There are more ways to shop than ever with eCommerce, click-and-collect, and direct-to-consumer options. You can use Numerator Insights to understand what shoppers are purchasing online, where they are shopping, and how shoppers are shopping online.
Numerator’s eCommerce Hierarchy
Let’s first understand how Numerator’s eCommerce hierarchy may (or may not) differ from your eCommerce definitions. Here's a simplified breakdown of how online purchases are attributed:
In the Numerator Store Hierarchy, banners roll up into retailers. We'll use Walmart as an example. We'll use its two primary banners: Walmart (brick & mortar stores) and Walmart.com (Walmart's online store). The physical, B&M stores will fall under the FMCG Parent Channel, whereas the Walmart.com Banner will fall into the eCommerce Parent Channel. However, both of these Banners roll up into Walmart at the retailer level.
As a rule, any ".com" purchase will fall under the eCommerce Parent Channel, and any in-store purchase will fall under the FMCG Parent Channel. If you are looking at Retailer=Walmart but only the FMCG parent channel, you'll only get B&M purchases. Similarly, if you are looking at Retailer=Walmart but only the eCommerce Parent Channel, you'll only get online purchases.
The only exception to this rule is if a 3rd party delivery service is used (Instacart, DoorDash, etc). Although the order is through an online app, the purchase is assigned to the FMCG Parent Channel. This is because the sale occurred within a store and was delivered via 3rd party. It bypasses the typical direct sale to the online store banner. The sale will be assigned to the in-store banner (ex: Instacart order from Costco will be assigned to the Costco banner, but Instacart will be marked as the delivery service used).
However, for smaller, local stores without enough sample to have their banner within the hierarchy, those purchases will be assigned to the delivery service banner (ex: Instacart trip from John's Bodega will be assigned to the Instacart banner and Instacart will still be marked as the delivery service used).
Here's a table of how and why these purchases are assigned within the Store Hierarchy:
Scenario | Banner | Parent Channel | Rationale |
John's Bodega via Instacart | Instacart | FMCG | Purchase of goods made in-store, but doesn't have enough sample to populate its own banner within the store hierarchy |
Costco via Instacart | Costco | FMCG | Purchase of goods made in-store and has its own banner in the store hierarchy |
Walmart Click & Collect | Walmart.com | eCommerce | purchase of goods made online fulfilled in-store. |
Keep this in mind as you run different analyses. You will need to look separately at online performance and 3rd party services as they are attributed differently within the Numerator Store Hierarchy.
eCommerce Data Availability
Here are some guidelines when it comes to prompting reports with eCommerce data:
eCommerce data is 4 weeks behind from your current date. This ensures all eComm data has been uploaded and attributed.
When prompting reports, you will have the option of selecting "Maximize eCommerce Sample" and the report will auto-populate the most up-to-date date range for eComm data.
For any trended data or longitudinal metrics, a 6-8 week lag will give you the most stable data. For basic profiling, a 4-week lag should be good enough.
Make sure to include the parent channel FMCG as well as ECommerce for a high-level view of online purchasing behavior. Because of variances in receipts, you may accidentally exclude some purchases that are tagged to Brick & Mortar (Click & Collect, 3rd Party Delivery). Or you can individually select the banners that you want to analyze- Walmart.com, Target.com, etc.
Trip & People Groups
Some tools available to you to further your eComm analysis are Trip or People Groups. Trips Groups allow you to filter your purchase behavior based on specific trip attributes you want to focus on (Ex: Deliver to home, Click & Collect, Subscribe & Save). However, not every report in Insights allows you to select a Trip Group. For those reports, you will be able to use a People Group.
People Groups essentially draw a circle around a group of panelists based on your determined criteria- including selected Online retailers or trip groups (C&C shoppers, Target.com shoppers, Subscribe & Save shoppers, etc.)
People Groups look at households that have a certain feature/behavior, so creating People Groups for eCommerce will look at households that have done that behavior during the selected time period in your report, not filter the trips that have eCommerce attributed, but rather households that have purchased eCommerce during that time frame. You should use Trip Groups when available, but the People Group method will also work. You'll want to use the People Group method if your analysis is based on the behavior of shoppers who use these services.
Here is a list of Trip Group availability in Insights reports:
Yes | Limited | No |
Basket Affinity Shopper Metrics Trip Circuits Retailer Share Of Wallet Shopper Histogram Data Explorer Advanced Trended Metrics Scorecard Early Read Order & Delivery Existing Brand Source of Volume Consecutive Purchasing | Shopper Comparison Cross Purchase People Scorecard
| Advance Shopper Profile Household Affinity Leakage Tree Lapsed, Repeat, New New Item Tracker New Item Source Of Volume New Buyer Analysis Point Of Entry Portfolio Engagement Portfolio Optimizer Brand Radar Brand Diagnostic Buyer Loyalty Flow Purchase Journey
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| Shopper Comparison & Cross Purchase both directly compare two shopper groups, and while both reports have the Trip Group Advanced Filter, it can only be applied across the full report and can not be selected to one shopper group alone.
Tip: Get to information for one shopper group by running these reports 2x if analyzing two distinct trip types. | Tip: Try creating a Custom People Group with a Trip Type selected for these reports. It will filter to those trip type shoppers when running these reports, which may be enough detail for your analysis. |
If you want more information on Trip or People Groups, you can follow the links below:
eCommerce + Click & Collect Coverage
We also have a comprehensive list of our eCommerce banners and click & collect coverage. We update our eComm coverage to account for new and growing players. This is intended to be an evolving document as the market shifts. You can view that list by clicking on the button below.
3rd Party Service Watchout
Syndication of order and delivery metrics is an industry first, therefore, there is no industry standard to calibrate 3rd party delivery services and delivery methods. Because there are no benchmarks, it should not be used to "size" the 3rd party business (ex: what % of online grocery purchases are fulfilled via Instacart).
As always, if you have additional questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to your team here at Numerator!