6 Common Questions About Average Items Carried

Learn why Average Items Carried is important in this previous post.

Even though Average Items Carried is pretty straightforward, here are some questions (and answers!) that often come up when the measure is new to an organization.

1. Can I add together Average Items Carried across periods or geographies?
   NO!  It is a non-additive fact , since it is derived from % ACV.  Say Average Items Carried in Boston, New York and Philadelphia are 7.1, 6.5 and 8.9 respectively.  It obviously doesn’t make sense to say that Average Items Carried in the Northeast is 22.5, the sum of those 3 markets.  Similarly, if Average Items Carried for April, May and June are 3.5, 4.2 and 5.1 respectively, you wouldn’t say that Average Items Carried for Q2 is 12.8.
2. Our brand has 20 items in the line.  How come Average Items Carried is only 13.5?
   Average Items Carried is almost always less than the total number of items that your brand offers.  This is because it is very rare that all stores sell all items of a given brand.  Even if a retailer authorizes all the items, this does not mean that all stores within that retailer sell all the items all the time.  Different stores may have a different selection of items based on their shoppers’ preferences and the available shelf space.
3. My Average Items Carried is not a whole number.  How is that possible?
   Average Items Carried is hardly ever a whole number!  Given how it is calculated, this is not surprising.  That’s why the measure is usually reported with one decimal point.  The way to interpret a number like 7.3 average items carried is “the average store sells between 7 and 8 items.”
4. Is Average Items Carried the same as facings?
   No.  Many items (especially the most popular, fastest-moving ones) have more than one facing on the shelf, but Average Items Carried does not take that into account.  Keep in mind that Average Items Carried is always less than or equal to facings.  The only way to get an accurate estimate for facings is to do an in-store audit.  Some companies do this on an annual or semi-annual basis, but it can be quite expensive.   In the absence of an in-store audit, Average Items Carried is probably the best surrogate measure for shelf presence.
5. Average Items Carried for my brand is very different depending on which geography I’m looking at.  Why is that?
   Average Items Carried can be looked at for any geography – from a national all outlet total to a retailer at the corporate level to an individual retail banner in one market.  As mentioned in #1 above, not all stores sell all items so you should expect to see different numbers depending on the geography.  If you see a decline in Average Items Carried at the national level, go ahead and drill down to identify which retailers are responsible for the decline.
6. When I look at individual weeks, the number of Average Items Carried seems to jump around quite a bit.  What period length gives the best picture of Average Items Carried?
   It is usually best to look at Average Items Carried for longer periods than a single week, like a 4-week or 12-week total.  The number can move week to week since even stores that carry an item may not see a consumer sale of that item every week. The exception here is for highly perishable products, where it is OK to look at Average Items Carried (and other distribution measures) for individual weeks since those products cannot sit on the shelf too long without selling otherwise they will spoil).

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