Selling your products across Walmart, Target, and other retail locations? Having a holistic view of the market gives you a real competitive advantage. MULO (Multi-Outlet) data is a powerful tool for CPG companies looking to see how their products (and competitors) are performing in different retail settings. 

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Let's explore how MULO data is shaping the way CPG brands make decisions and drive success.

What Is MULO Data?

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Multi-outlet retail data, or MULO, refers to sales data from different types of stores. This includes data from:

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• Grocery retailers (with annual sales over $2 million)
• Drug stores (excluding prescription sales)
• Mass merchandisers (like Target and Kmart)
• Walmart (including Supercenters, Division 1, and Neighborhood Markets)
• Club stores (Sam's Club and BJ's, but not Costco)
• Military commissaries
• Dollar stores (Dollar General and Family Dollar, but not Dollar Tree)
• Whole Foods Market
• Select e-commerce sales (when purchased directly from retailers for in-store pickup, including third-party services like Instacart)

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MULO gives a top-down view of how products are performing across various retailers. It helps businesses understand broad market trends, overall sales performance, and high-level competitive dynamics. 

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CPG brands can use this information to make smarter decisions to meet customer needs and stay ahead in the market.

How Should CPG Brands Use MULO Data?

MULO data offers a range of valuable insights, including:

• Sales performance: Figure out where you're thriving and where you might need to focus more attention.
• Distribution insights: Understand your product's reach. Are you well-represented in the total market, relative to other brands, or are there opportunities to expand?
• Pricing intelligence: Get a clear picture of how your pricing strategy stacks up across different outlets and against competitors.
• Promotional effectiveness: Measure the impact of your promotions across various channels.

Armed with these insights, CPG companies can make more informed decisions around product development, pricing, and distribution. 

Example: Let's say you're a snack brand that offers a range of chip flavors. 

Through MULO data, you notice that your overall market share has remained steady, but your main competitor's share has increased by 2% over the past quarter. Further analysis reveals that this competitor’s growth is primarily driven by their spicy line of chips, an area where your brand currently lacks a strong offering.

Using these insights, you might decide to accelerate innovation efforts to develop your own spicy chip line, launch targeted marketing campaigns to promote these new flavors, and strengthen partnerships with key retailers by presenting them with your new product line backed by data-driven distribution insights.

In short, MULO data helps you identify broad market shifts and competitor movements, guiding you to areas that require deeper analysis and strategic action to maintain your competitive edge.

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How to Leverage MULO Data

1. Acquire MULO Data

First, you need to actually get your hands on the data. You can obtain MULO data from Circana and SPINS. NielsenIQ offers xAOC data or Total FMCG, which is essentially the same thing.

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These companies offer comprehensive retail data across various retail channels. However, there are some differences. Not every provider offers Costco data, for instance, or includes Whole Foods stores. 

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So, you’ll want to shop around and think about your specific needs, budget, and which retail channels are most crucial for your brand.

2. Integrate the Data

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Once you’ve subscribed to the data provider, you’ll typically be able to log into a portal where you can pull the information.  While you can analyze it in a spreadsheet and get some insights, it’s better if you can bring the data into your analytics tool, quickly have your templated reports updated, and have the whole data story laid out. Even better if you can also combine it with other data sets, like retailer portal or distributor data. 

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Daasity integrates data from all sources, including MULO data and other channels like ecommerce and Amazon. This gives you a unified view of your performance across different channels and time frames, and helps uncover deeper insights. 

3. Analyze the Data

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With your data consolidated, dive into analysis to uncover patterns and insights. Focus on identifying which products are performing well in which types of retail environments, how pricing strategies vary across outlets, and how your products compare against competitors. 

4. Act on the Insights

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Translate the insights from your data analysis into actionable strategies. 

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If certain products are underperforming in specific outlets, consider adjustments in marketing tactics or explore different pricing strategies. If the data shows strong sales in a particular region, you might increase inventory allocations or enhance promotional efforts there. 

5. Measure and Refine

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After implementing changes based on MULO data insights, it's crucial to measure the impact of these actions. 

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Monitor sales figures, market share changes, and consumer feedback following the adjustments. Continue to refine your strategies based on this ongoing feedback loop. Regularly updating your approach in response to data will help you stay competitive and responsive to market dynamics.

Maximize Your MULO Data with Daasity

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At Daasity, we help CPG brands harness the power of their data. And that’s all their data, whether it’s from ecommerce, Amazon, your own brick-and-mortar stores, or retail partners. Our platform consolidates data from every source, providing you with a unified view and actionable insights.

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Ready to take your MULO data strategy to the next level? Here are a few ways to get started:

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• Discover how Daasity supports retail analytics
• Learn about the most crucial metrics for CPG brands
• Request a demo to see how Daasity in action

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We’d love to show you how you can get more out of your MULO data with Daasity.

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