Everybody knows that Wal-Mart stopped releasing data to third-party data syndicators like ACNielsen and IRI years ago. So - you’re out of options to view Wal-Mart’s share of total consumption and fair share of product sales, right? Not quite…

Although there are certainly restrictions put in place by Wal-Mart about how you can present Retail Link data and to whom, there are realistic options to leverage that data in concert with syndicated or other information to gain insights into fair share and contribution for internal use. For example, the chart below shows a topline view of Wal-Mart’s share of total consumption, and share of product sales across multiple geographies:

The chart above gives a quick view of markets where opportunities or issues exist as it relates to Wal-Mart’s impact on the “Widget” market. Although the creation of this chart is relatively straightforward, some care must be taken in the alignment of data—especially if you intend to perform the same analysis for many different products, time periods and geographies. Properly integrated data gives you flexibility to change views based on business requirements, and the confidence that the numbers you are making decisions against are accurate.

To integrate data as in the chart above, you need:

1. Granular Information: Low level information, such as store level Retail Link data will give you more flexibility to roll data together appropriately across disparate data sources. Try to get Weekly, UPC Level data at the store level, if possible. This will give you the option of conforming Retail Link data to the standards set by your organization or a syndicated data provider for item characteristics, fiscal periods, geography breakouts, etc.

2. Common Data Points: To avoid data holes, integrate data at the lowest common denominator. For instance, the integrated set of data should have measures that that exist in both a syndicated source and Retail Link.



3. Maps: The basis for data integration is a map between different data sets. Be sure that you spend the effort to do this correctly and maintain a standard, as this information will affect every insight you glean from the data. Clearly, manually building and maintaining a standard set of maps is a daunting task, so take advantage of tools and maps that already exist before trying to build your own.



4. Tools: There are tools that make processes like integrating and analyzing Wal-Mart and syndicated data a realistic task. If you are working in an ad-hoc sense, simple methods like Excel spreadsheets are a viable option, while tools such as Interactive Edge’s XP3 platform provide the framework for a much more robust and repeatable automated solution