In one line
Numeric distribution is the share of stores that stock your brand. Weighted distribution is the share of the category's sales that pass through those stores, so a big supermarket counts for more than a kiosk.
What it does
- Retail audits report both. Weighted distribution is also called ACV (all commodity volume) distribution in the United States.
- Bigger stores tend to list a brand first, so weighted distribution usually runs ahead of numeric. In Countermove a brand listed in half of a channel's stores reaches about two thirds of that channel's sales.
- Sales follow weighted distribution, not store counts. Thousands of small shops can add many points of numeric distribution and very little of the money.
- Listings are not permanent. Retailers drop slow sellers, so a listing you win has to keep earning its space.
Business and brand
Impact on the businessP&L, cash, share price
- Losing one big retailer can cost more sales than winning hundreds of small ones adds.
- Listing fees and trade terms are the price of shelf space; judge them on the share of category sales they open up.
- Rate of sale (sales per point of weighted distribution) is what buyers look at when they decide whether to keep you.
Impact on the brandMemory, loyalty, pricing power
- Physical availability is half of being bought: people who think of you still need to find you.
- Being where heavy category shoppers buy matters most for light buyers, who will not hunt for you.
- A brand that sells well where it is listed earns the case for the next listing.
Try it
Win or lose a retailer
Pick a retail channel and set how many of its stores list Brightwater. The engine runs four quarters with the rest of the plan unchanged.
- Units sold▼ 47.1%
- Net sales▼ 40.4%
- Value share▼ 8.0 pts
Brightwater's distribution across all retail channels, by the share of supermarkets stores that list it →. End of the first quarter.
Notice: Numeric distribution ▼ 12.2 pts, weighted ▼ 45.6 pts, units sold ▼ 47.1% in the quarter. Supermarkets is 6,000 stores with 52.5% of the category's sales, so weighted distribution moves more than numeric, and sales follow weighted.
Runs Countermove's market engine: the reference soft-drinks market, three brands, rivals holding their plans so only your change moves the result.
Sources
- Farris, Bendle, Pfeifer & Reibstein (2010), Marketing Metrics, Wharton School Publishing: numeric, ACV and product category volume distribution
- Reibstein & Farris (1995), Marketing Science: market share and distribution, a generalization
- Sharp (2010), How Brands Grow, Oxford University Press: physical availability