Last year, we observed that the POS alternative data market lacks products with a consolidated market view across diverse channels and product types. We predicted that a wave of mergers would arise to offer solution to this structural shortcoming. A year later, we can confidently state our prediction on increased merger activity was accurate. That said, the market today remains far from mature. In this report, we summarise the activity we’ve observed in the POS alternative data landscape across 2023.

POS MARKET RECAP
In a 2022 Intelligence piece titled “POS data: Products, Problems and Predictions,” we provided an overview of the POS transaction data market.

Although we made a series of observations then, two fundamental market shortcomings stood out from the cohort. In particular:

• Consumer staples vs. consumer discretionary products: Prior to NPD and IRI’s merger into Circana, incumbent providers would only capture data for one product type. While there were some products capturing data for both consumer discretionary and staples products, their offerings would come with a low market coverage.