The Grips Market Share Maximizer is a powerful and flexible tool that is intended to help  brands (manufacturers) compare themselves against competitor brands and provide them with the insights needed to sell more of their products and expand their market share.

Here is a quick video introduction:

With this tool it is possible to answer the following questions from the perspective of a brand:

• Which of my current retailers can I sell more of my products to?
• What are the best new retailers to sell my products to?
• Which are the up and coming growing retailers that I should focus on selling to?
• Which are the up and coming growing brands who are my competitors?
• What is my market share compared to other competitor brands?
• What is the sellout of my products on retailers?
• How can I benchmark my success against similar brands?

and more…

To dig deeper into how to leverage this tool to answer those questions and more, this article consists of two parts:

Part 1: a guide that demonstrates how to set up a report
Part 2: the intended use cases and how you can achieve them with the report

Part 1: Creating a report

Step 1: define the brands

Brands are the primary dimension in the report. Here select the brands that you are comparing your brand against and would like to take market share from. It is possible to skip this step, but then you will get all brands considering the other inputs (product categories, country, domains).

Step 2: define country

Define country you would like to analyze.

Step 3: select the product category

Here you will select the highest-level product category that you are interested, considering the brands and country that you have just defined. In the report it will be possible to see the sub-categories as well. It is possible to skip this step, but then you will get all the top-level product categories considering the other inputs (brands, country, domains).

 

Step 4: select domains

Select the domains you are interested in seeing sales for considering the brands, country and product category you have already selected. It is possible to skip this step, but then you will get all domains considering the other inputs (product categories, country, brands).

In the end, you need to select a country and at least one from the list: brand, product category or domain.

Analyzing the generated report

The result is a report built considering all the criteria applied during the setup.

Revenue share 

The first chart shows us the share of revenue for each of the brands we selected, considering the country, product category and retailer filters we applied. 

Similarly, we can also analyze the share of revenue for the retailers we included by changing the dropdown: 

And also for the product categories:

For brands, product categories and retailers, we can also observe how those shares change over time (click on the trended chart icon to enable this):

Revenue growth 

We can also analyze how these brands are growing. To better understand this chart, here each brand has their August 2022 revenue value set to 100, and then we can see how much they grew or declined each month in comparison. 

Similarly, we can also analyze the revenue growth for retailers: 

And for product categories: 

Retailer revenue analysis

Here we can dig deeper into where a brand is selling their products, and discover the next best retail channels for them to focus on.

The horizontal line chart demonstrates the revenue share for each brand, which can be used to benchmark a brands share of sales for each retailer:

 

On the table for each brand we can select the following metrics: 

• shares: the share of revenue each brand has for each retailer considering the filters set during the config steps (brands, retailers, product categories) 
• shares growth: percent growth change compared to the previous period
• shares change:  percent change (delta) compared to the previous period
  

 

This column is calculating the revenue share by retailer, which is the total revenue of this defined market / revenue from this retailer:

 

Each of the columns for each brand is sortable, and you can define which brands are included in the table:

Data download 

All charts seen here can be download:

 

 

 

Part 2: Use cases

Below are the intended use cases for brands for the Market Share Maximizer and exactly how you can configure the report to find actionable insights.

Increase retailer channel sales with current partners

Example pain point:

Of the retailers I’m selling to, I don’t know my own online sales and I don’t know how well my competitors are selling on those retailers

Report configuration

During the report setup, define your brand and your competitors brands, the current domains where you are selling your products, and optionally define a category if you want to do this analysis just for a specific category. Configure the country and date range you would like to analyze.

Where to find this in the report

On the table “Retailer revenue analysis” you will see a list of retailers and the share of sales for each brand.

The first step would be to look at the table sorted by “Retailer market share” column to understand the most important retailers for your competitor brands and product category:

 

 

In this example view, if our brand was Yamaha, we can already make several conclusions:

• Yamaha’s performance on large domains like Cruchfield.com, Bestbuy.com and Walmart.com is significantly lower than their own overall 11% market share.
• Bestbuy.com has a sizable 6.7% of sales, but yet Yamaha has < 1% share of sales there.
• Amazon.com is the most important retailer in this custom market. Yamaha’s 17% of sales is better than Yamaha’s own overall 11% market share, but still below other competitor brands such as JBL, Sonos and Klipsch.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, Yamaha has a list of current retailers that they could focus on to start selling more of their products.

 

Increase retailer channel sales with new partners

Example pain point:

I don’t know if there are revenue-generating retailers that i’m missing out on and which of these new retailers are driving high sales for my competitors

Report configuration

During the report setup, define only your competitor brands, and optionally define a product category you’d like to focus on. Don’t define the domains you’d like to see, because here we are looking for new opportunities.

Where to find this in the report

On the table “Retailer revenue analysis” you will see a list of retailers and the share of sales for each brand.

For discovering your brand’s new retail partners, the first step would be to look at the table, and sort by descending for your brand’s column, to see the retailers where you nearly no sales:

In this example view, if our brand was Yamaha, we can already make several conclusions:

• On Costco.com Yamaha is selling nearly nothing, while Klipsch and Bose have the full share of sales
• Target.com Yamaha also has nearly 0 sales where Sonos has nearly the full share of sales.
• Rei.com and Kohls.com JBL has 100% of sales and again Yamaha nearly no sales.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, Yamaha has a list of new retailers that they could focus on to start selling more of their products.

Find new high-growth retailers

Example pain point:

I don’t know the high growth retailers that I should target

Report configuration

During report setup define the competitor brands you’d like to analyze, optionally define the product category, but don’t define any retailers because we don’t want to limit the discovery of high growth retailers.

Where to find this in the report

There are two places in the report that can help answer this question. First, on the revenue growth chart. There you can select the “domains” as the primary dimension. The domains you see plotted by default are the top domains.

 

Next, we can see growth rates on the Retailer revenue analysis table. First in the date picker define the dates that will be compared to calculate the growth:

Then on the table we will select “Shares growth”

 

In this example view, if our brand was Yamaha, we can already discover several relevant and high-growth retailers:

• Tmraudio.com has seen 84% YoY growth, while Yamaha’s sales have decreased.
• Musicstore.com has seen 81% YoY growth in this market, but Yamaha’s share of sales is decreasing, while Bose’s increasing.
• Samsclub.com has seen 43% in YoY growth, with Bose and JBL also growing, but Yamaha has seen nearly no growth.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, Yamaha has a list of top growing retailers that they could focus on to start selling more of their products.

Discovering how your competitor brands are growing

Example pain point:

I don’t know how my competitor brands are growing

Report configuration

During report setup define the competitor brands you’d like to analyze, optionally define the product category and retailers.

Where to find this in the report

There are two places in the report that can help answer this question. First, on the revenue growth chart. There you can select the “brands” as the primary dimension.

The second place is in the table, where you can select the metric “Revenue share growth” and then sort the table on that column for the brands.

 

In this example view, we can identify the top growing brands and how on which retailers they are getting the most growth.

• In the first time series chart, we can see in October 2023 it was Bose that grew the most, then Sonos and then JBL.
• Again in the first time series chart, we can see that Yamaha has the lowest growth throughout the entire period.
• On the table, we can then understand on what retailers the top growing brand is generating its growth from: Target.com, musicstor.com, walmart.com, costco.com, adorama.com, etc.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, Yamaha has a list of top growing brands in the speakers category, and a list of the retailers from where these brands are generating their growth.

Brand market share analysis

Example pain point:

I lack awareness of both my market share and size, consequently I don’t know how much I need to improve to outperform my competitors.

Report configuration

During report setup define the competitor brands you’d like to analyze, optionally define the product category and retailers. This parameters are all taken into account when defining the size of your market. Or, you could just define a product category, and then you’d see all brands and their market share for this category, e.g. all the brands selling speakers in the US.

Where to find this in the report

There are two places in the report that can help answer this question. First, on the revenue growth chart. There you can select the “brands” as the primary dimension.

And how those shares are changing over time:

 

In this example view, we can identify the top brands by market share:

• JBL at about 26% market share is the market leader for speaker sales in the US, followed by Sonos and Bose.
• Yamaha at about 14% market share, has the lowest market share for speakers in the US and it has held that position since September 2022.
• During March and April 2023, Sonos took the lead for market share.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, if we were Yamaha, we would understand who are top competitors are in speakers, and could carefully track how these market shares changes as we implement further growth strategies.

Assortment review of other brands

Example pain point:

I don’t have visibility of which product categories are driving revenue for competitors. As a result, I lack information on which product categories I should invest time and resources on

Report configuration

During report setup define the competitor brands you’d like to analyze. If you don’t define a product category, you will see all the top level product categories in the report, which would be how you would analyze all the product categories the brands are selling.  But if there is a specific parent product category you are interested in, select this, and you will see the performance of its subcategories plotted. Defining retailers is optional.

Where to find this in the report

On the first chart showing shares, you can select product categories and you will see the share of revenue by product category.

Electronics is relevant for this set of brands so let’s adjust the config and look at this product category:

We can see that here “Electronics accessories” is the highest growing:

We can dig further and then can discover that that remote controls are growing, and the primary brand that is selling them is Bose:

 

In this example we have discovered:

• Within the Electronics category for these brands, ultimately remotes are growing significantly.
• Bose currently has the most market share for remote sales.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, if we were Yamaha, we could consider further developing remotes as products.

Discover growing product categories so I can develop new products

Example pain point:

I don’t know what are the growing product categories are where I should develop my next products

Report configuration

Select a high-level product category  that you would like to see the performance of its subcategories. You don’t have to define the brands or retailers, because we want to see the top growing categories regardless of these parameters.

Where to find this in the report

The best chart would be the growth chart, which if you select product categories, will plot the top growing product categories. Within the category “Audio Accessories” we can see “Microphone stands” are the top growing.

If we then drill down into “Microphone stands” we can then see the brands with the largest market share and growth:

In this example we have discovered:

• Within the Electronics category, and then within the “Electronics accessories” category we can see “Microphone stands” were growing the most
• Within “Microphone stands” Samson is the brand with the most market share, but Logitech is the brand growing the most.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, if we were a brand developing new audio accessory products, we could consider further developing microphones as products, while closely monitoring the products from Samson and Logitech.

Understand competitor D2C performance

Example pain point:

I have access to my D2C performance but don’t know how competitors D2C sites are performing. If competitors are outperforming me on their D2C channel, I lack the information to understand why.

Report configuration

While this use case certainly relates to a brand trying to maximize their market share, the best place to understand D2C performance is through our other use case module, the Head to Head comparison. This builds a report looking at the performance of several domains compared against one another. In the configuration of this report, you can define the exact domains you would like to compare.

Where to find this in the report

The entire report will help you to better understand D2C performance. At the top you can see revenue shares for each D2C page you’ve included, and then time series performance  (including daily data), and then into channels and devices.

And how these shares change over time since 2019:

In this example we have learned:

• Sonos.com has the largest D2C business, followed by Bose.com and then JBL.com
• Within “Microphone stands” Samson is the brand with the most market share, but Logitech is the brand growing the most.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, if we were a brand developing new audio accessory products, we could consider further developing microphones as products, while closely monitoring the products from Samson and Logitech.

For retailers

As a retailer, understanding the top selling brands and product categories of your competitors

Example pain point:

As a retailer, I don’t know the top selling brands and product categories for my competitors and don’t know which of these I focus on in my assortment.

Report configuration

Define the competitor retailers that you would like to analyze, and then optionally if there is a specific product category or brand list you’d like to analyze, define those as well.

Where to find this in the report

The entire report will help you to better understand the performance of your competitor retailers. You can understand the share of sales for the competitor retailers you have selected:

The top brands by revenue for your competitor retailers:

Within the product category “Audio components” we can understand the top selling sub-product categories:

We can also understand the top growing product categories:

Then for each of your competitor retailers, you can understand which brands are driving sales:

In this example we have learned:

• For the competitive set of Bestbuy.com, Crutchfield.com, Walmart.com and Bhphotovideo.com for audio components in the US, Bestbuy.com has the largest market share at about 42.35%.
• Looking at all the brands selling audio components for these retailers, Klipsch has the greatest share of sales across these retailers for audio components in the US at 7.99%, with JBL close behind at 7.74%
• Within “audio components” it is “speakers” that has the greatest share of sales at 71.23% but it is “headphones and headsets” that is growing the most in the past 3 months.
• If we were bestbuy.com, we could see we are losing market share in the past 3 months (down 15% YoY) and that crutchfield.com has increased market share (27% YoY), and it looks like the brands driving that growth are Bose and Yamaha, two brands that are not performing well for bestbuy.com.

Actionable next steps 

With these insights, if we were working at bestbuy.com, we would have insights into the growing brands at competitor retailers as well as growing product categories, and we could therefore adjust our assortment accordingly to capture some of that growth to regain our lost market share.

FAQ

What is the Grips Market Share Maximizer?

The Grips Market Share Maximizer is a tool designed to help brands compare themselves against similar brands. It provides insights to assist in selling more products by analyzing various aspects of brand performance.

What competitive intelligence use cases does the functionality enable?

The functionality enables various e-commerce competitive intelligence use cases, such as comparing brand sales, growth analysis, retailer revenue breakdown, and more.

How can I use the tool to compare brand sales with competitors?

You can configure the report by defining your brand and competitor brands, selecting a country, choosing a product category, and specifying domains. The resulting report will provide insights into brand sales and comparisons.

How do I analyze growth using the Grips Market Share Maximizer?

The tool allows you to analyze how brands are growing over time. The growth chart sets the revenue value of each brand to 100 in a specified month, showing the growth or decline in subsequent months.

How can I discover new high-growth retailers?

To discover high-growth retailers, configure the report by defining competitor brands and optionally a product category. The report will highlight retailers with significant revenue share growth.

How does the tool help in understanding competitor D2C performance?

While the tool primarily focuses on market share maximization, understanding competitor D2C performance is better achieved through the “Head to Head Comparison” feature. This allows a detailed analysis of domain performance.

How can I increase retail channel sales with current and new partners?

To increase retail channel sales with current partners, configure the report by defining your brand and competitor brands, domains, and optionally a product category. For new partners, exclude your brand and focus on competitor brands.

How does the tool assist in assortment review of other brands?

To review the assortment of other brands, define the competitor brands during report setup. The resulting report will show the performance of different product categories for the selected brands.

Can I use the tool to discover growing product categories for product development?

Yes, by selecting a high-level product category (e.g., Apparel and Accessories), you can view the growth chart to identify top-growing subcategories, providing insights for new product development.

I selected a brand or product category or retailer when configuring the report, but why don’t see it in the report?

During the configuration, if you select 5 brands, and then 5 retailers, it is possible that one of those brands aren’t selling products on all of those retailers, and in that case that brand wouldn’t be visible on the report. The same scenario can’t happen with product categories and retailers.