A small FMCG supplier can get a useful weekly view of its Coles and Woolworths sales without a data team by starting narrow: one retailer, one category, a handful of measures with written definitions, and automated checks on each week's files. The data is available, some of it at no cost and more of it by subscription. The hard part is rarely the analysis. It is getting each retailer's files into the same shape every week and agreeing what each number means.
What sales data can suppliers get from Coles and Woolworths?
The ACCC's supermarkets inquiry final report (February 2025) describes scan data as product details such as SKU, barcode, name and size; sales details such as quantity sold, price and discounts; the date and time of sale; and the store. Supermarkets collect it at the checkout and make it available to suppliers, either directly or through a third party.
Coles. In its response to the ACCC's interim report, Coles said it gives all suppliers access to sales, profit, item forecast and distribution centre performance data for their own business at no cost, through its Coles Supplier Central portal. Suppliers wanting more can subscribe to Coles Synergy, which Coles said is provided by Circana and lets suppliers benchmark their products against other suppliers in the same categories and sub-categories. Coles said the subscription price depends on the size of the supplier. Coles launched Synergy in 2020 with IRI, and Circana is the company built on IRI and NPD.
Woolworths. The ACCC report says Woolworths sells retail scan data analysis through its Woolworths iQ team, which Woolworths said is separate from its commercial team, and that Woolworths holds a major interest in the analytics company Quantium. Quantium describes its Q.Checkout product as a shopper analytics platform built on first-party retailer transaction data, adding who bought on top of what sold. For smaller suppliers, Woolworths told the ACCC in late 2024 that it had started providing a data report free for an initial 12 months, after which it costs $1,000 a year. Woolworths' own 2024 submission to the inquiry calls this the Small Supplier Commercial Report.
Retail media is a different thing. Coles 360 and Cartology are the two retailers' advertising businesses. They report on campaigns you pay for. They are not your weekly sales feed.
Whole-of-market data. Circana and NielsenIQ sell market data across retailers. The ACCC noted the supermarkets themselves typically source market share estimates from those two providers.
The offers and prices change, so confirm the current terms with your retailer contacts before you plan around any of them.
Why does weekly reporting turn into a spreadsheet job?
Because nothing arrives in the same shape twice. Each retailer's files have their own layout, column names, product codes and store groupings. Week endings and periods may not line up. A product you call one thing is a different item number at each retailer. A late correction can change last week's numbers after you've already reported them.
So every Monday someone downloads the files, copies them into a master spreadsheet, fixes the product mapping, checks the totals look right, and only then can anyone look at what happened. The person doing it is usually the one who should be talking to the buyer. And because the checks live in their head, the report stops when they go on leave.
The ACCC report also records that some suppliers find it hard to pull data off retailer platforms into their own database. That is worth knowing before you plan anything that depends on automatic downloads.
What should a useful weekly category view contain?
Fewer measures than you think, each defined once. A good weekly view answers three questions: what changed, why, and what do we do about it.
- Sales value and units, this week against last week and the same week last year.
- Share of category, with the denominator stated: which category definition, which retailer, which period.
- Distribution: how many stores are ranging and selling each product.
- Rate of sale: units per store per week, so a distribution gain doesn't hide a weak product.
- Price: average selling price, and shelf price against promotional price.
- Promo against base: how much of the week's volume came on promotion, and what the product sells at its normal price. Base volume is an estimate, so write down how you calculate it.
Everything on one page, down to a single product when someone needs to drill in. If a number on the page can't be explained in one sentence, it probably doesn't belong there.
How can you get there without a data team?
- Start with one retailer and one category. Pick the one that matters most to your business this year. Add the second retailer only when the first is running every week without anyone fixing it by hand.
- Write the definitions down. What is a week, what counts as promotional, what goes in the share denominator, which products sit in which category. One page, agreed by sales, brand and supply.
- Keep one product list. Map each retailer's item numbers to your own product codes in a single table everyone uses.
- Automate the file checks. Before anything reaches the report, check the file is the right week, the columns are where they should be, the totals match the portal, no stores or products have gone missing, and new products are mapped. Flag problems instead of guessing.
- Build one shared view. Everyone works from the same numbers instead of emailing spreadsheets. A buyer meeting goes better when sales and brand aren't arguing about whose figure is right.
None of this needs a data scientist. It needs someone to make the definitions decisions once, and a process that runs the checks every week without being asked. Our guide to which admin to automate first is a good way to decide whether this is the right job to tackle now.
Should you use retailer portals, a BI tool or a custom view?
It depends on how many sources you're combining and who will maintain it.
| Option | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Retailer portal and a spreadsheet | One retailer, a small range | Manual every week; breaks when the person is away |
| Paid retailer analytics | Shopper and category depth at one retailer | Subscription cost; one retailer per platform |
| A BI tool such as Power BI | Teams with someone in-house to maintain it | Often becomes the old spreadsheet in a new shape |
| A custom view | Two retailers, plus shipments or promo plans, checked every week | A build fee; worth it only if the reconciliation is costing real time |
If you sell into one retailer with a small range, the portal and a well-built spreadsheet template are probably enough, and we'd tell you so. A custom view earns its keep when you're combining two retailers' files with your own shipments and promotion plans, and the weekly reconciliation is what stands between your team and the numbers. Our build vs buy guide covers that decision in more detail.
For one FMCG supplier we built category analytics that takes two retailers' weekly scan files, checks and classifies them automatically, and puts them into one shared view that buyers, brand and supply all work from. It is the kind of work our custom software service covers, scoped and priced as a fixed fee before any code is written.
What should you check in your retailer data agreement?
Retailer data comes with terms, and they usually restrict what you can do with it. Before you build anything, check your data agreement for:
- who inside your business is allowed to see the data
- whether you can store it in your own systems, and for how long
- whether you can share it with a consultant, broker, agency or software provider
- whether it can be combined with another retailer's data
- whether it can be used with AI tools.
If the answer to any of these is unclear, ask the retailer before you send the files to anyone, including us. When we host client data, it is stored and processed in Australia and never used to train AI models.
Frequently asked questions
Is Coles sales data free for suppliers? Coles told the ACCC that all suppliers get their own sales, profit, item forecast and distribution centre data at no cost through Coles Supplier Central. Broader benchmarking data comes through a Coles Synergy subscription priced by supplier size.
Do I need Circana or NielsenIQ data as well? Only if you need a whole-of-market view across retailers. For a small supplier managing its own lines at Coles and Woolworths, the retailers' own data is usually the place to start.
Can AI analyse retailer scan data? Yes, once the data is clean and the definitions are agreed. AI can answer plain-English questions over your own numbers, as long as it states the period and denominator and a person checks anything going to a buyer. Check your data agreement allows it first.
How long does it take to set up a weekly category view? Start with one retailer and one category. Focused builds we've quoted have run two to six weeks, with the scope, fixed price and date agreed in writing first.
If your team spends the start of every week reconciling retailer files, book a free 30-minute chat at /book. We'll look at what you have and tell you whether a portal, a spreadsheet or a custom view is the right fit.