Walmart gives suppliers access to dozens of metrics through Scintilla — sales dollars, units, instock, AUR, GMROII, fill rate, weeks of supply, margin, comp sales, tender amounts, forecast accuracy, and more. It's a lot of data.
But not all metrics carry equal weight. When your Walmart buyer opens their dashboard to evaluate your business, they're looking at a specific set of KPIs. These are the numbers that determine whether you get more shelf space or less, whether your item stays in the planogram or gets dropped, whether the conversation at your next line review is a celebration or an intervention.
Here are the 7 KPIs that actually drive those decisions.
1. Omni Sales (Store + eCommerce)
What it is: Total sales dollars across all channels — brick-and-mortar stores plus walmart.com (including pickup and delivery).
Why it matters most: Sales is the fundamental measure of your business at Walmart. Everything else — instock, margin, forecast accuracy — exists in service of sales. A supplier with growing sales gets the benefit of the doubt on other metrics. A supplier with declining sales gets scrutiny on everything.
What buyers look for:
- Year-over-year growth — Are you growing faster than the category?
- Week-over-week consistency — Are sales stable, or are there concerning dips?
- YTD trajectory — Where will you end up if current trends continue?
How to track it: Sum your Sales & Inventory (store) and eComm Sales datasets. Track weekly, and build a 52-week trend to show your trajectory.
The nuance: Buyers don't just look at your absolute sales — they look at your sales relative to the category and relative to the competition. If you grew 5% but the category grew 12%, you actually lost share. If category context is available, use it.
2. Instock Percentage
What it is: The percentage of your authorized item-store combinations that have product on the shelf at any given time.
Why it's critical: Instock is the operational metric buyers care about most after sales. It directly measures whether you're keeping product available for customers. Low instock means lost sales, and Walmart takes lost sales personally.
What buyers look for:
- Absolute level — Is it above 95%? Above 97%?
- Trend direction — Is it improving or deteriorating?
- Item-level outliers — Are a few items dragging the whole number down?
How to track it: Your Vendor Scorecard has the official Walmart-calculated instock. You can also calculate it from Sales & Inventory data by checking on-hand quantities across valid stores.
The threshold: Category-dependent, but in general: below 95% triggers a conversation, below 92% triggers a corrective action request. For eCommerce, the bar is higher — 98% is the target.
3. OTIF (On Time In Full)
What it is: The percentage of your shipments that arrive at Walmart's distribution centers (a) by the Must Arrive By Date, and (b) with the full ordered quantity.
Why buyers watch it: OTIF is Walmart's flagship supply chain metric, introduced as a formal supplier compliance program. It measures whether you, as a supplier, are reliable. Late shipments and short shipments create downstream problems — DC inventory gaps, store out-of-stocks, and extra handling costs.
What buyers look for:
- On Time percentage — Did shipments arrive by the MABD?
- In Full percentage — Did shipments contain the full ordered quantity?
- Combined OTIF — Both on time AND in full (this is the headline number)
How to track it: Your Vendor Scorecard includes OTIF metrics. Tender Analysis data can help you cross-reference specific POs against delivery performance.
The stakes: Poor OTIF can result in financial penalties (fines), reduced order quantities, or loss of direct-store-delivery privileges. It's not just a metric — it has direct financial consequences.
4. Average Unit Retail (AUR)
What it is: The average selling price per unit, calculated as total sales dollars divided by total units sold.
Why it matters: AUR tells you what customers are actually paying for your product. It reflects your pricing strategy, promotional cadence, and markdown activity. A declining AUR means you're selling cheaper — which might be intentional (promotions) or might signal a problem (excessive markdowns, price competition).
What buyers look for:
- AUR vs. last year — Is pricing stable, or eroding?
- AUR vs. category average — Are you priced appropriately relative to competitors?
- AUR trend during promotions — How deep are your promos, and are they driving enough volume to justify the margin hit?
How to track it: Calculate from Sales & Inventory: pos_sales_dollars / pos_sales_units. Track weekly and compare year-over-year.
The strategic angle: AUR is where merchandising and finance intersect. Your buyer manages a category budget, and your AUR directly impacts their margin mix. If your AUR is dropping without a corresponding increase in units, you're becoming a less profitable part of their category — and that's a dangerous position.
5. Sell-Through Rate
What it is: The rate at which product sells relative to what's been shipped in. Typically calculated as units sold divided by units received over a given period.
Why buyers care: Sell-through measures the health of your inventory flow. A high sell-through rate means product is moving quickly — stores are selling what they receive, and inventory isn't sitting. A low sell-through rate means product is accumulating, which ties up shelf space and warehouse capacity.
What buyers look for:
- Category-appropriate velocity — Different categories have different norms. Consumables sell through faster than seasonal goods.
- Declining sell-through — A drop in sell-through often predicts a future problem: markdowns, clearance, or returns.
- New item sell-through — For new items in the planogram, sell-through in the first 4-8 weeks determines whether the item stays.
How to track it: Combine Sales & Inventory (units sold) with DC Metrics or Tender Analysis (units received/shipped). Calculate rolling 4-week sell-through for a smoothed view.
Why it matters for shelf space: Walmart's planogram decisions are heavily influenced by sell-through. Items with strong sell-through earn more facings. Items with weak sell-through get fewer facings — or get cut entirely at the next modular reset.
6. Weeks of Supply
What it is: How many weeks of sales your current inventory can cover, assuming the current sales rate continues. Calculated as on-hand inventory units divided by average weekly units sold.
Why it matters: Weeks of supply is the balance metric. Too low (under 2-3 weeks) and you risk going out of stock. Too high (over 8-10 weeks for most categories) and inventory is sitting, occupying shelf space and potentially needing markdowns.
What buyers look for:
- Is it in the target range? — Most categories target 3-6 weeks of supply at the store level and 2-4 weeks at the DC level. Your buyer knows the appropriate range for your category.
- Is it consistent? — Spiky weeks of supply (bouncing between 1 week and 10 weeks) indicates replenishment instability.
- DC vs. store alignment — If the DC has 8 weeks of supply but stores are running at 1 week, there's a distribution problem.
How to track it: Calculate from Sales & Inventory: on_hand_quantity / avg_weekly_units_sold. Check at both store and DC levels using DC Metrics data.
The buyer's perspective: A buyer managing 500 items in a category doesn't have time to monitor every item's inventory. They look at weeks of supply as a quick health check. If your numbers are in range, you don't get a conversation. If they're out of range — in either direction — you will.
7. Digital Penetration
What it is: The share of your total sales that comes through eCommerce channels (walmart.com, pickup, delivery) as opposed to in-store purchases.
Why it's increasingly important: Walmart's eCommerce business is growing faster than its store business. Buyers are expected to grow their digital numbers, and that means they're evaluating suppliers partly on their eCommerce contribution. A supplier with strong store performance but no eCommerce presence is leaving growth on the table — and that's a gap your buyer will notice.
What buyers look for:
- Penetration vs. category average — If the category is 15% digital but you're only 5%, you're underperforming online.
- Digital growth rate — Even if your absolute digital penetration is low, a strong growth rate shows momentum.
- Online availability — Are your items listed, in stock, and available for all fulfillment methods (shipping, pickup, delivery)?
How to track it: Calculate from your Sales & Inventory (store sales) and eComm Sales data: ecomm_sales / (store_sales + ecomm_sales) × 100.
The strategic play: Digital penetration isn't just a metric — it's a growth lever. If your items are well-positioned for online purchase (good images, accurate descriptions, competitive pricing, strong reviews), you can grow total sales without needing more physical shelf space.
Putting It Together
These 7 KPIs — Omni Sales, Instock, OTIF, AUR, Sell-Through, Weeks of Supply, and Digital Penetration — form a complete picture of your Walmart business:
| KPI | What It Answers |
|---|---|
| Omni Sales | Is the business growing? |
| Instock | Are we capturing available demand? |
| OTIF | Are we a reliable supply chain partner? |
| AUR | Is our pricing healthy? |
| Sell-Through | Is product moving at the right velocity? |
| Weeks of Supply | Is inventory balanced? |
| Digital Penetration | Are we capturing online growth? |
No single metric tells the full story. A supplier with strong sales but poor instock is leaving money on the table. A supplier with great instock but declining AUR is becoming less profitable. A supplier with good store performance but low digital penetration is missing the fastest-growing channel.
The best suppliers track all 7, understand how they interact, and present them as a cohesive narrative to their buyer.
Building Your Weekly KPI Dashboard
Every week when your Scintilla data drops, update these 7 numbers. Track them week over week, compare to last year, and flag anything that moves more than 10-15% in either direction.
Over time, this weekly discipline gives you something invaluable: the ability to see problems before they become crises, and to present opportunities with the data to back them up.
Your buyer evaluates your business through these metrics. Make sure you're evaluating it through the same lens.