POS data is the record of sales captured at the point of sale, which is the register or checkout where a transaction happens. It shows what sold, in what quantity, at what price, in which store, and when. For brands selling through retail, it is the most direct count of how many units actually moved to shoppers.
Every time an item is scanned, the retailer's system records the product code, quantity, price, store, and time. Retailers roll those records up by item, store, and week, and that summary is what most brands see.
Brands get POS data in a few ways. Some retailers share it directly through their own supplier portals. Others share it with syndicated providers such as Nielsen and Circana, which combine it across retailers. Brands selling through a distributor such as UNFI or KeHE may also see depletion data, which tracks what the distributor shipped to stores and sits one more step away from the shopper.
Because it comes from the register, POS data reflects real sell-through. Shipment data only shows what the brand sold into the retailer's warehouse, so POS data is the closer read on demand.
POS data is solid on volume. It is the basis for velocity, it shows how promotions moved units week by week, and it can reveal out-of-stocks when sales in a store drop to zero while the item is still on the planogram. Retailers use it to make shelf decisions, so brands need to read it the way the retailer does.
What POS data does not tell a brand is who bought. A transaction record carries a product and a price with no buyer attached, so a brand cannot tell whether a strong week came from new households trying the product or existing buyers stocking up. That is the main reason brands pair it with panel data and with any direct relationship they have with their own buyers.
A coffee brand runs a two-week price promotion at a grocery chain, and POS data shows units more than doubling in those weeks before settling back to the usual level. The brand knows exactly how many units the promotion moved and in which stores. It cannot tell from POS data whether those buyers were new to the brand, or whether any of them came back at full price once the promotion ended.
Reading POS volume as buyer behavior. A rise in units can come from more households buying, from the same households buying more, or from stock-up during a promotion, and POS data looks the same in all three cases. Brands that want to understand trial and retrial need a view of the household alongside the register count.
Where TrueLoyal fits: When members scan receipts, TrueLoyal credits the purchase to their loyalty account and captures the store name and address and the line items, so the brand knows who bought, where, and what for those members. That view covers opted-in members only, and POS data remains the measure of total volume.
POS stands for point of sale. It refers to the place and moment a transaction is completed, usually the register or checkout, and to the systems that record it.
Shipment data shows what a brand sold to a retailer or distributor. POS data shows what the retailer sold to shoppers, which makes it a truer measure of demand.
No. Retail POS data records the item, quantity, price, store, and time of a sale, without the identity of the buyer. Retailers with their own loyalty programs may hold that link, and that information generally stays with the retailer.
Brands get POS data through retailer supplier portals, through syndicated providers such as Nielsen and Circana, or through brokers and data partners. Access and level of detail vary by retailer.
Syndicated data is market data that a research company collects once and sells to many subscribers. In consumer goods it usually means retail sales data and household panel data from providers such as Nielsen and Circana. It is the shared source of truth that brands, retailers, and brokers use when they talk about category performance.
Purchase velocity is how fast a product sells, measured as units sold per store per week. It is the same measure that retailers and brands simply call velocity, and it shows how well a product sells in the stores that already carry it. Because it divides out the number of stores, it lets a brand compare performance fairly across retailers, regions, and time periods.
Out-of-stock, usually shortened to OOS, is a product not being on the shelf when a shopper looks for it. It is measured from the shelf rather than from the warehouse, which is the distinction that matters. A product can be in the store, in the back room, and still out of stock as far as the shopper is concerned. The same measure stated positively is on-shelf availability.
A scan-down is a promotional discount funded by the brand and applied at the register. The shopper pays the reduced price, the retailer records each discounted unit as it scans, and the brand reimburses the retailer for the difference on the units that actually sold.
Trade spend is the money a brand pays a retailer to get its products onto the shelf and moving off it. It covers slotting fees for new items, promotional discounts, display and feature advertising, and allowances of various kinds. For most brands selling through retail it is the largest cost line after the cost of goods, commonly running between 15% and 25% of gross sales.
The distributor channel is the route by which a brand sells its products to a wholesale distributor, which then sells and delivers them to retail stores. In grocery and natural products, national distributors such as UNFI and KeHE supply thousands of independent and regional stores that a brand could not serve on its own. The brand's customer is the distributor, and the store is one step further away.
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