ACV with Merchandising

ACV with merchandising (often '%ACV with merchandising' or '%ACV any merch') is a measure of the share of total all-commodity volume represented by stores where a product not only is carried but also has active merchandising support — such as a display, a feature in the retailer's circular/ad, a temporary price reduction, or other promotional push. Where plain %ACV distribution measures where a product is available on shelf, %ACV with merchandising measures where it's being actively promoted in-store, weighted by store sales volume. It captures the reach of a product's merchandising activity, not just its baseline shelf presence.

This metric matters because merchandising support (displays, features, promotions) drives substantial incremental sales — products on display or featured sell far more than the same products sitting only on the regular shelf. So measuring not just where a product is distributed but where it has merchandising support reveals the reach of the sales-driving promotional activity. %ACV with merchandising (and its components, like %ACV with display, %ACV with feature) is a key measure in CPG of how much promotional push a product is getting across the market, weighted by the sales volume of the stores providing it — connecting distribution to the active in-store support that lifts sales.

The distinction between %ACV distribution and %ACV with merchandising is the difference between presence and promotion. Plain %ACV distribution measures where a product is available (on shelf) by sales weight; %ACV with merchandising measures where it additionally has active promotional support (display, feature, price reduction) by sales weight. A product can have high distribution (%ACV) but low %ACV with merchandising — widely available but not actively promoted — or be heavily merchandised in the stores that carry it. The gap and relationship between the two reveal how much of a product's distribution is being activated with merchandising support that drives incremental sales.

This connects to the broader analysis of base versus incremental sales. Base sales come from regular shelf presence (related to %ACV distribution); incremental sales come largely from promotional and merchandising activity (related to %ACV with merchandising). So %ACV with merchandising is a key input to understanding what's driving a product's sales — how much promotional support it has and how that support translates to incremental volume. Brands track %ACV with merchandising to measure their merchandising reach, negotiate and plan promotional support, and connect that support to the sales lifts it produces, distinguishing the sales effect of mere availability from that of active in-store promotion.

Using %ACV with merchandising well means tracking and managing the reach of a product's promotional support — measuring how much of the market's sales volume sees the product on display, featured, or promoted, and connecting that to the incremental sales it drives. It means using %ACV with merchandising to assess merchandising reach, plan and negotiate promotional support in high-ACV stores where it drives the most volume, and analyze the relationship between merchandising support and sales lift to invest in the most productive merchandising. Read alongside %ACV distribution and base/incremental sales analysis, it shows how much of a product's distribution is being activated to drive incremental sales.

The failures are measuring only baseline distribution and missing the merchandising activation that drives incremental sales, ignoring %ACV with merchandising when planning and assessing promotional support, and not connecting merchandising reach to the sales lift it produces (so promotional investment isn't optimized). The discipline is to track %ACV with merchandising as the measure of promotional reach, manage merchandising support toward high-ACV, high-productivity opportunities, and connect it to incremental sales — recognizing that distribution is the baseline but merchandising support is what activates much of the incremental sales, so measuring where a product is actively promoted, not just available, is essential to driving and understanding sales.

ACV with merchandising — the sales-weighted share of stores actively promoting a product via display or feature — measures promotional reach beyond shelf presence, the activation that drives incremental sales.

Etymology: source.

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