This KPI represents the share of shops that sell (not carry) a certain brand, segment or product.
It is calculated as the number of shops selling the brand, segment or product divided by the total number of all selling shops in a chosen market.
The chosen market is defined by the selected product group, country and time period plus any additional filters you apply. Note that the calculation is based on the channels that GfK is tracking for a product group in a country and the value is shown as a percentage from 0-100%.
For example:
Brand A is selling in 20 of the 100 shops that sell washing machines. That means that Brand A's active numeric distribution is 20/100 = 20%.
If you notice a pattern where a brand/product has a low active numeric distribution but a high active weighted distribution, this means that it is sold in a small number of shops (relative to the total number of selling shops) that make up the majority of sales revenue.
This KPI is sometimes also called the Active unweighted distribution. It may not be available for all countries or channels.