Your distribution sell-out, unit by unit
Over 500 premium distributors already scan every product at the moment of handover to the customer, because the scan activates the warranty and the digital passport for their customer. Sell-out data flows back unit by unit, in real time, by retailer, SKU and market.
Why does the distributor scan?
Historically, a distributor has no interest in giving their sell-out visibility to the brand. Visibility means broken allocation arbitrage, margin comparison, increased pressure. If scanning is an imposed act, it doesn't scale. With 500 distributors in production, this point has been resolved operationally.
Principle
The scan serves the distributor's customer before it serves the brand.
The event triggers passport activation for the end buyer, with extended warranty, transferred ownership and access to post-purchase services. The distributor delivers a superior experience and keeps a qualified touchpoint on the customer. Sell-out data flows back as a side effect of an act that first creates value in the distributor-customer relationship.
Consequence
The distributor scans for their customer, not for the brand.
This is the inverse of commercial reporting under constraint. The data is not the product being sold to the distributor, it's the output of a service they chose to activate. This inversion is the condition for large-scale adoption.
Sell-out is captured where it happens.
Not in a retrospective panel, not in a weekly Excel file. At the point of handover to the customer, in store, by the distributor themselves, from a browser.
The product's unique identifier, already present for the DPP, is scanned. The event is created, signed, timestamped. The passport activates on the end customer's side. The brand sees it in real time. On the right, the effective trace of a product passing through six states.
- 01
Product arrives at the distributor
Unit product identifier already issued. The Arianee DPP infrastructure already covers 4M units. No re-referencing, no duplicate SKU.
- 02
Handover to end customer
The sales associate scans the identifier from the web app. A few-second gesture, integrated into the moment of sale, not a separate reporting act.
- 03
Activation on the buyer's side
The end customer receives their product passport, with warranty, ownership and post-purchase services. The distributor gains a qualified touchpoint, the customer gains utility.
- 04
Brand reads in real time
The signed event flows back to the brand, with retailer, SKU, market and timestamp. No panel aggregation, no latency — the data is there within the second.
- 05
Reversal in case of return
The distributor re-records the return via the same web app, or by ERP webhook if integrated. Real-time latency on the web flow, a few minutes by webhook. If the return is not entered, the discrepancy is identified by periodic logistics reconciliation.
What's running today
First large-scale deployment of unit sell-out measurement in premium distribution. Launched September 2025, over 500 distributors deployed, 3,530 sell-out events captured to date, all linked to unit product identifiers.
Current deployment under NDA. Market, segment and operational ratio details (customer-side activation rate, active distributor rate, velocity per distributor) communicated on request after agreement.
cumulative · Sep 2025 → Apr 2026
Illustrative sell-out event curve
Illustration only: this curve does not represent verified production results.
ESPR acts will define sector-specific obligations. The same product identity can already support sell-out measurement.
Every brand selling in Europe will issue a unit digital identifier for each product, under the Digital Product Passport requirement. Grafting sell-out capture onto this identifier represents a near-zero marginal cost.
Rebuilding the same coverage via panel or shelf imaging costs years of effort, requires weighting fidelity and remains constrained by systemic latency. Arianee has been operating this infrastructure since 2018.
operating history 2018 → 2027
Infrastructure deployed since 2018.
The battery passport becomes mandatory on 18 February 2027 for batteries in scope. ESPR obligations follow sector-specific acts.
Capture, read, audit.
Web app capture, no hardware
The distributor records the event from their browser. No POS system to integrate, no ERP to reconnect, no hardware dependency.
Unit-level event, not a panel
Each capture is linked to a unique product identifier. Sell-out is read unit by unit, not by weighted sampling.
Multi-axis real-time visibility
Live read by retailer, SKU, market, category or network. Segments cross each other on the fly, not in a weekly report.
Immutable audit trail
Every event is timestamped, signed by the operator and anchored in the product lifecycle log. Full reconstruction possible in case of audit.
Return and cancellation reconciliation
The distributor records the return from the same web app as the initial scan. ERP-integrated distributors can automate via webhook. Unconfirmed events are flagged, not absorbed into the figures.
API and BI integrations
Data accessible via REST API, normalised exports, ERP and CRM connectors. Pluggable into BI tools already used by commercial teams.
The audit trail the tile above describes, for real. Five lines, one product, what a compliance team or auditor receives in case of inspection.
audit trail · extract
EVT-2298 · 5 signed entries
Each entry is signed by the operator, UTC-timestamped and recorded in the lifecycle log for audit reconstruction.
Where Sellout Monitoring stops, and where it complements.
Sellout Monitoring doesn't replace macro panels, B2B portals, or identity registries. It operates on a layer these three worlds don't cover. Place each player mentally on the axes that matter to you.
latency × granularity
Compared with macro panels and B2B portals
Illustrative positioning by data granularity and reporting latency.
stack architecture
Compared with identity registries
event layer · after market placement
Sell-out · lifecycle · ownership · services
Continuous event capture, signed at source.
identity layer · reference
Authentication · verification · registry
Anchored product identity, stable state.
Brands with an existing product identity layer (GS1, DID or a third-party registry) can add Sellout Monitoring for channel measurement.
The purchase is driven by the commercial team.
Sellout Monitoring simultaneously serves compliance, product digital and commercial operations, without imposing three different tools or three project teams. But it's the distribution team that decides on deployment.
one feed, three teams
Connected to the same data
One feed provides three views for the teams involved.
Distribution and commercial operations
Channel management, not estimation
Real-time view of actual distribution performance, by retailer and SKU. Data-backed argument for negotiation, allocation and network management. This is where the purchase decision happens.
Product, digital, IT
One infrastructure, multiple use cases
Cloud-native API, SOC 2 Type II, European data residency. Sellout Monitoring reuses product identifiers already issued for the DPP, without a parallel reference system or double entry.
Compliance and sustainability
ESPR compliance covered, sell-out as a commercial bonus
The DPP required by ESPR, WEEE and Battery Pass is already the basis for Sellout Monitoring measurement. Compliance doesn't drive the purchase, but it doesn't pay twice: the same identity layer serves the compliance mandate and channel measurement.
The hard questions, straight up.
Fraud, returns, distributor incentive, macro panel comparison: the topics a marketing page usually avoids.
- How do you verify that a scan corresponds to a real sale, and not padding by the distributor?
- The scan triggers activation of the product passport for the end customer, with warranty, services and ownership. Until the customer activates, the event remains unconfirmed. The distributor gains no operational benefit from it. The reported sell-out is the one that translated into a real activation, not a declarative counter. Reconciliation is possible with logistics flows and CRM tools. Gross and confirmed volumes are exposed separately in the dashboard.
- How are returns and cancellations handled?
- The return opens a reversal event on the passport. In practice, the distributor records the return via the same web app as the initial scan. For ERP-integrated distributors, the reversal can be triggered by automatic webhook. Latency: real-time on the web app flow, a few minutes via ERP webhook. Known limitation: if the distributor does not re-scan the return, the sale event remains active. Mitigation: periodic reconciliation with logistics flows (receipts, supplier returns) to identify discrepancies. Both raw and net data are exposed; unreconciled events are flagged.
- Why would a distributor agree to scan? Historically they have no interest in giving this visibility to the brand.
- Because the scan doesn't serve the brand first. It activates the passport for THEIR customer, with extended warranty, transferred ownership, post-purchase services, access to a direct channel with the brand. The distributor gains a qualified touchpoint and a selling argument. The sell-out data flows back as a side effect of an act that first creates value in the distributor-customer relationship. This is the inverse of imposed commercial reporting.
- How is Sellout Monitoring different from Circana, NielsenIQ and Trax?
- Panel-based players provide a macro estimate by sample, with a 4 to 12-week lag and no unit product identifier. Sellout Monitoring measures unit by unit, in real time, on native product identity. The two are not opposed: Circana gives a market read, Sellout Monitoring gives a channel and SKU read. For brands where distribution sell-out is poorly covered by the panel, Sellout Monitoring becomes the single source of truth.
- What if the brand hasn't yet deployed a DPP?
- Sellout Monitoring relies on the Arianee DPP infrastructure, already deployed at over 50 brands with 4M passports issued. The Sellout Monitoring deployment includes identifier issuance if it hasn't been done, or connects to existing identifiers. With ESPR making the DPP mandatory in 2027, issuance is in any case a committed spend. Sellout Monitoring exploits its marginal cost.
Built on the Arianee infrastructure
Sellout Monitoring is built on the Arianee platform: secure product identity, traceability designed for industrial scale, digital passport compliant with ESPR, WEEE and Battery Pass.
SOC 2 Type II, European data residency, open standards (GS1 Digital Link, AFNOR), Arkhineo legal archiving. The same infrastructure that already secures 4M DPPs for over 50 brands.
arianee stack
One infrastructure, three layers.
events
Sell-out · lifecycle · ownership
product identity
Item-level passport · ESPR · WEEE · Battery Pass
security · compliance · archiving
SOC 2 Type II · EU data residency · Arkhineo · GS1 · AFNOR
4M+ passports issued across industries. Sellout Monitoring uses the same identity layer as the brands already in production.
A demo that looks like your channel, not a slide deck.
Choose a real retailer from your network, live events, read by SKU and market. Not a generic product tour.
Anonymised preview of the production feed.