Benchmarking Frequent Questions
What Information do I have to provide?
The minimum information you must provide is a daily sales total and number of sales for that day. You may scale these numbers
if you wish, but you must use the same scaling constant. With a scaling constant, we have no idea of your "real" figures, but this
scaling does not impact amalgamation and comparison.
Optionally, you can provide more detail, right down to individual sales which allows you to access more indepth reports.
Can anybody see my figures?
No. Only you can see your individual figures. We only ever use your figures in aggregate with other retailers.
Can I be anonymous?
Yes. We do not need to know your store name or exact details. However, as an anonymous retailer you are grouped seperately and
only shown information to this level. You can chose to authenticate your account, which provides external proof that you are
a bona-fide retailer, but does not store any additional information about who you are on the internet.
What stops people uploading garbage?
Nothing really, but you will never see an aggregate (eg your sales vs other retailers) without your data being included. It would be very
hard for you to remove your figures from the aggregate totals as you do not know what percentage you are.
We also perform a number of heuristic checks on your data, and may not include this in other retailers aggregates if we suspect you are uploading
fictional sales. Authenticated and trusted users are also often shown the subset of other trusted users.
What is a group, and why do I have to pay for them?
A group is a selection of retailers that wish to be compared to each other. Typically this will be franchisee stores, or members of a retail
association. They are charged as our servers have to process information and create totals for each group seperately. The charge is for
the group itself, not each member of the group.
How can I upload data?
- XML or JSON API, for automated or high volume use.
- (Coming soon) Uploading .XLSX spreadsheet in a specific format
- Manual data entry
Note, that if you are using Electronic Receipts we are able to use these sales for loading into benchmarking (if you enable it)
What currency do I use?
Enter your figures in your normal currency of operation.
I am a wholesaler / distributor / brand owner, can I see reports on my retailers performance of my brands?
We are looking at this.