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  3. /Detecting assortment cuts and SKU rationalization
Use case

How can you tell if a brand or retailer is cutting its product range?

A genuine range cut appears as a sustained fall in active products with matching delistings, not a temporary stock-out. Tracking assortment counts, last-seen dates and new-product flow weekly, by brand, retailer and category, shows whether a company is rationalizing its own range or losing shelf space at retailers.

For:Public market investorsPrivate equityConsultants

Last reviewed 24 September 2026

Separating a cut from noise

  • Sustained: counts stay lower for several weeks, not one.
  • Broad: the fall appears across retailers, or is concentrated at one (shelf-space loss).
  • Delisted, not out of stock: products stop appearing rather than showing as unavailable.
  • Newness: fewer new launches replacing delisted products confirms a smaller range.

Why it matters

Brand-led rationalization can lift margins and simplify inventory. Retailer-led cuts mean lost distribution. The same headline fall in product count has opposite implications, so the split by retailer and channel is essential.

Metrics used

  • Assortment rationalization: A deliberate reduction in the number of products a brand or retailer offers, often called SKU rationalization.
  • Assortment count: The number of distinct products a brand or retailer has live for sale at a point in time.
  • New-product share: The percentage of a brand's live assortment that was first seen within a recent window, such as the last 13 weeks.
  • Share of shelf (online): A brand's share of the products a retailer lists in a category, measured on the retailer's website.

How each measure is built: methodology.

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Data Purl turns public retailer websites into investment-grade data: SKU-level price, discount, availability and assortment history across 400+ retailers back to 2013, with brands resolved to their owners, public or private, and listed owners mapped to tickers.

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