Specialist research

Retail Audit & Distribution in India

Measure availability, visibility and share of shelf in general and modern trade.

Quick answer

Market Research India runs retail audit & distribution across India: 200–3,000 outlets, 2–4 weeks per wave in field, and numeric and weighted distribution, out-of-stock reporting and visibility scores by channel.

Proposal in 24 hours
Scoped, itemised and fixed-fee.
50 cities, 14 languages
Our own supervised field teams.
Senior-led, NDA-first
A research director on every project.

2,400+

Projects delivered

Cities with field teams

Industries covered

Indian languages

The decisions this study answers

Commission this when one of the questions below is holding up a decision. If your question is not on the list, say so in the brief — we would rather recommend a different method than sell you this one.

What is our real numeric and weighted distribution by channel?
Where are we out of stock, and how much does that cost us each month?
Is our share of shelf matching our share of market?
Are planogram and visibility agreements actually being honoured?
Which competitor is gaining shelf in which towns, and how quickly?

How we run it

5 stages, with one research director accountable across all of them. The person who scopes the study is the person who presents the findings.

1
Build a representative outlet panel
Outlets are sampled by channel, class and geography to mirror the real universe, then held constant so month-on-month movement is readable.
2
Standardise the audit form
SKU lists, facings definitions and planogram criteria are fixed, so two auditors in two states record the same shelf identically.
3
Audit with photographic capture
Auditors record stock, facings, pricing and point-of-sale material with geotagged shelf photographs against every entry.
4
Validate before processing
Entries are checked against photographs, prior-wave values and expected ranges. Outliers go back to the field before the data is accepted.
5
Report by channel and territory
Distribution, out of stock and visibility are reported at the cut your sales structure uses, so the number lands with an owner.

At a glance

Retail Audit & Distribution — typical study parameters

Typical scale: 200 to 3,000 outlets per wave across general trade, modern trade and emerging channels
Fieldwork window: Two to four weeks per wave, typically monthly or bi-monthly
Lead time: Panel construction takes two to three weeks for a first wave, then it is standing
Coverage: Kirana, chemist, modern trade, cash and carry and quick-commerce dark stores
Languages: Auditors work in the local trade language of each market
Core methods: Store census · Shelf audits · Distribution checks · Planogram compliance
Reporting: Numeric and weighted distribution, out-of-stock reporting and visibility scores by channel
Best suited to: Measuring what is actually on the shelf

What you receive

3 named deliverables, each written to be used rather than filed. Everything ships with the underlying data, so your team can keep working after the debrief.

Numeric distribution
Numeric and weighted distribution by SKU, channel and territory, trended against previous waves.
Out-of-stock reports
Out-of-stock reporting with the value of lost sales estimated and the responsible depot or beat identified.
Visibility scores
Share-of-shelf and visibility scoring with photographic evidence, so a compliance dispute with the trade can be settled.

How the fieldwork is validated

Fieldwork in India fails quietly when nobody checks it. These controls are run on every retail audit & distribution study, by a quality team that reports separately from the field team.

Geotagged photographic evidence
Every visit carries timestamped, location-tagged photographs, so any score can be re-checked against what the auditor actually saw.
Auditor profile matched to the outlet
Auditors match the outlet's real customer on age, language and apparent income, so staff behave as they would on any other day.
Same-day, locked submission
Reports are filed within four hours of the visit, before recall degrades, and the record is locked against later editing.
Ten per cent blind re-audit
A second auditor repeats a tenth of visits without seeing the first score. Gaps beyond tolerance trigger a review of that auditor's whole batch.
Panel continuity managed deliberately
When an outlet closes it is replaced with a like-for-like store and the substitution is reported, so a trend is never broken silently.

Method choice

Retail Audit & Distribution, or one of these instead?

Most briefs can be answered more than one way, and the wrong instrument is the most expensive mistake in research. Here is how retail audit & distribution compares with the two methods buyers most often weigh against it.

	Retail Audit & Distribution	Mystery Shopping	Consumer Research
Best used for	Measuring what is actually on the shelf	Seeing what your customer actually experiences	Mapping and sizing demand across a whole category
Typical scale	200–3,000 outlets	100–2,000 visits	800–2,400 interviews
Fieldwork window	2–4 weeks per wave	2–4 weeks per wave	3–5 weeks
Evidence produced	Counted facts from a fixed outlet panel	Observed behaviour, with proof attached	Projectable numbers with segment stories behind them
Projects to a population
Relative cost	Scales with outlet count	Low per visit, scales with coverage	Mid to high

Where this method stops

An audit tells you what is on the shelf, not why a shopper walked past it. Pair it with shopper research for that.

City coverage

Where this work is strongest

We field in all 50 cities, but these are the markets where this method has the most to offer — because of the infrastructure, the respondent base or the sectors concentrated there.

Before you brief us

Frequently asked questions

How long does a retail audit & distribution project take?

Two to four weeks per wave, typically monthly or bi-monthly. Panel construction takes two to three weeks for a first wave, then it is standing. Analysis and reporting add a further one to two weeks, so most studies close inside six to ten weeks from brief to debrief.

What sample size do you recommend?

200 to 3,000 outlets per wave across general trade, modern trade and emerging channels. The right number is set by the smallest subgroup you need to report separately, not by a round figure, and we will say when a smaller sample would answer the question just as well.

What drives the cost of retail audit & distribution in India?

Incidence and audience difficulty first, then scale, the number of cities and languages, and the depth of reporting. Relative to other methods on this site, the cost profile is: scales with outlet count. Send a brief and you get a fixed-fee proposal within 24 hours.

When is retail audit & distribution the wrong choice?

An audit tells you what is on the shelf, not why a shopper walked past it. Pair it with shopper research for that.

How do you control quality in the field?

Every visit carries timestamped, location-tagged photographs, so any score can be re-checked against what the auditor actually saw. Beyond that, panel continuity managed deliberately: when an outlet closes it is replaced with a like-for-like store and the substitution is reported, so a trend is never broken silently.

Can international teams commission this from outside India?

Yes. We report in English, run calls across US, European and Asian time zones, and handle local-language fieldwork and translation end to end.

Study at a glance

Discipline: Specialist
Typical scale: 200–3,000 outlets
Field window: 2–4 weeks per wave
Projectable: Yes
Relative cost: Scales with outlet count
Cities covered: 50

See related case studies

Keep exploring

Everything built on this method

8 metros, 42 Tier 2 markets, 30 sectors and 15 guides, each applying retail audit & distribution to one specific context.

Tier 1 metros

Full-scale fieldwork, viewing facilities and senior decision-maker access.

Tier 2 markets

Each city covered from a local field base that also reaches the surrounding districts.

Show 34 more

By industry

The same method applied to one sector’s audiences, vocabulary and buying process.

Show 22 more

Guides and pricing

Cost drivers, briefing checklists and buyer guides written for this method.

Show 7 more

Other specialist methods

Closest alternatives, where a different instrument may answer the question better.

Every other service

The full method set, from qualitative immersion to strategic modelling.

Show 9 more

Next step

Ready to scope a retail audit & distribution study?