Industries
Procurement Scope 3 for retail and distribution product by product, not invoice by invoice.
In retail and distribution, most of the Scope 3 sits in the goods bought for resale. Xain measures those purchases with physical factors from purchase lines and product documentation, including private label, and returns a traceable result per product or supplier.
Key figures
<10min
of your work in Xain Insight: the purchases spreadsheet from your ERP. Results in 1–2 weeks.
What a retailer buys
Where is a distributor’s Scope 3?
Most of it is goods for resale, with thousands of items and many suppliers. Prioritising is the first step.
Goods for resale
The items bought to be sold.
Private label
Products with your own specification and more control of the data.
Packaging and logistics
Packaging, contracted transport and storage.
Consumables and services
Stores, facilities and contracted services.
A retailer or distributor mostly buys goods for resale. That is why almost all of its Scope 3 is in Categories 1 and 2, and why a spend-based calculation is especially misleading: the wholesale price does not say what is inside the product.
How do you prioritise with thousands of items?
With a first spend analysis, only to rank: which categories and suppliers weigh the most. That result is not for deciding which supplier to pick, but it shows where to start. We explain it in why spend penalises decarbonisation.
How is each product calculated?
With physical factors from the product documentation (data sheet, composition, origin) and the purchase lines. In private label you have more control of the specification and the result can be more precise. Where data is missing the most conservative factor is applied, and primary data from key suppliers improves it over time.
What happens with suppliers?
Distributors pass the data request down their chain. If you supply a retail chain, the carbon footprint for suppliers page explains how to respond.
How do you start?
With purchase lines and less than 10 minutes of your work; results arrive in 1 to 2 weeks. Details in procurement Scope 3.
What data do you gather to start?
- Purchase list by supplier and category, with volumes.
- Product documentation for the items that weigh the most (data sheet, composition, origin).
- Specifications of your private label.
- Packaging and contracted transport.
Common mistakes
- Starting with every item. Prioritise by weight and by customer requests.
- Waiting for all suppliers to reply. A first result does not need them.
- Using purchase price as a proxy. Two identical products can have different prices.
Want to rank your purchases by real impact? Write to us.
Frequently asked questions
What companies usually ask before getting started.
Where do you start with thousands of items?
With the categories and suppliers that weigh the most, using a spend analysis only to prioritise. Then the chosen items are calculated with physical factors.
What advantage does private label have?
The specification is yours (materials, processes, origin), so more technical documentation is available and the calculation can be more precise.
Can I ask my suppliers for data?
Yes, and when they provide primary data it replaces the generic data. You do not have to wait for all of them to reply to get a first result.
Keep reading
Scope 3 for purchases
Measure purchased-goods Scope 3 (Categories 1 and 2) with physical factors. Xain Insight needs only the ERP spreadsheet: less than 10 minutes.
For suppliers
If your customer asks for the carbon footprint of your product, Xain calculates it from your technical documentation, with no rollout and an ISO 14067 method.
Calculating Category 1
Guide to calculating Scope 3 Category 1, purchased goods and services: the four GHG Protocol methods, the steps and when each one fits best.
Physical vs spend factors
Differences between spend-based and physical emission factors: how they are calculated, what errors they cause and when each fits for products and Scope 3.
Tell us what you want to measure
One product, a catalogue or your purchases. We reply with the next steps.
Contact Xain