Independent retail · Built on real POS data

See exactly where
your store stands.

Indie Insights benchmarks your real POS data against stores genuinely like yours — your margin, your turn, your sell-through, your average order — and puts a dollar figure on every gap. No surveys, no self-reporting, no “retail averages.”

Then take what you find to owners who run stores like yours.
Learn together. Grow together. WIN together!

Join free See what's inside

Free tier, no credit card. Already a member? Log in — one account covers everything here, and it’s the same login for Retail ORBIT® if you use it.

Gross Margin Last 12 months
48.2%

Your store, women's apparel, all channels

Where you sitAbove average · 68th pctl
Top Quartile threshold51.6%
Average store45.9%
Annual opportunity$104,000

Illustrative example. Peer values are aggregate only — no store is ever named, and a benchmark is suppressed until enough stores in your group have reported.

Trending, down to the brand

Watch brands and classes climb and stall across independent retail by vertical, region, gender and more — and know what your customers are asking for before your rep does.

Ranked by momentum, not just volume

Benchmarks that get specific

Not “retail averages.” Your margin, turn, sell‑through and AOV against stores in your vertical, your region, your size — filtered all the way down to subclass.

Every gap priced as an annual dollar opportunity

Peer groups that solve it

Take the decision that’s keeping you up — the buy, the lease, the hire, the partner — to six or eight owners who have already made it. Monthly, facilitated, confidential.

90 minutes a month with people who get it

What actually moved your door

Foot traffic, weather, holidays and your own events — the sidewalk sale, the new sign, the market next door — laid over your sales, day by day, so you can stop guessing which one worked.

Ask Indie™ reads the pattern and tells you what it means

Your plan tells you how you did.
It can’t tell you whether that was good.

You know your numbers. What you don’t know is whether a 48% margin is a win or a warning for a store your size, in your vertical, this season — and which categories your peers are selling that you never picked up.

Indie Insights closes both gaps, and prices them.

Gross margin — where you actually sit

Your vertical · your size · this season

You 48.2%
Average store 45.9%
Top quartile starts at 51.6%

Above average · 68th pctl

$104,000 a year sitting in the gap between you and the top quartile

Illustrative example. Opportunity figures are always annualised, and every peer value is an aggregate.

What's inside the portal

Market intelligence and a real community, in one place

Every member gets the community, the content and the calendar. PRO opens the full data suite down to brand level.

Benchmarking

Seven metrics scored against genuinely comparable stores, with the dollar opportunity attached to each gap.

  • Quartile band, percentile and Top Quartile threshold
  • Filter to vertical, gender, brand, class and region
  • Chart or table — every value is reachable both ways
Basic free · Full detail in PRO

What's Trending

The brands and classes actually moving across independent retail right now — ranked by volume, with rank change.

  • Movers & Shakers view sorts by momentum, not size
  • Drill into a brand for class mix, 12-month trend and regional heat
  • See what's bought alongside a brand you already carry
Basic free · Full detail in PRO

Traffic Flow

Foot traffic around your door, indexed and compared to the surrounding area week over week.

  • 13-week trend with weather and holiday weeks annotated
  • Year-over-year aligned to the holiday, not the calendar week
  • Traffic vs. sales gap flagged when the two diverge
PRO

Community

Discussion groups by vertical, a searchable member directory and direct messages — moderated by people, not bots.

  • Retailer Pulse: what owners are actually talking about this month
  • Threads scoped to your vertical, with community-wide fallback
  • A published charter everyone signs — no selling, no soliciting
Free

Articles & Podcasts

A working library of retail articles, podcasts, guides and tools — surfaced to your vertical first.

  • Worksheets, templates and calculators you can use the same day
  • Like and reply on anything; good threads get promoted
  • Nothing gated behind a lead form
Free

Indie Insights Live

Monthly live sessions and webinars, with retailers co-presenting — plus the full replay if you can't make it.

  • Benchmark walkthroughs with real store owners
  • Upcoming events on your dashboard, never a stale list
  • Recut as podcast episodes and clips
Free

A look inside

This is what you log in to

One portal, one login. Your feed, your benchmarks, what the market is doing and the people to talk to about it — all in the same place.

Indie Insights dashboard: the monthly Retailer Pulse with member comments, a benchmarking summary and the What's Trending rail
Your dashboard. The monthly Retailer Pulse — what owners across every vertical are talking about — and the conversation under it, with your benchmark summary and this month’s movers in the rail beside it.
What's Trending panel: top brands Hoka, New Balance, Brooks, ASICS and On Running with previous and current rank; top classes Running Shoes, Sandals, Trail Shoes, Socks and Insoles

Brand-level trending

Watch the ranks move,
month over month

Top brands and top classes for your vertical, with last month’s rank sitting next to this month’s so a move is impossible to miss. Green is climbing, red is slipping. This is the Footwear view — yours is scoped to whatever you sell.

▲ UPHoka went 3rd to 1st and New Balance 6th to 2nd — demand you can buy into now.
▼ DOWNBrooks and On Running both slipped — worth a look before the next order goes in.
CLASSESSandals climbing, Trail Shoes up two — the category story behind the brand moves.
Benchmarking metric cards showing value, quartile band, percentile, Top Quartile threshold and annual dollar opportunity for Sales Change, Sell-Through, Gross Margin, Cash Margin, Average Order Value, Units per Transaction and Turnover
Benchmarking. Seven metrics, each with your value, your quartile, the Top Quartile threshold and the annual dollars sitting in the gap. Green when you’re leading, amber and red when there’s money on the table.
Traffic and sales over time chart with weather, holidays and custom event annotations beneath the axis
Traffic & sales in context. Sales laid over foot traffic, day by day, with weather, holidays and your own events — the end-of-season sale, staff training, the café next door closing — marked on the same timeline.
Content and Discussions page with vertical and topic filters and a mixed feed of discussions, articles and podcasts
Content & Discussions. Every discussion, article, podcast and tool in one searchable place, filtered to the verticals and topics you actually work in.

The differentiator

Benchmarks built from POS data, not a survey

The numbers come straight out of members' point-of-sale systems through Retail ORBIT®. Nobody self-reports, nobody rounds up. Your peer group is defined by filters you set — vertical, gender, brand, class, channel, region — and every option that would leave you without a real comparison is greyed out before you can pick it.

  • Sales change
  • Sell-through %
  • Gross margin
  • Cash margin
  • Average order value
  • Units per transaction
  • Turnover / weeks of stock
  • Annualised $ opportunity
Your data stays yours Every view is aggregate. No store is ever named, no group sizes are shown, and a metric is suppressed entirely rather than shown thin when too few stores in your group have reported.
Sell-Through % Month to date
62.4%

Partial period — peers clipped to the same window

Where you sitTop quartile · 91st pctl
Top Quartile threshold58.0%
Average store51.3%
StatusLeading — no gap to close

Illustrative example. Opportunity figures are always annualised, whatever date range you pick.

Peer Groups

Six to eight owners.
One room. Every month.

Data tells you where the gap is. A peer group is where you work out what to do about it. Small, consistent, facilitated groups of independent retail owners who meet monthly to move each other forward on real problems — inventory, staffing, cash, succession, the lot.

This isn't coaching and it isn't content. It's the honest, peer-level conversation most owners never get.

Become a founding member
6–8Owners per group — small enough that everyone actually speaks
90 minStructured monthly session, facilitated start to finish
CuratedMatched on non-competing geography and complementary experience
Always onCommunity access between sessions, plus facilitator check-ins

Every member signs the charter

  • Be real. Bring the struggles, not just the wins.
  • Support, don't sell. No pitching, soliciting or recruiting.
  • Absolute confidentiality. What's shared here stays here.
  • Show up. On time, present, and follow through on what you take on.
  • Celebrate wins. Others' as loudly as your own.

Who’s in the room

A data pool is only as good as who is in it

Indie Insights is independent specialty retail owners — the people running the stores, making the buys. Here is how the room is built.

31

Retail verticals

Apparel, footwear, outdoor, gift, home, toy, books, jewelry, sporting goods and more. Discussions and benchmarks are scoped to yours, with the whole community behind it when your vertical is thin.

6–8

Owners per peer group

Curated on non-competing geography and complementary experience, so nobody is sitting across from a direct competitor. A facilitator stays with the group.

0

Vendors selling to you

Every member signs the charter before they post: no pitching, no soliciting, absolute confidentiality. Breaches are handled by a person, not a moderation queue.

Membership

See all of it before you pay for any of it.

PRO is free for your first 7 days, fully unlocked. Peer Groups start with a free first meeting, so you sit in the room before you commit. And every tier — free included — comes with the community, the content library and the events calendar.

Community
Free

For any independent retailer who wants a room full of owners like them.

  • Dashboard with your vertical's headlines
  • Discussions and Retailer Pulse
  • Searchable member directory and messages
  • Articles, podcasts, guides and tools
  • Upcoming events and Indie Insights Live
  • Vertical-level trending and benchmarking
Join free
PRO
$350 / month

For owners and buyers making the buying decisions — and who need the detail behind them.

$260 / month for Management One planning clients

First 7 days free
  • Everything in Community, plus:
  • Full benchmarking — all 7 metrics, all views
  • Full What's Trending, down to brand level
  • Traffic Flow foot traffic intelligence
  • All 10 filters — vertical, gender, brand, class, subclass, channel, region
  • Annualised dollar opportunity on every metric
Start free trial
Peer Group

$1,200 standard rate

$750 / month

For owners who want the data and the room.

Founding Member price — locked in for the first groups

First meeting free
  • Everything in PRO is included, plus:
  • Monthly 90-minute facilitated peer session
  • A curated group of 6–8 non-competing owners
  • A facilitator who stays with your group
  • Between-session access to your group
  • Founding members shape how this works
Sit in on a meeting

Brand and product-level data requires a supported POS integration. Every plan uses one account for the whole portal — and the same login works in Retail ORBIT® for members who plan with Management One.

Brand-level data available today on

Shopify NetSuite Celerant Lightspeed X

Class-level benchmarking is available on Heartland, RunIt, RICS and Lightspeed R, with brand-level support rolling out.

You don't lack experience.
You lack the right room to share it.

Join free today and see exactly where your store stands.

Join free Log in

Let's Grow Your Business Together

It starts with a simple discussion about your business, your goals and your future. Tell us a little about yourself here and get started today.