Elisabeth: What are units per store per week (u/s/w) and dollars per store per week?
Scott: They are two of the key measurements of productivity that Walmart uses. They take into account the number of stores that the item is in.
Elisabeth: What is the calculation?
Scott: Over any period of time. Total units sold/average number of stores with inventory during that period
Elisabeth: Can you give me an example?
Scott: Let’s say in the last 4 weeks item 12345 sold 7500 units and was in an average of 3500 stores, therefore the u/s/w is 7000/3500 or 2.14 .
Compare this to item 6789 sold 8,000 units but it was in average of 4700 stores (1.70)
Even though item 12345 sold less units than item 6789, in u/s/w 12345 is significantly better and therefore in this measurement Walmart may look at item 12345 as a better item. U/s/w is not the only measurement, but because it takes the distribution of how many potential customers see the item, it is a more accurate measurement.
Note that the denominator (the number of stores) is the number of stores with inventory, NOT the number of stores with sales.
Every item no matter how productive will have some stores without sales.
The calculation can be done on any item or set of items, store or set of stores, and week or set of weeks.
U/s/w and d/s/w help Walmart determine whether your item is productive and if they want to continue selling your product(s).