Competitor Distribution

Competitor distribution data tracks metrics related to your competitors' physical or operational presence in the market, such as the number of stores, sales agents, offices, or other distribution points. This information is essential for understanding competitive landscapes and how rivals' distribution strategies impact your own sales, market share, and KPIs.

Sourced from market research, public reports, or third-party providers, this data allows Alviss AI to model competitive effects in attributions, simulations, and predictions. For instance, it can quantify how an increase in a competitor's store count affects your demand or pricing strategies, enabling more accurate optimizations and strategic planning.

Data Requirements

The Competitor Distribution Data file must include the following columns (headers). All columns are required unless marked as optional:

• Country (string, required): A three-letter country code per ISO 3166 standard (e.g., "SWE" for Sweden), indicating where the distribution metrics apply.
• Region (string, required): The region within the country (e.g., "all" for nationwide or a specific ISO 3166-2 code like "SE-AB" for Stockholm County in Sweden).
• Grouping (string, optional): For additional segmentation, such as product categories, demographics, or sales territories (e.g., "all" if not applicable).
• Date (date, required): The start date of the period for the distribution metrics in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD).
• Competitor (string, required): The name or identifier of the competitor company (e.g., "Competitor1").
• Product (string, required): The name or identifier of the product associated with the distribution (e.g., "Health").
• Channel (string, required): The distribution channel (e.g., "Agents", "Stores", "Offices").
• Value (integer, required): The count of distribution units (e.g., 90). Use whole numbers; handle missing values with blanks or zeros—Alviss AI will flag inconsistencies during upload.

Supported Formats

Data can be uploaded in long (tidy) or wide (pivoted) format. Choose based on your data pipeline:

• Long Format (Recommended for flexibility): Each row represents a single observation (one value per competitor, product, channel, date, etc.).

• Wide Format (Useful for spreadsheets): Columns represent combinations of Product and Channel, with rows as dates. The first few rows define the meta data for the column (e.g., Country, Region, Competitor, ...).

Best Practices

• Consistency: Ensure dates align with your project's periodicity (e.g., weekly data if the project is set to weekly granularity). Mismatched granularity will cause upload errors.
• Data Quality: Check for outliers, missing values, or inconsistencies before upload. Use the Activities dashboard to visualize and validate post-upload.
• Granularity Alignment: All data in a project must match the chosen periodicity (set during project creation). For details, see Projects.
• Competitor Tracking: Include multiple competitors and channels for comprehensive analysis. Use clear, consistent naming for Competitor, Product, and Channel fields to enable easy filtering and comparison.

For uploading instructions, see Upload Data. If you encounter issues, contact support or refer to the API for programmatic uploads.