Sprouts Farmers Market is one of the best chains a growing CPG brand can land. The shopper is engaged, the buyer team cares about innovation, and the per-store velocity expectations are reasonable for emerging brands. The catch is that Sprouts also has the most data-driven category review process of any natural grocer. Walk in without store-level insight and you walk out without expanded distribution.
The good news is that Sprouts gives you the data. The SCAN portal, the Crisp integration, and your syndicated SPINS or NielsenIQ overlay together provide a full picture of how your product is performing in every door. The brands that use that data well grow distribution, defend shelf, and earn more demo slots. The brands that ignore it lose shelf to competitors who actually read their numbers.
The Sprouts Data Ecosystem
Before you can read Sprouts data, you need to know where it lives and what each source actually shows you.
Sprouts SCAN portal. SCAN is Sprouts' vendor-facing reporting tool. It is the primary source of store-level sales data for brands selling directly to Sprouts or through UNFI/KeHE into Sprouts. SCAN gives you weekly units sold, dollars sold, on-hand inventory, and store rank within district for every SKU in every door. Access is granted through your Sprouts category manager. If you do not have SCAN access, ask for it as soon as your first PO ships.
Crisp integration for Sprouts. Crisp is a retail data platform that pulls Sprouts data (along with UNFI, KeHE, Whole Foods, and dozens of other retailers and distributors) into a single dashboard. Many brands use Crisp because it normalizes the data across sources, automates reporting, and makes year-over-year comparisons easy. Crisp pricing scales with the number of data sources and SKUs, so smaller brands often start with SCAN directly and add Crisp once they need cross-retailer analysis.
Syndicated SPINS or NielsenIQ overlay. SCAN tells you what is happening inside Sprouts. SPINS or NielsenIQ tells you what is happening in the broader natural channel and how your performance compares to category benchmarks. The overlay matters because your Sprouts buyer thinks in category share, not just absolute units. Knowing your share of the functional beverage set across natural channel gives you a credible argument when you ask for an additional facing.
Sprouts SCAN shows you what is happening in your stores. Crisp helps you normalize that data alongside other retailers. SPINS or NielsenIQ tells you how Sprouts performance compares to the rest of the category. You need all three views to make sharp distribution and demo decisions.
What Sprouts Store Level Data Actually Shows You
Once you have SCAN access, you will see a few specific data points per store per SKU per week. Understanding each one is the foundation of every decision that follows.
Units sold per store per week (UPSW). This is your single most important metric. It tells you how fast your product is turning at the shelf. Sprouts' internal velocity benchmark for emerging brands varies by category, but as a rule of thumb, anything below 1 unit per store per week is at risk. Anything above 3 to 4 is strong. Above 6 to 8 is exceptional and earns you negotiating leverage.
Dollars sold per store per week. Dollars matter for category share comparisons and for buyer conversations. Dollar velocity is also what shows up in SPINS-equivalent calculations. A $5 product selling 2 units a week looks very different from a $12 product selling 2 units a week, even though both have the same unit velocity.
On-hand inventory per store. SCAN shows the inventory currently sitting at each store. This number is critical for identifying voids, distribution gaps, and at-risk stores. A store with zero on-hand and zero recent sales is a different problem from a store with 12 on-hand and zero recent sales.
Store rank within district. Sprouts organizes stores into districts. Your store rank tells you how each door compares to other doors in the same district. A bottom-quartile store in a high-volume district can still be a strong absolute performer. A top-ranked store in a small district may have low absolute units. Always read rank alongside absolute numbers.
Sales by week trend. Most SCAN exports include several weeks of historical data. Trend lines matter more than any single week. A store at 2 UPSW that has been trending up for six weeks is a different story than a store at 2 UPSW that has been declining for six weeks.
Reading Distribution Gaps Versus Velocity Issues
The single most useful framework for reading store-level data is separating distribution gaps from velocity issues. They look similar in a summary report and they require completely different responses.
Distribution gap. A distribution gap is a store where your product is supposed to be selling but is not because the product is not physically on the shelf. The signal is a store with zero or near-zero on-hand inventory plus zero or near-zero sales for multiple weeks. The cause is usually an out-of-stock that did not get reordered, a mislocated product in the back room, or a void that was never set up correctly when the store added your item.
Velocity issue. A velocity issue is a store where your product is on the shelf but not selling. The signal is a store with normal on-hand inventory (often elevated because nothing is moving) plus low or zero sales. The cause is usually demographic mismatch, shelf placement problems (bottom shelf, wrong aisle), competitive pressure, or pricing that does not work for that specific store's shopper.
The reason this distinction matters is that the fix is completely different. Distribution gaps get solved by working with the Sprouts merchandising team, the store director, or your DSD/distributor rep to get product back on the shelf. Velocity issues get solved by demos, price promotions, or in some cases by accepting that a particular store is not the right fit and not chasing it further.
Build a simple traffic-light view of every Sprouts door in a spreadsheet. Green for stores at or above your target UPSW. Yellow for borderline stores. Red for stores with either distribution gaps or chronic underperformance. Update it weekly. Take it to every category review. Buyers respect founders who know their numbers door by door.
Using Store Level Data for Demo Placement
Demo dollars are limited. Spending them in the wrong stores is one of the most common mistakes in CPG. Store-level data tells you exactly where each demo dollar will deliver the most return.
Concentrate demos where velocity is borderline. The highest-return demo store is one where your product is selling at 1.5 to 2.5 UPSW. A good demo can push it past the 3 UPSW threshold where the buyer stops worrying about the store. Demoing in a store already at 6 UPSW gives you a temporary bump but no durable distribution defense. Demoing in a store at 0.2 UPSW often cannot move the needle enough to matter.
Avoid demos in stores with distribution gaps. If a store has zero on-hand inventory, a demo will not save it. Fix the distribution gap first, give the store two to four weeks to establish a baseline, then schedule the demo if velocity is still borderline.
Use district context to set demo targets. A store at 2 UPSW in a high-volume district has more upside than the same store in a low-volume district. The shopper count is higher and the percentage lift from a demo translates to more absolute units. Prioritize demos in stronger districts when your data supports it.
Track demo lift specifically. Pull SCAN data for every demo store for the four weeks before and the four weeks after the demo. The four-week post-demo trend tells you whether the demo created durable lift or just a one-week bump. Brands that track this rigorously stop spending money on demo formats that do not deliver durable lift.
Promotional Analysis
TPRs (temporary price reductions) and AAPs (ad/promotional placements) are the other big lever inside Sprouts. Store-level data lets you measure their actual impact instead of guessing.
Establish baseline weeks. Before any promotion, pull the prior four to eight weeks of UPSW and dollars per store. That is your baseline. Without a baseline, you cannot calculate lift.
Measure lift during the promotion. During the promotional weeks, compare UPSW and dollars to baseline. A successful TPR typically delivers 30 to 80 percent unit lift in the natural channel, depending on category and discount depth. If your TPR is showing 10 percent lift, the discount may not be deep enough, the promotion may not be communicated at shelf, or the shopper may not be price-sensitive at that store.
Measure post-promotion behavior. The most important measurement is what happens in the four weeks after the promotion ends. If your UPSW returns to baseline, the promotion drove pull-forward consumption but no new trial. If your UPSW settles above baseline, the promotion drove new trial and you can justify the spend. If your UPSW drops below baseline, your shoppers stocked up during the promotion and you essentially gave away margin you would have earned anyway.
Compare AAP performance across stores. Ad placements that work in some stores fail in others. Look at lift by store and identify which store profiles respond to ads. Some districts have shoppers who respond strongly to circular ads, others do not. Spend AAP dollars in districts where the historical lift justifies it.
The week we stopped picking demo stores by gut and started picking them by SCAN velocity, our demo ROI doubled. Same demo team, same demo SKU, just better targeting.
Inventory Management and Void Prevention
Store-level inventory data is your early warning system for voids. A void (your product getting cut from a store) almost always shows up in the data before it shows up in your sales reports.
Flag chronic out-of-stocks. A store with repeated zero on-hand weeks is on a path to being voided. Sprouts category teams review distribution efficiency, and a store with 30 percent out-of-stock weeks gets identified as a candidate for cuts. Flag any store with more than two zero on-hand weeks in a rolling eight-week window and work with your rep or DSD to investigate.
Forecast reorders proactively. Use weekly UPSW per store to forecast when each store will need its next reorder. If a store moves 5 units per week and on-hand is currently 8, you have less than two weeks before stockout. Reach out to your distributor sales rep or, if you sell direct, to the Sprouts replenishment team before the void happens.
Identify at-risk stores before voids hit. Stores trending toward underperformance show several signals: declining UPSW, rising on-hand inventory, dropping store rank, and falling weeks of supply turnover. Any two of those signals together means the store is at risk in the next category review. Have a defense ready (demo schedule, promo plan, shelf placement request) before the review, not after the void.
Founders focus only on top-performing stores because those numbers feel good to look at. The brands that grow Sprouts distribution focus on the bottom quartile, where there is either a fixable distribution gap or a borderline velocity story that a demo or promo can save. Defending the stores you have is cheaper than winning new ones.
Reading SCAN door by door takes hours every week, and those are hours you would rather spend opening the next chain instead of chasing reports.
Opener identifies best-fit retailers, verifies buyer contacts, and runs personalized outreach so you spend your week growing distribution instead of chasing data.
Book a DemoBest Practices for a Monthly Sprouts Business Review
The brands that grow inside Sprouts run a structured monthly business review using SCAN data. The exact format varies, but the disciplined ones share a common rhythm.
Pull SCAN data once a week, every week. Do not wait until the end of the month to pull a four-week summary. Weekly data lets you catch out-of-stocks and reorder issues fast. The end-of-month review then becomes a strategic summary, not a fire drill.
Build a one-page dashboard. Total UPSW across all stores. Number of stores in each traffic-light category (green, yellow, red). Distribution count versus authorized count. Promotional lift and post-promotional retention from any recent activity. Year-over-year comparison if you have it. One page, every month.
Identify the top three issues and top three opportunities. Examples of issues: 14 stores with chronic out-of-stocks in the Pacific Northwest district, 6 stores with declining UPSW in Texas. Examples of opportunities: 8 borderline-velocity stores in the Southeast that justify a demo investment, 3 districts with strong year-over-year trend that justify an ACV expansion conversation.
Take action with named owners and dates. Every issue and opportunity gets a named owner (you, your broker, your distributor rep) and a date. Without that, nothing happens. The review becomes a status update instead of a growth engine.
Bring the review to your category manager quarterly. Once a quarter, walk your Sprouts buyer through a polished version of this review. Show what is working, what is not, and what you are doing about each one. Buyers reward founders who treat the business like a partnership and bring data to every conversation.
Sprouts category managers see hundreds of brands per category review cycle. The brands that come prepared with store-level data, a clear story about velocity drivers, and a specific ask (additional facings, a new SKU authorization, a promotional calendar) get heard. The brands that show up with a hero deck and no SCAN report get politely passed over.
The same discipline that grows your Sprouts business applies to every chain you pursue next, and the hardest part is usually getting in front of the right buyer in the first place.
Opener helps CPG brands identify best-fit retailers, find verified buyer contacts, and run personalized outreach on autopilot.
Book a DemoSprouts gives you more transparent store-level data than almost any other natural grocer. That data is only valuable if you read it weekly, separate distribution issues from velocity issues, target your demo and promo dollars where they will deliver durable lift, and show up to every buyer conversation knowing your numbers cold. The brands that build this discipline grow distribution; the brands that wing it lose shelf.