Commerce Budgets
Cross-retailer reporting
Build a cross-retailer report that separates delivery, attributed sales, commercial return and data gaps before combining results.
A cross-retailer report shows what each retailer delivered, which sales it credited to the campaign and which results can fairly be compared. Keep retailer figures in their original definitions. Add a combined figure only when units, populations and records support it.
Where Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons or Boots are campaign partners, give each its own retailer row. Their names do not imply shared export fields, attribution rules or coverage.
Start with the decision
State the question the report must answer: whether to repeat a placement, investigate weak delivery or review the commercial return, for example. Fix the campaign dates, promoted products, currency and advertiser whose costs are being assessed. Retain each original export and its extraction date.
Use three separate views. Keep delivery, attributed sales and commercial assessment distinct.
| View | Include | Keep visible |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery | Charges and reported impressions, clicks or in-store ad plays | The unit and method for each measure |
| Credited outcomes | Sales or units attributed under each retailer’s rules | Product set, sales channels, interaction and lookback |
| Commercial return | The advertiser’s receipts and relevant costs | Differences between shopper sales and advertiser receipts |
An online impression means an advert began to render; it does not prove someone saw it. An in-store ad play records a display or rendering event, while opportunity to see estimates potential exposure.
Keep these measures in separate columns. Keep attributed sales separate from any estimate of sales caused by advertising.
Attach a definition to each figure
Record the unit, product set, eligible customers and channels, attribution rule, lookback window, gross or net sales basis, reporting cut-off and any modelling. Ask whether a sponsored-product figure covers the promoted parent SKU and variants or a wider brand and category. A figure with an unknown definition can appear as retailer-reported, but it cannot enter a like-for-like comparison.
Use the actual report and its methodology for each row. Preserve its field labels alongside the pack headings, and do not assume that similarly named fields have the same definitions.
Keep the retailer's exact export field name beside the pack label; for example, retain “attributed sales” as a distinct label where that is what the report supplies. Map fields to a shared heading only when their definitions match.
Keep the original currency amount and currency code beside any value converted to GBP, and record the exchange rate and date. Mark whether media cost is VAT-inclusive, VAT-exclusive or unknown. Compare cost figures only when their VAT treatment is consistent.
Do not relabel gross sales as net sales without suitable returns and cancellation data. Do not scale a short attribution window to imitate a longer one. Request a compatible extract or display the figures separately.
Key considerations for cross-retailer data accuracy
- Currency consistency
- Retain original currency; record exchange rate and date
- VAT treatment
- Mark as VAT-inclusive, VAT-exclusive or unknown
- Attribution rules
- Keep retailer-specific lookback windows and definitions intact
Show coverage and gaps
Put retailer-specific results first. In a comparison view, state the inclusion rule above each total and name the retailers it covers. Distinguish a measured zero from a missing value, an unavailable field and a measure that does not apply.
Show which retailers supply each compared field and which reporting periods or channels it covers. If a field label, definition or coverage detail is not supplied, mark it unavailable rather than infer it.
A compact pack needs a decision summary, retailer results, comparable fields with their coverage, a definitions and gaps register, and a record of corrected extracts or material campaign changes. The summary should say what action the evidence supports and what remains unknown.
Use a four-part summary: action, evidence, limitation and next check. For example: “Investigate [placement] because [delivery result] is weak against [its recorded definition]; keep [commercial decision] open until [unresolved evidence] is available.”
Pre-comparison validation steps for cross-retailer reports
- Confirm field availability per retailerIdentify which retailers supply each field and reporting period
- Distinguish missing values from zeroMark unavailable fields rather than infer definitions
- Preserve original export field namesRetain labels such as 'attributed sales' as reported
Check totals before interpreting return
Reconcile media charges against credits, shared fees and invoice periods. Combine sales only when their transaction and attribution boundaries permit it. A purchase may appear in more than one campaign attribution report, and product groups may overlap. If overlap cannot be identified, show the attributed figures separately and leave unique combined sales unknown.
A reported sales return ratio is attributed sales value divided by the stated media cost. It is not profit. A supplier’s receipts may differ from the retailer’s shopper sales, and returns, trade terms, product costs and other campaign charges affect retained contribution. Show both the numerator and denominator; do not average retailer ratios into a portfolio ratio.
End with a bounded decision. A report may support investigating a placement with weak delivery while leaving a margin decision open pending settlement data. An attributed-sales table cannot establish whether advertising caused additional sales; that requires a credible comparison with outcomes absent the activity.
Pros and cons of combining retailer data in a single report
- ProsEnables portfolio-level insights; supports strategic decisions on campaign repetition
- ConsRisk of misleading totals if attribution boundaries, product overlaps or VAT treatments differ
In this guide
- Normalising metric definitions across UK retail partnersBuild a metric dictionary and decide which UK retailer media fields can be aligned, recalculated or shown separately.
- Comparing revenue-based and margin-based returnsCompare retailer sales ROAS with the advertiser’s contribution from attributed orders using explicit receipts, costs and limits.
- Recording gaps when retailers disclose different dataUse a reporting gap register to distinguish missing definitions, unavailable fields and measured zeroes across retailers.
- Building a report without double-counted salesCheck repeated extracts, overlapping campaign credit and nested product totals before claiming unique retailer sales.
