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Benchmarking Retailer-Supplier Partnerships

Independent benchmarking that measures partnership performance, clarifies priorities, and helps organizations focus on the actions that strengthen engagement and drive measurable business performance. 

Explore how benchmarking works
Business professionals reviewing performance data on a laptop during a strategic planning discussion.

The Role of Benchmarking

Benchmarking provides an independent, structured view of retailer-supplier relationship performance. By measuring partnership capabilities across defined drivers, organizations gain clearer visibility into how they compare to peers, where gaps create risk, and where focused action will have the greatest impact.

In complex retailer-supplier relationships, perceptions of performance often vary across teams, functions, and organizations. Independent benchmarking creates a shared reference point that helps organizations clarify priorities, deepen accountability, and align teams around the actions that improve execution and business performance.

For more than 35 years, Advantage Report has served as the trusted benchmark for retailer–supplier relationships, helping organizations better understand how they are perceived by the partners they work with every day.  

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Benchmarking that Creates Clarity for Retailers and Suppliers

Structured Insight for Objective Assessment 

AGI benchmarking provides retailers with a structured, objective view of how suppliers experience working with their organization. Aggregated supplier feedback across key partnership drivers creates a more consistent foundation for evaluating supplier engagement, alignment, and execution.

By grounding supplier conversations in shared expectations and comparable measurement, benchmarking reduces subjectivity and helps retailers prioritize action more effectively across categories, teams, and regions.
This supports stronger accountability, clearer decision-making, and more consistent supplier performance over time.  

Clarity on Retailer Expectations and Performance

AGI’s benchmarking helps suppliers better understand their retailer expectations through structured, comparable measurement across key partnership drivers. It provides visibility into how organizations perform relative to peers and highlights the capabilities that improve retailer relationships and differentiate top-performing suppliers.

By identifying performance gaps objectively, benchmarking helps suppliers prioritize investment, strengthen execution, and engagement efforts where they will have the greatest impact on retailer trust and focused action.  

Benefits of AGI Benchmark Research

Benchmarking replaces anecdotal feedback with structured insight, helping organizations prioritize action and enhance retailer-supplier partnerships.  

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Directional arrows icon pointing outward, representing clearer priorities and focus. Clearer Priorities
Clearer Priorities Focus time, investment, and action on the partnership competencies that deliver the greatest operational and business impact.  
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Checkmark badge icon representing greater objectivity and unbiased evaluation. Greater Objectivity
Greater Objectivity Ground decisions on structured benchmarking insight rather than assumptions or isolated feedback.  
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Numbered horizontal lines icon representing stronger alignment and structured order. Stronger Alignment
Stronger Alignment Create shared expectations across teams, categories, and markets through consistent measurement and clearer visibility into partnership performance.  
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Stacked bars icon representing measurable progress and tracked performance. Measurable Progress
Measurable Progress Track partnership performance over time against key relationship drivers and leading industry peers.  
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Overlapping speech bubble icons representing better dialogue and communication. More Productive Conversations
More Productive Conversations Anchor supplier-retailer discussions in shared metrics that clarify expectations, reduce friction, and support more effective collaboration.  
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Checkmark and circular figure icon representing greater accountability and ownership. Greater Accountability
Greater Accountability Support more consistent oversight through transparent benchmarking, comparable insight, and visible progress across partnership priorities.  
+1,100 Supplier Clients Served
+1,400 Retail Clients Served
+88,000 Annual Survey Responses
+12,000 Annual Interviews Conducted

Our Benchmark Process

AGI benchmarking combines quantitative measurement and qualitative insight to create a clearer, more comparable view of partnership performance and identify actions that improve alignment, execution, and business results. 

Quantitative Measurement

Structured surveys are deployed across your business partners to capture confidential feedback on key partnership drivers. Responses are aggregated and benchmarked externally to create a consistent, comparable foundation for understanding and evaluating relationship performance across teams, categories, and markets.  

Qualitative Insight

Select business partners participate in structured interviews to provide deeper context behind their survey responses. These conversations help clarify expectations, operational challenges, and relationship dynamics, ensuring insight is interpreted with greater accuracy and business relevance.  

Structured Data Analysis

Quantitative and qualitative inputs are analyzed within a consistent benchmarking framework. AGI’s B2B engagement experts identify patterns, strengths, performance gaps, and emerging risks across markets, functions, and business relationships to clarify where focused action will have the greatest impact 

Insight & Prioritization

A dedicated Engagement Advisor interprets your results within the context of external benchmarks, market trends, and partnership expectations. Findings are then translated into clear priorities that support stronger alignment, more focused execution, and measurable performance improvement.

This approach moves beyond feedback reporting, helping organizations turn partnership insight into focused action and sustained business performance. 

See How Benchmarking Strengthens Retailer-Supplier Performance

Gain a clearer visibility into partnership performance and identify the actions that improve alignment, strengthen execution, and drive measurable business results.  
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Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common questions about benchmarking research and how organizations use it to strengthen retailer-supplier partnerships.  

What is AGI benchmarking research? AGI benchmarking research provides an independent, structured view of retailer-supplier partnership performance across key business relationship and execution drivers. By capturing feedback from both retailers and suppliers, organizations gain clearer visibility into partnership strengths, performance gaps, and improvement priorities.  
How is AGI benchmarking different from traditional market research or internal market research? AGI benchmarking focuses specifically retailer-supplier partnership performance. Rather than measuring consumers or market trends, it evaluates the commercial drivers that shape day-to-day alignment, execution, and collaboration between trading partners.  
Do both retailers and suppliers participate in benchmarking research?

Yes. AGI research incorporates perspectives from both retailers and suppliers to create a balanced and independent view of partnership performance. This dual perspective allows organizations better understand partner expectations and identify opportunities for stronger alignment.  
How frequently is benchmarking conducted? Benchmarking research is conducted on a recurring cycle to track changes in partnership performance over time. This helps organizations to measure progress, monitor improvement initiatives, and understand how perceptions evolve across trading partners.  
How do organizations use benchmarking insights within their business?

Organizations use benchmarking insight to identify performance gaps, prioritize improvement initiatives, and strengthen key commercial capabilities. Many teams also use the findings to support internal alignment, support strategic planning, and guide retailer-supplier engagement more effectively.  
What is Advantage LiveLens

LiveLens builds on the trusted Advantage Report benchmark to deliver a continuous, Always-On view of partnership performance. It provides dynamic visibility into retailer-supplier relationships, helping organizations identify changing priorities earlier, align teams for effectively, and turn insight into focused action.