Why Are Some SKUs Suppressed by Circana and Multi Outlet+ Retailers?
Why does Circana remove certain SKUs from the data, and how does that affect the CMA's brand and brand family sales data?
Circana recently formed partnerships with new retailer chains which hadn't previously been part of Circana's "Multi Outlet” universe but are now included in the "Multi Outlet+" universe. Some of those new retailers stipulated that Circana must suppress (hide) the SKU-level sales for items which are scanning 95% or more of their Multi Outlet+ sales in their chain. An item’s SKU would stop being included in the weekly data extracts we receive from Circana if the item is being suppressed. Most of the items being suppressed are 24pks in the beer category, some of which are exclusive to Costco.
Regarding the criteria for suppression, Circana has explained, "if an item is selling in two club retailers, it will be suppressed. If it is selling in a club and a food retailer, it may not be restricted (and it depends on the sales percentages). There is a 95% rule that states if 95% of the sales come from the suppressing retailer, it will be suppressed."
The CMA Cruncher was built to be SKU driven, meaning the brand and brand family-level sales data displayed is simply an aggregation of the SKU sales for all SKUs which roll up into a brand or brand family. This is a problem if an SKU which rolls up into a brand or a brand family is being suppressed and excluded from the data we receive from Circana.
When Circana began suppressing SKUs, it became apparent that SKU level aggregation, while helpful in that it allows us to filter by attributes like style or package size, would not produce accurate brand or brand family totals if a brand or brand family contains a suppressed item.
To adapt, we requested that Circana add their brand and brand family Dollar Sales and Volume Sales totals to the extracts they deliver to us, because Circana is able to produce brand and brand family level totals which include the data from suppressed items. This allowed us to create new dashboards which use those brand and brand family totals we receive directly from Circana, rather than using our primary method of aggregating SKUs to arrive at brand and brand family totals. This way, we can supply accurate brand and brand family totals even if suppression has made an item invisible at the SKU level.
Learn about the dashboards we've added to the CMA to adapt to Circana's SKU suppression here.