> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Products by Vendor, BigCommerce > Products by Vendor for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Catalogue product count grouped by `brand` (BC's vendor / brand field). Tells you how the catalogue is split across suppliers, which brands carry the catalogue depth, and where supplier concentration risk lives. The brand split is a leading indicator for supplier-relationship management. | | | | ------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `GROUP BY brand` over every product in the catalogue. Each product is associated with exactly one brand value; if `brand` is empty, the product falls into an "Unassigned" bucket. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a, catalogue metadata. | | **Shipping** | n/a. | | **Discounts** | n/a (though brand-level promotion targeting is a common BC pattern). | | **Refunds** | n/a. | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | n/a. | | **Currency** | n/a. | | **Channels / sources** | Catalogue-wide. Some BC channels use the `brand` field for channel-specific routing (Amazon's brand registry mapping, Google Shopping's brand attribute). Brand value affects channel feed acceptance. | | **Brand vs Vendor terminology** | BC uses `brand` as the field name. In merchant practice this can mean: (a) the actual brand the customer sees ("Nike", "Apple"), (b) the supplier the merchant buys from (could differ from brand for white-label resellers), (c) the manufacturer (which differs from brand for licensed products). **Be intentional about which definition you use; different stakeholders need different views.** | | **Why concentration matters** | A catalogue dominated by one brand (>40% of SKUs) carries supplier-relationship risk: pricing changes, stock-out risk, distribution-agreement changes all hit you disproportionately. Diversified catalogues are more resilient but harder to manage. | | **Common patterns** | Multi-brand retailers (department-store style) typically have 50-200 brands with the top 10 representing 60-80% of catalogue. Single-brand stores (DTC) have one or two brands and a long tail of accessories/collabs. House-brand retailers blend a private label (often 50-70% of catalogue) with branded supplements. | | **B2B Edition** | B2B catalogues often duplicate brand entries because procurement-side imports treat each supplier-SKU pair as separate. Cleanup involves consolidating duplicate brand names ("3M", "3M Company", "3M Inc"). | | **Empty brand bucket** | Products without a brand value default to "Unassigned" in this card. Marketplace feeds (Amazon, Google Shopping) usually require a brand, so the Unassigned bucket is also the marketplace-feed-eligibility risk bucket. | | **Time window** | `RT` (real-time, refreshed each catalogue sync) | | **Alert trigger** | None at this card. | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation ``` GROUP BY brand WHERE date BETWEEN [period_start, period_end] ``` ## Worked example A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Pro that resells multi-brand inventory plus a private label, snapshot at 12 Apr 26. | Brand | Product count | Share | Notes | | --------------------- | ------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------- | | House Label | 2,180 | 33.2% | Private label, primary margin driver | | Brand A | 980 | 14.9% | Major supplier, multi-year contract | | Brand B | 720 | 11.0% | Secondary supplier | | Brand C | 540 | 8.2% | Niche premium | | Brand D | 380 | 5.8% | Newer collab | | Long tail (40 brands) | 1,720 | 26.2% | 30-100 SKUs each | | Unassigned | 45 | 0.7% | **Brand field empty, marketplace risk** | | **Total catalogue** | **6,565** | **100%** | | What's interesting: 1. **House Label at 33.2% is healthy private-label concentration.** Mature multi-brand retailers typically run 25-40% on house brand; the margin uplift on private label (60-80%) vs branded (25-40%) is the financial case. Below 25% suggests under-developed private label; above 40% suggests over-reliance. 2. **Brand A at 14.9% is the supplier-concentration risk.** A 15% catalogue share + multi-year contract means a price increase, a stockout, or a contract dispute on Brand A hits 15% of the catalogue. Most stores diversify when single-brand share approaches 20%. 3. **The 26.2% long-tail across 40 brands is structurally interesting.** Each long-tail brand carries 30-100 SKUs on average; together they make up a quarter of catalogue. **Long-tail brands collectively are the 2nd-largest "brand" but are operationally fragmented.** Consolidation potential: drop the bottom 10-15 brands with lowest sell-through, simplifies merchandising significantly. 4. **45 Unassigned products is small but consequential.** These products lack a brand value; Amazon Channel Manager and Google Shopping require a brand attribute and will reject these from feeds. **Fix the brand field for these 45 products before they affect marketplace listing eligibility.** Often the cause is a CSV import where the supplier didn't provide brand data; a quick mapping fix. 5. **Brand-level revenue often differs from brand-level catalogue share.** A brand with 5% of products may generate 25% of revenue (high-velocity) or 1% (long-tail catalogue padding). Pair with [Top Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-products-by-revenue) and [BC Top SKUs Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus-by-revenue) for the revenue-weighted brand view. The strategic playbook: 1. **Audit the Unassigned bucket urgently.** Empty brand fields break marketplace feeds; fix in a one-time bulk update. 2. **Review supplier-concentration risk.** Brands above 15% catalogue share + above 25% revenue share need succession planning, what's the diversification strategy if that supplier fails? 3. **Prune long-tail brands annually.** The 40th-ranked brand probably represents 0.5-1.5% of catalogue and 0.2-0.8% of revenue. Operations cost (separate supplier relationship, separate purchase orders, separate returns process) often outweighs the revenue contribution. 4. **Watch private-label growth deliberately.** House Label growth from 30% to 50% over 2-3 years is a pricing-and-margin transformation; it should be deliberate, not accidental. 5. **Cross-reference brand list with marketplace brand registry.** Amazon's Brand Registry requires verified brand ownership; non-registered brands lose access to A+ Content and Brand Analytics, materially hurting Amazon channel performance. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Products by Vendor | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Products by Type](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/products-by-type) | Type × brand combinations show whether brands stick to one type or span. | | [Product Status](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/product-status) | Active vs disabled by brand; some brands may have higher disabled share (supplier disputes). | | [Top Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-products-by-revenue) | Revenue-weighted. Top brands by SKU may not be top brands by revenue. | | [BC Top SKUs Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus-by-revenue) | The revenue-by-brand view; complement to this catalogue-by-brand view. | | [BC Revenue by Brand](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-by-brand) | Direct revenue-side card for brand decomposition. | | [BC Margin by Brand](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/margin-by-brand) | Margin-side. House label vs branded margin gap drives strategic decisions. | | [Missing SEO Title Count](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/missing-seo-title-count) | SEO gaps cluster by brand (a single supplier importing without SEO data). | | [BC Refunded Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/most-refunded-products) | Brand-level return rates; some brands carry higher returns than others. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel:** [Catalogue → Brands](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/catalog/brands) shows the master brand list with product counts. [Catalogue → Products](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/products) supports filter by Brand. For marketplace-feed validation, [Channel Manager](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/channel-manager) shows which brands are eligible for which channels. Amazon Brand Registry verification status lives in Amazon Seller Central, not in BC. **Why our number may legitimately differ from BC catalogue view:** | Reason | Direction | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | | **Case sensitivity / whitespace.** "3M", "3M ", "3m" treated as separate brands; BC's filter may collapse case in display. | Vortex IQ MORE granular | | **Empty brand handling.** We bucket null/empty as "Unassigned"; BC may show empty as "no value" filter. | Same data, different label | | **Disabled products.** We include them; BC may filter to visible. | Vortex IQ HIGHER | | **Sync lag.** Recent brand changes propagate within 5-30 minutes. | Vortex IQ slightly LAGS | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`amazon_sp.amazon_brand_count`](/nerve-centre/amazon_sp/amazon_brand_count) | Amazon-side brand count for products listed on Amazon | Amazon Brand Registry only includes verified brands; BC includes all. Expect Amazon to be a subset. | | [`google_shopping.gs_brand_attribute_coverage`](/nerve-centre/google_shopping/gs_brand_attribute_coverage) | Google Shopping's brand attribute requirement | Empty brand fields fail Google's feed validation; Unassigned bucket here = feed rejection on Google. | **Same-metric documentation cross-reference:** * [`shopify.products_by_vendor`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/products-by-vendor) (planned) * [`adobe_commerce.products_by_vendor`](/nerve-centre/adobe_commerce/products_by_vendor) (planned) ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My brand list has duplicates ("3M" and "3M Company"), how do I consolidate?** Bulk-edit via BC API or admin UI. Sequence: identify the canonical name (usually shortest), bulk-update all products with the variant brand to use the canonical, verify counts match, then delete the now-empty variant brand. BC will warn before deleting a brand that still has products. **Why are 45 products showing as Unassigned?** Brand field is empty on those products. Common causes: (1) CSV import where supplier didn't provide brand data, (2) products created via API without brand specified, (3) house-label products where the merchant forgot to assign their own brand. Fix by bulk-editing those 45 products to set the appropriate brand. **Should every product have a brand, even house-label?** Yes. Marketplace feeds (Amazon, Google Shopping) require a brand attribute; products without one are rejected. For house-label, set brand = your store name or "House Label". The brand field shouldn't be empty for any sellable product. **My private label is 50% of catalogue, is that healthy?** Strategically interesting. 25-40% private label is the sweet spot for most multi-brand retailers, balances margin with breadth. 50%+ means private label is the dominant strategy; you're effectively a private-label brand using a multi-brand storefront, which works but changes the marketing approach. **Why does Amazon reject some of my brands?** Amazon's Brand Registry only accepts brands you've verified ownership of. Reseller brands (where you're not the brand owner) fall outside Brand Registry; you can still list them but lose access to A+ Content, Brand Analytics, and brand-protection tools. For brands you own, complete Brand Registry verification. **My B2B catalogue duplicates branded products from retail, do I need separate brand entries?** No. Same brand name should have one entry; per-channel availability handles the B2B vs retail split. Duplicating brands creates a maintenance burden. **Can I see brand-level revenue from this card?** Not directly. Pair with [BC Revenue by Brand](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-by-brand) for revenue or [BC Margin by Brand](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/margin-by-brand) for margin. The catalogue-share-vs-revenue-share gap is the most useful diagnostic; high catalogue / low revenue = under-performing brand. **Why is my long tail so heavy?** Common pattern in multi-brand retail. Each new supplier adds 30-100 SKUs; the long tail accumulates as brands stay on the platform after their initial launch loses momentum. The right move: annual review, drop bottom 10-15 brands by sell-through. **Should brand drive my navigation menu?** Depends on customer behaviour. Brand-aware shoppers (luxury, fashion, electronics) navigate by brand, brand-led navigation works. Commodity shoppers (groceries, DIY) navigate by category, brand is secondary. Audit your storefront analytics for brand-page click-through rates; if low, brands belong in filters not in navigation. **Can I bulk-import brand assignments?** Yes via BC API or admin CSV import. Format: SKU + brand-name. Most stores correct brand drift in batches of 500-2,000 products at a time; takes 30-90 minutes per batch. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Products by Vendor* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.