The number of items, on average, that a retailer carries of a category, segment, brand, etc. For example, if a brand is made up of 7 different items (SKUs), the average store that carrries the brand at all may have 4.8 items. This measure is usually available in a Nielsen database, while IRI calls it Average Items Selling. If it is not in your database, then click here to see how you can calculate it in Excel. It is one of the 2 components of Total Distribution Points.
Also called average number of lines by most analysts.
I have not heard that term used by CPG manufacturers in the US or Canada, so “average number of lines” is likely common in other countries. Just curious – where have you seen that used?
Is this metric the same as “Average # of Items” ?
Yes! Other names you may see are Avg Items Selling or just Avg Items. Having the word “carried” in the name is a bot misleading, though, since it’s possible that a store carries an items that does not sell in a particular week, either because it is out of stock or it’s just a slower moving item and/or in a category with a long purchase cycle.
May I ask that “Number of Referance” data also has the same meaning? Thanks
We aren’t familiar with this term. Sorry we can’t help with this one.
Is there a way to estimate/calculate if an item/UPC is “traited” (“permanent” placement vs. LTO or Display) with Circana POS data? (possibly using the Weeks in Distribution measure? How many weeks would you suggest would be considered “permanent” placement…26 weeks, 52 weeks?). Any advice is greatly appreciated!
We don’t think there is any foolproof way to do this. We don’t know of any measure other than judgement and knowledge of the category as to whether something is a permanent item or not. If you have a specific category in mind, you might be able to look at items you know are temporary and compare them to permanent items and come up with a rule of thumb. I wouldn’t want to give you some number of weeks because I don’t know what that number would be. I do think if something is there for 52 weeks it seems pretty permanent! It certainly isn’t seasonal, which is often the purpose of a limited item. Even 26 weeks seems pretty long but, again, I can’t say because I do think it’s going to be category or maybe retailer specific. If an item goes in and out multiple times, that would be an indication to me that it’s a limited item so you could look for that scenario and see how long it was in distribution and see if that gives you a benchmark for length that you might apply to other items (again, maybe category or retailer specific benchmark). Sorry not to be more helpful!