Build a locator from distributor reports

A locator from the reports distributors already send

Brands sold through distributors rarely keep their own retailer list; UNFI Insights, KeHE CONNECT, DOT Foods and McLane send one. Those reports list each retail location once per product, with the columns a sales team cares about and none a locator does. They import as they are.

This guide is for brands working from those files. If your retailers live in a CSV of your own, a CRM export or a spreadsheet, the where-to-buy guide is the simpler path.

How a distributor report looks

| Store name | Store address | Product | | --- | --- | --- | | Whole Foods Market | 525 N Lamar Blvd, Austin TX | Habanero Reserve | | Whole Foods Market | 525 N Lamar Blvd, Austin TX | Smoky Chipotle | | Sprouts Farmers Market | 4030 S Lamar Blvd, Austin TX | Habanero Reserve | | Sprouts Farmers Market | 4030 S Lamar Blvd, Austin TX | Organic Hot Sauce |

The importer folds lines that repeat a store into one location and merges their products into its tags. Whole Foods Austin becomes one pin tagged Habanero Reserve and Smoky Chipotle. No pivot table, no cleanup.

Import the report

1. 1

   Export from the distributor portal

   CSV or Excel. If the portal offers a "by location" or "placements" report, that one has the address column.
2. 2

   Upload under Data

   Open Data, drop the file into Import from a spreadsheet. Excel exports open fine; save as CSV if the portal only offers XLSX.
3. 3

   Map the columns

   Match Store name to Name, Store address to Address (or the split street, city, state and ZIP columns to their fields), and Product, SKU or Item description to Categories. Leave invoice numbers, cases shipped, velocity and period unmapped; anything unmapped is ignored. The mapping is remembered against the file's headers, so next month's report from the same portal maps itself.
4. 4

   Read the review

   The review reports how many repeated lines were folded into their stores, which rows need an address lookup, and which stores are already in your locator from an earlier report. Those are left unticked so a second upload does not double the network.
5. 5

   Import

   Addresses are geocoded, tags are attached, and the locator updates.

One report per distributor

Import each distributor's file separately. A retailer that appears in both, which is common, is recognised by name and address on the second import and skipped rather than duplicated; its tags from the first import stay. To add the second distributor's products to a retailer already imported, add them to that location's categories or re-import a combined file after deleting the earlier locations.

The next report

Reports arrive monthly or quarterly. Upload the new file the same way. Stores already present are skipped, new doors are added. A store that has dropped off the report stays on the map until you hide or delete it, which is the safe default: reports miss doors more often than doors close.

For a brand that wants this to run on its own, put the report in a Google Sheet and connect Google Sheets sync. Sync updates existing stores as well as adding new ones, and flags missing rows for review.

Then build the filter

With the retailers in, the where-to-buy guide covers grouping the product tags into a filter, adding product images, and linking product pages to a pre-filtered locator.