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Glossary

Distribution void

In consumer goods, a store that carries the category but not your product, or carries some of your range and not the rest. A gap in retail distribution, listed per store and per SKU.

DefinitionIn consumer goods, a store that carries the category but not your product, or carries some of your range and not the rest. A gap in retail distribution, listed per store and per SKU.

How it is computed

From distributor sell-out or retailer data: for each store, the SKUs sold in the period against the SKUs on the list for that store's channel. A store with sales in the category and none of a given SKU is a void for that SKU.

Valued

Each void is valued at the store's rate for similar SKUs, or at the channel average. Ranked by region and distributor, the list is the field team's week.

Not market share

A void is measured from your own data. Market share, the category's total sales split between brands, needs a retail audit and is a different measure.

How it is computed

Stores that sell the category and not the product, where comparable stores sell both, valued at the median rate of sale in those comparable stores.

Example

A product is ranged in 310 of a distributor's 420 convenience stores. In the 110 without it, comparable stores sell a median of six units a week: a void worth about 34,000 units a year.

Where it goes wrong

Voids listed without value. The field team gets 110 stores and no order to visit them in.

Articles that use this term

Coverage and territory · FMCG and CPG brands

Finding distribution voids from distributor sell-out data

How 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.

16 Sept 20263 min readData quality and reconciliation · FMCG and CPG brands

Out-of-stock per store from sell-out gaps: the SKU that stopped selling on a Tuesday

How 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.

16 Sept 20263 min readTerritory, capacity and quota planning · FMCG and CPG brands

Promo lift per account against the account's own baseline

How 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.

16 Sept 20262 min readCoverage and territory · FMCG and CPG brands

Range penetration by channel: why one SKU list fails for CPG brands

How 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.

16 Sept 20263 min readWallet share and penetration · FMCG and CPG brands

Ten questions a CPG commercial director asks, and the table that answers each

The 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.

16 Sept 20263 min readAlternatives and comparisons · FMCG and CPG brands

How to choose analytics software for FMCG and CPG brands: questions, data and traps

How CPG brands should choose analytics software: start from the questions, check the data you hold, ask vendors ten questions, avoid the traps.

24 Sept 20264 min read