What makes a brand truly win in today’s FMCG market?
Shelf presence is only the first step. The real challenge lies in converting physical availability into consumer choice—turning “on the shelf” into “in the basket.”
With limited room for distribution expansion, global brands must rely on brand stretch, innovation and shopper conversion to fuel growth.
That’s why NIQ is launching the NIQ Brand Traction Score, a unique ranking that highlights the Top FMCG brands across West Europe (Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and the UK) excelling in shelf-to-basket conversion.
Based exclusively on NIQ’s integrated Retail Measurement and Consumer Panel data, the Brand Traction Score identifies the brands and categories that grow by generating more consumer traction as opposed to those that grow by increasing their shelf presence.
Discover the top FMCG brands winning the conversion game in Western Europe!
Note that Brand names follow NIQ’s harmonized syndicated coding as defined in Strategic Planner. Each brand is celebrated in its own identity— Brands with different names in different countries are treated individually and not merged.
*Brand Traction Growth applies to brands that achieved a unit sales increase of 5% or more during the same period.
Source: NIQ Retail Measurement Services & Consumer Panel Services data ending 18th May 2025. Ranking considers 193 brands across Western Europe (Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the UK) with the highest presence (at least 3% penetration in at min. 3 countries and at least 250 Total Distribution Points in the 5 countries). Data refers to in-home consumption only.
Definitions: Total Distribution Points (TDPs) measure a brand’s physical availability by combining breadth (in how many stores) and depth (with how many items) of distribution for a given brand; TDPs are weighted per country’s contribution.
Want to know how your brands is performing and how to improve your Brand Traction?
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What is the NIQ Brand Traction Score?
The NIQ Brand Traction Score is a powerful way to measure how effectively brands convert shelf presence into actual purchases. This score blends Consumer Panel and Retail Measurement data to reveal which brands are best at turning store listings into purchases.
Imagine this:
- Brand A has a 100 Total Distribution Points (Weighted Distribution x number of SKUs per store)
- Across these listings, it gets 500,000 Occasions (number of buyers x occasions per buyer)
- So, Occasions per Distribution Point = 5,000 (500,000 / 100)
This means that, on average, each product listing for Brand A drives 5,000 purchase occasions.
Why it matters
Brands with a high Brand Traction Score are larger, faster-growing, and more efficient at converting visibility into sales. With NIQ’s Brand Traction Score, manufacturers can break down the drivers of brand growth and identify marketing and trade optimization opportunities.
