Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. While the primary users of VELOCITY® software are consumer goods manufacturers, retailers can also purchase and benefit from our specialized analytics applications.

Yes. Retail Velocity works with manufacturers and brands across a wide range of consumer product industries, including but not limited to Food & Beverage, Home & Personal Care, Pet Care, Toys, Apparel & Fashion, Home Textiles, Home Improvement, and other retail-driven categories. Any company that sells products through retailers and needs better access to retailer data can benefit from Retail Velocity's solutions.

No. Retail Velocity does not sell physical POS hardware or POS systems. Instead, we partner with POS vendors to cleanse, harmonize, and normalize daily data at the store and chain level.

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No. Retail Velocity does not sell or distribute retail POS data to non-clients or third parties. We believe data belongs exclusively to the respective generating company, and we never resell a retailer's data or allow unauthorized external access.

Yes. Because VELOCITY® is a cloud-based platform, your internal IT teams can offload technical infrastructure management. Retail Velocity provides full technical and administrative expertise for the VELOCITY® platform, including our Demand Signal Repository,  625+ global retail data adaptors, third-party data imports, and external ERP or business intelligence integrations.

A Demand Signal Repository (DSR) is a centralized, scalable data warehouse that aggregates, cleanses, harmonizes, normalizes, and stores massive volumes of demand data—including retail POS data—to provide an accurate, shared database for enterprise decision-making. 

No. VELOCITY® is a 100% cloud-based analytics platforms built on Microsoft Azure. On-premises configurations are not supported due to the high internal IT infrastructure and staff overhead they require.

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Retail Velocity provides more than 625 international retailer and distributor data adaptors. These adaptors cover both brick-and-mortar stores and digital e-commerce data feeds. New custom adaptors are typically built within a few weeks.

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Yes. Retail Velocity frequently implements multiple data adaptors for a single retailer to accommodate separate data feeds for physical stores versus online e-commerce platforms.

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Major versions of VELOCITY® are released every one to two years. Minor versions, system updates, and patches are released continuously as needed to guarantee constant data availability.

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No. VELOCITY® does not directly execute machine learning algorithms. Instead, VELOCITY® delivers the foundational, cleansed, harmonized, and normalized data required to accurately train external machine learning models, predictive forecasting algorithms, and corporate AI agents.

VELOCITY® automatically collects, cleanses, harmonizes, and normalizes retail point-of-sale (POS), inventory, forecast, order, and shipment data. It can also integrate these data types with your internal ERP and third-party data to establish a single source of truth.

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No. We also collect retailer inventory, forecast, order, and shipment data. We cleanse, harmonize, and normalize this data with your internal/ERP and external data to provide a single source of accurate information to perform deeper retail sales analytics and generate actionable insights.

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Yes. Retail Velocity collects both physical store and online e-commerce retail sales data at the granular SKU and store level on a daily basis.

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Retail Velocity extracts data via APIs, vendor portals, EDI transmissions, and direct file transfers from retailers or clients.

 

Data processing takes a few minutes for small item batches, up to an hour or more for store-level data containing thousands of SKUs from massive global retailers. With optimal delivery, yesterday’s data is completely processed and available at the start of the next business day.

Yes. VELOCITY® isolates country-specific data based on the retailer's market coverage, utilizing either country-segregated data streams or parsing localized market coverage codes embedded within the retailer's data files.

Yes. VELOCITY® can deliver retailer data to virtually any modern data platform, including but not limited to Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, Snowflake, Databricks, SAP HANA, SQL Server, IBM Db2, and other cloud or on-premises environments. We work with your existing technology stack to provide clean, normalized retailer data in the format that best meets your organization's needs.

Yes. While the VELOCITY® platform runs natively on Microsoft Azure for backend security and scalability, it features seamless data compatibility and secure export capabilities with all major external enterprise cloud platforms, data lakes, and internal architectures.

VELOCITY® is designed to process retailer data at the lowest level of granularity provided, including SKU-level and store-level reporting. For retailers that do not supply store-level data, VELOCITY® ingests and normalizes the most detailed information available, such as chain-level, regional, market-level, or other retailer-defined aggregations.

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The data will be imported as soon as it is received by VELOCITY®. VELOCITY®’s processing is not date or time dependent.

Yes. Excel can connect directly to VELOCITY® databases and analytics models, allowing users to build their own reports, formulas, pivot tables, charts, and dashboards. Once configured, reports can be refreshed automatically as new retailer data becomes available, eliminating the need to manually export and recreate spreadsheets.

VELOCITY® delivers retailer data to data lakes, data warehouses, analytics platforms, databases, and business applications. Supported destinations include, but are not limited to, Azure, AWS, Databricks, SAP HANA, Power BI, Tableau, and Excel. Most customers automate data refreshes so reports and applications always use the latest available data.

 

Yes. VELOCITY® supports unique, independent calendars for every individual retailer alongside your main corporate calendar. The software automatically calculates fiscal days, weeks, and months to deliver precise year-over-year sales performance comparisons. 

Our VELOCITY Managed Cloud is hosted on Microsoft Azure, providing advanced encryption, infrastructure-level compliance, and industry-leading cloud security standards, all monitored by certified system administrators.

Yes. VELOCITY® supports scheduled report delivery and data refreshes. Users can schedule reports for distribution or automatically refresh dashboards, Excel workbooks, Power BI reports, Tableau dashboards, and other connected applications as new retailer data becomes available.

Yes. Custom exception parameters can be built directly into reports to highlight issues requiring immediate attention. Event-driven alerts—such as data arrival confirmation or system anomalies—are automatically distributed via email.

Yes. VELOCITY® includes pre-built reports, dashboards, and alerts that support common retail business processes, including sales analysis, inventory management, promotion tracking, replenishment planning, and retailer performance monitoring.

Yes. VELOCITY® supports both custom reporting and direct integration with leading analytics and business intelligence tools. Most customers connect their preferred reporting platforms to VELOCITY® data sources and refresh reports automatically rather than building standalone reports within the application.

Yes. VELOCITY® supports both shared dashboards and automated report distribution. Users can access the latest retailer data through connected analytics tools or receive scheduled reports by email when preferred.

Yes. VELOCITY® includes built-in, customizable dashboards and reporting capabilities that allow users to analyze retailer performance and monitor key business metrics. Users can also create custom reports, dashboards, and analyses tailored to their specific business needs.

Daily retail POS data provides access to current retailer sales and inventory trends at a much greater level of detail than traditional syndicated reporting. By working with retailer-specific, store-level, and SKU-level data, manufacturers can respond more quickly to changes in demand, improve inventory management, measure promotional performance, and identify opportunities before they appear in broader market reports.

Yes. VELOCITY®’s Dashboard Builder tools are based on familiar Excel features, and any experienced Excel user can easily create their own charts, graphs, and reports, which will then be automatically refreshed by VELOCITY® as data is updated.

Transforming data from different retailers into a consistent, standardized format. It aligns product information, store attributes, sales measures, inventory metrics, and reporting structures so data from multiple retailers can be analyzed together accurately, creating a single, trusted foundation. 

Every retailer delivers data differently. Product identifiers, hierarchies, file structures, store attributes, and measures vary significantly. Harmonization removes manual, error-prone cross-retailer comparisons and provides a complete view of performance across all channels. 

They serve three distinct purposes. Data cleansing corrects errors and missing values; data normalization standardizes formats and naming conventions; and data harmonization brings it all together under a common business model for cross-retailer analysis. 

Automatically. It ingests data from a wide range of sources and formats, then validates, cleanses, maps, normalizes, and harmonizes the information into a common data model to standardize your product, inventory, location, and sales data. 

Yes. VELOCITY® is designed to reconcile retailer-specific product identifiers and hierarchies directly to your company's master product structure 

By aligning everything to common business definitions. Everyone across the organization works from the same trusted dataset, which eliminates conflicting reports, spreadsheet discrepancies, and debates about numbers. 

Yes. VELOCITY® maps retailer data to internal master item files, product hierarchies, and ERP structures, allowing you to combine external retailer data with internal operational, financial, supply chain, and planning data. 

All major data formats. We harmonize data from retailers, distributors, e-commerce providers, ERP systems, and third-party sources using APIs, portal downloads, EDI transactions, database connections, Excel, flat files, and cloud-based data sources. 

By feeding them clean, standardized data. Analytics platforms, forecasting tools, and AI models perform best when inconsistencies are reduced. Harmonization provides a stronger foundation for dashboards, machine learning, and advanced insights. 

Yes. It provides a common foundation shared across business functions so sales can monitor performance, supply chain can see inventory, marketing can track promotions, finance can analyze profits, and IT can support integrations. 

Automatically. VELOCITY® retrieves retailer restatements and updates the harmonization process. Historical changes, pricing updates, brand changes, and product revisions are maintained to support accurate year-over-year analysis. 

By replacing manual workflows with automation. It eliminates repetitive formatting, mapping, and validation tasks, which reduces errors, improves consistency, accelerates reporting, and lets analysts focus on insights. 

It transforms fragmented information into a unified, trusted view. It improves accuracy, eliminates spreadsheet discrepancies, accelerates decisions, improves forecasting, enhances Power BI/data warehouse integration, lowers data costs, and boosts cross-team collaboration. 

It eliminates data silos, duplicate records, and reporting conflicts. Retailers use different formats and metrics. Harmonization breaks down department silos, simplifies cross-retailer reporting, improves visibility, and creates a trusted data foundation. 

POS, inventory, product, store, and other retailer reporting data. We collect this data from retailers, distributors, e-commerce providers, internal systems, ERP platforms, and third-party data providers. The data can be prepared for reporting, analytics, and integration into downstream business systems. 

 Yes. VELOCITY® is designed to support a multi-retailer data model and can process data from hundreds of retailer data feeds through a common platform. 

 Yes. Retail Velocity collects and processes both point-of-sale and inventory information to help brands understand product demand, inventory levels, and retailer performance. 

Yes. In addition to retailer data, VELOCITY® supports e-commerce, distributor, internal/ERP, and third-party data sources. 

Daily processing. Retail Velocity retrieves and processes data according to retailer availability and business requirements. Some portals may also be monitored multiple times per day for updates and restatements. 

Validation, cleansing, mapping, and harmonization. Retail Velocity processes the data to create consistent reporting and analytics across retailers and data sources. 

Walmart, Target, Amazon, Home Depot, Lowe's, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Kohl's, to name a few. We continuously expand our automation library to support major retail portals, digital marketplaces, and distributors, reducing manual download tasks across your entire retail network. 

An automated process. It retrieves retailer reports and files from retailer websites and portals, reducing the need for users to manually log in and download reports. 

Multiple acquisition methods. We connect based on retailer capabilities, including APIs, cloud reporting platforms, ODBC/database connections, and automated web portal retrieval. 

APIs, Cloud platforms, ODBC, and Portal Retrieval. We natively support APIs, cloud-based retailer platforms, ODBC/database connections, and automated web portal retrieval, selecting each method based on the retailer's available technology. 

Yes. Retail Velocity maintains portal downloaders that automatically retrieve retailer reports according to scheduled processing rules. 

Yes. Retail Velocity can automatically retrieve restatements and check portals multiple times throughout the day when supported by the retailer platform. 

All major cloud platforms, warehouses, and data lakes. Built on Azure, VELOCITY® supports data delivery into Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric OneLake, AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), SAP, Databricks and more.

VELOCITY®. Our platform seamlessly exports cleansed and harmonized retail POS and inventory data into all major enterprise cloud environments through structured data extracts and automated processes. 

Retail Velocity's VELOCITY® platform. It is a cloud-based retail data management and analytics solution designed specifically for consumer goods manufacturers to handle automated collection, harmonization, data lake integration, and Power BI reporting. 

 Yes. We support integration through automated data extracts, cloud storage delivery, SFTP, and customized structures for direct client access to incremental change data. 

Yes. VELOCITY® supports direct integration with Microsoft Fabric OneLake so organizations can use our data within their preferred Microsoft analytics ecosystem. 

Yes. VELOCITY® can deliver harmonized retailer data into SAP, SAP HANA, and ERP platforms to combine external retailer demand data with internal planning, financial, operational, and supply chain information. 

Through an automated extract framework. This typically includes an initial full data load followed by scheduled incremental extracts containing only new and updated records delivered via SFTP, cloud storage, or approved transfer methods 

Yes. VELOCITY® provides full support for Microsoft Power BI and can deliver harmonized retailer data directly into your reporting and dashboarding environments. 

Yes. VELOCITY® supports direct access through Excel and Power BI, allowing business users to work with timely, harmonized data without manually maintaining spreadsheets. 

Yes. If your organization does not have an established enterprise data platform, we can deliver your harmonized retail data into Microsoft Fabric OneLake to act as your central reporting repository. Alternatively, VELOCITY® can seamlessly complement and feed your existing enterprise architecture. 

OneLake is a unified data lake storage layer. It serves as the foundation for Microsoft Fabric, combining the flexible storage of an enterprise data lake with the advanced relational querying capabilities of a modern data warehouse. 

Yes. It can simultaneously support direct reporting within the VELOCITY platform, delivery to enterprise data lakes, and integration with third-party business systems. 

Through incremental extraction and delivery models. By transferring only changed records after the initial baseline extract, network usage, storage requirements, and downstream processing costs are lowered. 

Yes. Many organizations use VELOCITY® as the system of record for retailer POS, inventory, distributor, and e-commerce data while leveraging Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, OneLake, Excel, and AI tools for reporting. 

We provide direct support through email, phone, chat, and Teams or video conferencing. Our support team is U.S.-based and works closely with client teams in real time, ensuring quick issue resolution and high-touch service.

Unlike companies that use part-time or offshore IT contractors, our team consists of dedicated Retail Velocity experts who understand both the VELOCITY platform and the retail data your business depends on. This combination of technical knowledge and domain expertise ensures accurate problem-solving and actionable insights.

Yes. Retail-specific expertise is central to our service. Our professionals know how to manage retailer POS, inventory, and supply chain data in a way that aligns with your business goals.

Our platform is built on Microsoft Azure with Analysis Services, Excel and Power BI integrations for robust performance, security, and scalability. Behind the scenes, experienced Retail Velocity engineers manage the infrastructure, system updates, and performance optimization.

Yes. We have a dedicated IT team that works directly with your organization to resolve any connectivity, security, or integration issues quickly and securely.

Enhancement requests can be submitted directly to your assigned Retail Velocity account manager, project manager, or dedicated technical support staff for evaluation in upcoming software product updates.

Our trainers aren’t generic IT contractors—they are professionals who understand retailer POS, supply chain, and inventory data as well as the VELOCITY platform. This ensures your team learns not just the ‘how,’ but the ‘why’ behind data integration and reporting.

Yes! We provide comprehensive training designed for analysts, power users, and IT teams to ensure everyone understands how to leverage VELOCITY and retail data fully.

Yes. We go beyond button-click instructions by teaching best practices for data validation, retail performance metrics, and integration with BI tools like Power BI and Excel. This helps your team turn data into actionable insights quickly.

Yes. Our trainers are fluent in both technology and retail analytics, so they can partner effectively with your internal analysts to design custom dashboards, KPIs, and reporting solutions.

Our standard training classes are administrator training (business-oriented administration) and general user training. We can also provide custom-designed training to meet your needs for both users and IT staff.

We provide our clients with remote training. Including One-on-One or Group Sessions via Teams, Remote Train-the-Trainer Programs, Custom End-User Training.

Training is delivered by VELOCITY experts who also manage client implementations and support. They know the real-world challenges of retail data and speak the same language as your analysts and business teams.

We provide electronic (PDF) versions of all manuals which are delivered during implementation and then updated with each new release and product update. Online help is also provided from all programs for every screen, menu pick, and field.

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Interested in learning more about Retail Velocity, our solutions, or how we can help you turn data into a powerful asset? Get in touch.