dComm Index™ Methodology
The WARC dComm™ Index is a unique new dataset designed to help marketers and ecommerce teams get a topline view of how they are performing versus the competition on digital commerce platforms.
The core constituents of our Index are what goes into making an effective “digital shelf”; Selection, Content, Organic Search, Paid Search and Price.
Performance across these “dimensions” is an aggregation of a series of KPIs, which vary by platform and are listed below.
The general principles are:
- All scores are out of 100, with 100 being the maximum value achieved for a given metric inside a category. So a brand being best performer across all metrics would get a total Index score of 100
- This means all scores are relative to a category, as brands are scored relatively to that top performer with 100, by metric
Disclaimer: This report is based on publicly available data from Walmart.com, Amazon.com, Instacart.com, and Target.com, findings are based on a large but limited set of keywords and products and should not be taken to be a comprehensive view of activity on the site.
What goes into the WARC dComm Index™ – Amazon
Selection
Weighting: 30%
Organic Search
Weighting: 20%
Price
Weighting: 20%
Paid Search
Weighting: 15%
Content
Weighting: 15%
Methodology
The WARC dComm Index™ for Amazon is based on hourly SOV and PDP data. It typically considers a selection of 100-250 of the most searched keywords in each product category covered.
For each metric, the top brand within a category gets an Index score of 100. All other brands are scored proportionally based on (relative) performance – if the brand with the largest share of organic first page placements owns 30%, a competitor with 15% would get a score of 50 for that metric.
How to interpret the scores
Winning (70+)
Leading (69-60)
Average (59-50)
Lagging (49-40)
Struggling(<40)
What goes into the WARC dComm Index™ – Instacart
Selection
Weighting: 30%
Organic Search
Weighting: 25%
Price
Weighting: 20%
Paid Search
Weighting: 15%
Content
Weighting: 10%
Methodology
The WARC dComm Index is based on daily search (SOV) and product detail pages (PDP) of retailers on Instacart. It considers a selection of c.500 of the most searched unbranded keywords, and c.200 branded keywords corresponding to the names of the largest brands in our major categories. To paint a representative picture of the market, we have selected six highly populated zip codes covering the US territory from East to West, and in each zip a selection of 5 stores which includes a combination of Target, Costco, Safeway, Wegman's, Sam's Club, Sprouts, BJ's Wholesale Club, H Mart, H.-E-B and King Soopers.
For each metric, the top brand gets an index score of 100. All other brands are scored based on this performance – if the brand with the largest share of first page placements owns 30%, a competitor with 15% would get a score of 50 for that metric.
How to interpret the scores
Winning (75+)
Leading (74-70)
Average (69-60)
Lagging (59-55)
Struggling(<54)
What goes into the WARC dComm Index™ – Walmart
Selection
Weighting: 30%
Organic Search
Weighting: 20%
Price
Weighting: 15%
Paid Search
Weighting: 15%
Content
Weighting: 20%
Methodology
The WARC dComm IndexTM for Walmart is based on hourly SOV and PDP data. It typically considers a selection of 100-250 of the most searched keywords in each product category covered.
For each metric, the top brand within a category gets an Index score of 100. All other brands are scored proportionally based on (relative) performance – if the brand with the largest share of organic first page placements owns 30%, a competitor with 15% would get a score of 50 for that metric.