sales, receipts and waste by product and week. Reconcile inventory movements, calculate the cost of waste and identify stock exposed before its customer selling cutoff.
Oct 23, 20265 min readCalculate promotion ROI from actual contribution, a stated baseline and the full promotional investment. A worked CPG example separates discounts already in net sales from additional promotional costs and reconciles the profit result.
Oct 23, 20265 min readCompare CPG forecasts with consumer sales and shipments by SKU and channel. Separate promotional uplift from base demand, then reconcile the difference to channel inventory.
Oct 21, 20265 min readRetail execution analytics connects store audits, authorized assortments, promotion requirements and sales. Build a scorecard with explicit coverage and availability denominators, reconcile the records, and assign follow-up work.
Oct 18, 20266 min readCompare retailer advertising spend with attributed sales from campaign exports. Align attribution windows, account for matched refunds, and reconcile totals before interpreting performance differences.
Oct 15, 20265 min readCalculate T-shirt margins from net sales, shirt and printing costs, fulfillment and selling expenses. Work through a product-and-channel example, reconcile it to operating profit, and see which costs belong at each level.
Oct 15, 20265 min readA product with a high gross margin can still contribute little after fulfillment and selling costs. Compare three illustrative products, change one cost input, and reconcile the result to the business total.
Oct 14, 20266 min readCalculate trade marketing ROI from consumer sales, an agreed baseline and manufacturer contribution. Follow the spreadsheet steps to include allowances and retailer funding once, then reconcile the result.
Oct 13, 20265 min readConnect brand net sales, trade spending, margins and working capital in one operating review. Follow a worked CPG example from sales and accrual exports to a checked contribution and cash bridge.
Oct 12, 20266 min readA merchandising dashboard compares product categories using assortment, sales, inventory, and gross margin. Follow a SKU-level example from export rows to category totals, with spreadsheet formulas and inventory checks.
Oct 8, 20264 min readEssential oil margins depend on the full bottle cost and the channel used to sell it. Work through a US brand's product and channel contribution, reconcile the totals, and identify who should act on the result.
Oct 7, 20266 min readMerchandising analytics connects SKU sales, gross margin, and inventory movement by store. Use a worked commercial review to distinguish a strong assortment from misplaced stock and to check the figures before acting.
Oct 3, 20266 min readSales promotion forecasting separates ordinary demand from the additional units expected during an event. Build the forecast from comparable product and channel rows, check the timing after the event and compare unit lift with the effect of the discount on gross profit.
Oct 3, 20265 min readConsumer segmentation groups buyers by shared attributes or purchasing behavior. Compare the main approaches, work through order and margin figures, and learn which decisions the evidence can support.
Oct 2, 20266 min readBCG matrix analysis compares product categories using market growth and relative market share. Work through supplied market estimates and sales exports, calculate the ratios in Excel, and check the classifications before making portfolio decisions.
Sep 26, 20265 min readCompare net selling price, physical volume and contribution across pack sizes and channels. Build a checked table from sales and cost exports, then test whether a pack shift improves the portfolio.
Sep 26, 20265 min readTrade marketing analytics connects manufacturer funding, retailer sales and channel inventory. Use this worked example to reconcile units and compare retailer contribution without confusing shipments with consumer purchases.
Sep 26, 20265 min readRetail unit velocity measures sales against the stores and weeks that generated them. Calculate it from sales and distribution exports, prove the total, and separate wider distribution from faster selling.
Sep 18, 20265 min readCompare promotional volume with a stated baseline, then calculate contribution after product and promotion costs. A worked US consumer goods example shows why higher sales can still leave less contribution.
Sep 12, 20266 min readMeasure an ecommerce initiative using incremental contribution after merchandise, fulfillment, refunds and channel costs. Build a baseline comparison, calculate the return in a spreadsheet and reconcile the result to your exports.
Sep 11, 20265 min readCompare consumer-goods margins, inventory turns and liquidity using a dated, matched peer file. A fully worked example distinguishes a pooled operating ratio from an equal-company average and shows the checks behind both.
Sep 8, 20266 min readMeasure candle profit from saleable batch yield, production costs and channel expenses. Work from production and sales exports to contribution by channel, then reconcile the result to operating profit.
Sep 6, 20265 min readHow CPG brands should choose analytics software: start from the questions, check the data you hold, ask vendors ten questions, avoid the traps.
Aug 30, 20264 min readThe complete sell-in against sell-out calculation on one SKU at one retailer over thirteen weeks, small enough to check by hand: weekly shipments and weekly sell-out, cumulative each, implied channel inventory from a stated starting figure, the trailing eight-week sell-out rate, weeks of cover per week, the promotion weeks that explain one build and the loading that explains another, the identity that implied inventory never goes negative, and the next-quarter shipment effect, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own files.
Aug 25, 20263 min readThe ten sales KPIs a consumer goods brand should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: distribution and range penetration by channel, distribution voids, sell-in against sell-out, weeks of cover at the retailer, out-of-stocks inferred from sell-out gaps, promotional net lift, trade spend return, retailer chargebacks by reason, OTIF under each retailer's rule, and rate of sale per store. Also the three measures most brands miss, the figures to drop, the identities, and who owns what.
Aug 22, 20264 min readThe complete promotional net lift calculation on one SKU at one retail account over sixteen weeks, small enough to check by hand: the eight pre-promotion weeks and their median as the baseline, the two promotion weeks and the gross lift, the four post-promotion weeks and the dip, net lift, trade spend, cost per net unit, the same mechanic at a second account for comparison, and the assertion that the account's weekly sell-out sums to the retailer's total, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own sell-out files.
Aug 18, 20262 min readWhiskey financial ratios need to separate aging stock from goods ready to sell. Work through margins, inventory days and operating cash flow for a US distillery, with the checks that connect production investment to reported results.
Aug 17, 20266 min readThe complete out-of-stock inference on one SKU at one store over thirty days, small enough to check by hand: the SKU's own daily sales rate excluding earlier inferred runs, the probability of a zero-sales run of each length at that rate, the confidence threshold, the run that crosses it and the run that does not, lost units at the rate and lost sales at retail, the missing-file day that is not a zero, and why the same run at a slow-selling SKU would not be inferred, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own sell-out data.
Aug 15, 20263 min readThe complete retailer chargeback split on ten deductions from two retailers, small enough to check by hand: the retailer's reason code mapped to the brand's reason, the join to the shipment and proof-of-delivery records, valid where the records agree, disputable where they contradict, unmatched where no shipment is found, cost per case by retailer, the reason that recurs at one retailer, and the identity that deductions equal the three states and that remittance plus deductions equals invoiced, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own deduction file.
Aug 9, 20263 min readCalculate customer contribution after refunds, product costs and fulfillment from an order export. Compare acquisition cohorts at the same age, with a worked example and spreadsheet formulas.
Aug 9, 20265 min readThe ten questions a consumer goods commercial director puts to the sales and trade marketing teams, where are the distribution voids, which stores stopped selling a SKU on a Tuesday, which promotions moved volume and which moved it forward, which retailers are building inventory in the channel, which chargebacks are disputable, what is range penetration by channel, which accounts are under the range norm, what is the weekly gap list per store, what did trade spend buy per net unit, and what changed, each with the table from the sell-out, shipment and deduction files, and the answer to send back.
Jul 29, 20263 min readQuality assurance KPIs in food manufacturing compare first-pass acceptance, rejected batches, rework, and open quality holds. This workbook example shows the denominators, line-level calculations, cost checks, and ownership needed for an operational review.
Jul 28, 20266 min readHow a CPG brand compares what it shipped to each retailer with what the retailer sold through, from the shipment ledger and the sell-out data: the channel inventory implied by the difference, weeks of cover per retailer and per SKU, the retailers where sell-in has run ahead of sell-out for a quarter, the promotions that loaded the channel, and why a strong shipment quarter with rising channel inventory is next quarter's problem.
Jul 25, 20262 min readRetail media performance analytics compares advertising spend, attributed sales and the margin those sales leave. Use a consistent measurement window, reconcile campaign exports and calculate revenue return and contribution before reallocating budget.
Jul 23, 20264 min readCompare food and nonalcoholic beverage operations with ratios that keep manufacturing and distribution separate. Work through margin, inventory efficiency and liquidity using matched US business units and reconciled financial exports.
Jul 21, 20266 min readHow a CPG brand reads its retailer chargebacks and deductions from the remittance and deduction files: chargebacks by retailer, by reason code and by distribution center, the share that is disputable against the brand's own shipment and delivery records, the reasons that recur at one retailer and nowhere else, the cost per case shipped by retailer, and the two conversations, the brand's own logistics and the retailer's compliance team, that the split points to.
Jul 21, 20263 min readMeasure chocolate product and channel margins after ingredients, production losses, packaging and selling costs. Use a worked US manufacturing example, exact spreadsheet formulas and checks that prevent spoilage from being counted twice.
Jul 18, 20265 min readHow an FMCG or CPG brand sets a SKU list per retail channel, measures range penetration per store against it, and avoids the single most common failure in distribution analytics: a void list that expects a convenience store to stock the family multipack.
Jul 18, 20263 min readHow a CPG brand measures the uplift from a promotion per retail account from sell-out data: the account's own pre-promo baseline, the lift during, the dip after, the net lift that remains, and the accounts where a promotion moved volume forward rather than adding it, so that trade spend goes where the lift is real.
Jul 17, 20262 min readHow a CPG brand infers out-of-stocks per store per SKU from daily or weekly sell-out data without shelf audits: the SKU's own sales rate at the store, the gap that is too long to be chance, the lost sales valued at that rate, the stores and SKUs where gaps recur, and why the inferred figure is a list for the field team rather than a claim against the retailer.
Jul 14, 20263 min readCalculate bread profit margin from production yield, ingredient costs and actual sales. Work through a batch and compare counter sales with wholesale contribution.
Jul 1, 20264 min readHow an FMCG or CPG brand finds the stores that carry the category but not its SKUs from the sell-out files distributors already send: the store-by-SKU grid, the channel-specific range, the valued void list per region and distributor, and the reconciliation to reported sell-out.
Jul 1, 20263 min readBuild an FMCG planning workbook that connects consumer goods sales and gross margin with inventory, customer collections and supplier payments. Compare a worked monthly plan with actual results and a collection scenario.
Jun 24, 20265 min readConsumer goods analytics for your business.
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