MAP Policies and Sales: What to Measure Before You Enforce

Record price compliance and sales before changing a MAP programme. Track them separately afterwards. A compliance rate describes observed prices. It does not establish sales impact, and a before-and-after comparison alone does not prove causation.

Baseline first, notices second

A compliance rate is the share of listings found that sit at or above your advertised floor. It needs the compliant listings in the denominator, which means checking all of them, including the ones that turn out to be fine.

Choose a baseline window before enforcement starts and document its coverage. Record promotions, stock changes and other events that may affect the comparison. If enforcement has already started, state that limitation when reporting later observations.

A baseline gives the comparison a starting point. It does not control for seasonality, demand or other changes during the programme.

What changes for a dealer who was already compliant

Check whether compliant dealers see fewer competing offers below policy. Ask about their sales and stock decisions separately. Do not promise that a notice will remove every competing discount.

Give them the compliant seller list and the fact that you are running the programme. Silence reads as inaction.

What changes for the one who was not

After contact, record whether each offer changes and whether the seller replies. Investigate unknown sellers and have counsel review any proposed restriction on their supply.

Review supply and sales records before estimating commercial impact. An unauthorised storefront does not prove that its inventory generated no revenue for your brand.

Test the distribution argument

The claim that pricing control opens better distribution is easy to test and hard to argue about in the abstract. Ask the two distributors you want most whether a written, enforced policy changes their answer. That question has a direct reply, and it is more use than any general statement about what the trade wants.

Four operational numbers worth reporting

Compliance rate against every listing found. Violations resolved. Sellers identified down to a legal entity. Days from first notice to resolution.

Keep sales, margin and dealer retention in a separate commercial report. Neither these operational measures nor a violation count can establish causation alone.

The service page sets out how we run this, including what we will not do.

Correction, 23 September 2026: a compliance baseline does not prove the sales effect of enforcement. The earlier six-month promise was unsupported.