Blog · Wallet share and penetration · Distributors
How a distributor measures the share of each account's purchases that are its own private label against branded equivalents, from the invoice lines and the product master: penetration per account per category, the margin difference per line, the norm from accounts of the same type, the accounts buying branded where similar accounts buy own label and the value of the switch, and the identity that keeps own-label and branded revenue summing to the ledger.
A distributor's own-label range earns more per case than the brands it replaces, and its sales report shows revenue by account with no view of which accounts buy which. The invoice lines and the product master's pairing compute penetration per account per category, and the norm for accounts of the same type says which could switch. This guide sets out the measure, the norm, the list, and the identity.
Per account, per category, per period:
Penetration = own-label volume on paired SKUs ÷ (own-label + branded volume on paired SKUs) Branded volume remaining, and the margin difference per unit on it
Per account type:
Norm = median penetration among accounts of the type
Per account:
Gap = norm − penetration, floored at zero Value at norm = branded volume × margin difference × conversion assumption
Account identifiers only.
own-label revenue + branded revenue = ledger revenue, per category
And every own-label SKU has a pair, or is marked unpaired and excluded from penetration with a count.
Category: dry goods. Norm by type.
| Account | Type | Paired volume | Own-label share | Type norm | Gap | Branded volume | Margin difference/case | Value at norm (50% conversion) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2207 | Contract caterer | 4,100 cases | 31% | 72% | 41 pts | 2,830 | $2.10 | $2,970/qtr |
| 4471 | Fine dining | 900 | 12% | 15% | 3 pts | 790 | $2.10 | small |
| 9034 | Pub group | 6,200 | 68% | 60% | none | 1,980 |
Account 2207 is a contract caterer at a third own-label where its peers are at nearly three quarters. Account 4471 is fine dining at twelve percent, which is what fine dining does. The list is 2207, with the paired SKUs to offer.
Per rep: accounts below the type norm and the value at norm. Per category: penetration trended, which is the own-label programme's own scorecard.
Penetration over the whole category. Categories with no own-label option dilute it to nothing.
One norm for all types. Fine dining on every list.
Value at full conversion. A promise nobody can keep. State the assumption.
Unpaired SKUs counted. An own-label item with no branded equivalent is not a switch.
Mapped once, the invoice lines, the product master's pairs and the account master produce penetration, the norms, the gaps and the value at norm every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The distributors page describes the setup, and the margin by account guide covers where the margin difference shows up.
A branded SKU the distributor's own-label SKU is designed to replace, mapped in the product master as a pair. Penetration is computed over the pair's combined volume at the account, not over the category, so a category with no own-label option does not dilute it.
Because a fine-dining kitchen buys branded on principle and a contract caterer buys own label on price, and comparing them produces a list of accounts that will never switch. Among accounts of the same type, the ones below the norm are the ones that plausibly could.
The account's branded volume on paired SKUs, times the margin difference per unit between the branded and own-label item, times a stated conversion assumption. Labelled as an estimate. It ranks; it does not promise.