Distributors Data Provider · Head-to-head
Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey (MWTS) - Sales & Inventories vs ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail
Which distributors data provider data fits your job: Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey - Sales & Inventories, or ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey (MWTS) - Sales & Inventories
ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail
What each contains
Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey - Sales & Inventories | ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail | |
|---|---|---|
| Period identifier | `Month` plus `Year`, with p/r preliminary-revised flags | `Title` column (e.g. `2026 Jul`) in the RSI time series |
| Observed value | One numeric column per measure sheet - sales, end-of-month inventories, inventories-to-sales ratios | Hundreds of wide-format value columns headed by series name, AGG code, store type and statistic |
| Industry / sector key | NAICS 42 columns: `42` total, `423` durables, `424` nondurables, down to `42343` computers | AGG-coded headers naming store type and business group (e.g. `Pred food stores`) |
| Growth rates | Seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted series published as parallel tables | `year_on_year_percent` and `month_on_month_percent` columns beside levels |
| Inventory position | End-of-month inventories and inventories-to-sales ratio columns | None carried anywhere in the estate |
| Online share | Not carried | Dedicated internet-sales reference tables tracking e-commerce share of retail |
What each does better
Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey - Sales & Inventories
It measures the wholesale channel itself, not its shadow. The frame is merchant wholesalers except manufacturers' sales branches and offices - the firms that take title to goods between factory and shelf - which makes it the cleanest public read on distribution-sector activity in the United States.
It carries the stock side of the ledger. End-of-month inventories and the derived inventories-to-sales ratio appear alongside sales in every release, so channel stocking behaviour, destocking cycles and working-capital intensity can be read straight off the table without joining any second source. See end-of-month inventories and inventories-to-sales ratio.
Its history is deep and self-documenting. Revised Excel time-series files run back to January 1992, annual revisions reports go back to 1997, and each row's preliminary and revised flags tell you exactly how fresh an estimate is. The industry cut runs deep too - from the 4231 motor vehicle and parts level down to five-digit lines such as 42343 computer and peripheral equipment - and a comprehensive historical revision incorporating the 2023-2024 economic surveys has been announced, meaning these histories will be re-benchmarked rather than frozen.
ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail
It splits demand the way modern retail actually behaves. The Retail Sales Index breaks sales out by store type - food stores, non-food, predicted categories - and its internet-sales companion tracks the online share of retail month by month, the single best public benchmark for anyone modelling distributor e-commerce channels. Growth arrives pre-computed as year-on-year and month-on-month percent columns next to levels and implied deflators.
It spans the whole distributive-trade lifecycle, not one indicator. Business demography covers births, deaths and survival of UK businesses; international trade releases sit in the same section; and the Annual Business Survey adds annual wholesale turnover and approximate gross value added under SIC section G - the only place in either record where wholesale profitability-adjacent magnitudes appear.
Its history reaches further back. The current RSI time-series file carries monthly history into the 1980s, giving four decades of consumer-demand texture against MWTS's post-1992 window. The record also tags food distributors, technology distributors and trading companies among its secondary audiences, matching the spread of personas in this slice.
The verdict
Start from the geography in your model, then the quantity. If your question names an American wholesale quantity - what merchant wholesalers sold this month, what they are holding on shelves and warehouses, how fast stock turns against sales - Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey (MWTS) - Sales & Inventories answers it directly, by NAICS kind of business, with preliminary and revised flags telling you how settled each estimate is. If your question names British demand - what consumers bought, how much of it moved online, which store types grew - or needs annual wholesale turnover under SIC section G, start with ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail.
Neither substitutes for the other: an inventory ratio has no British counterpart here, and an internet-sales split has no American one. Because the scores differ (10/10 versus 8/10) for reasons of scope rather than craft, let the returned rows decide. Sample both, pick by fit - cut each sample to the geographies, industries and date windows you actually model.
Sample both, pick by fit. See Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey - Sales & Inventories · See ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail
Fair questions
Is Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey (MWTS) - Sales & Inventories better than ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail?
They measure different halves of the same channel. MWTS scores 10/10 on the Datadory rubric and ONS scores 8/10; the gap reflects scope, not craft. MWTS owns the American wholesale stock: sales, end-of-month inventories and inventories-to-sales ratios for merchant wholesalers by NAICS kind of business, from 1992 onward. ONS owns the British sell-through view: a monthly Retail Sales Index, internet-sales splits and annual wholesale turnover under SIC section G. Pick by geography and question, not by score.
Which dataset covers wholesale more directly?
MWTS, unambiguously. Its whole frame is merchant wholesalers - NAICS sector 42 split into durable goods (423), nondurable goods (424) and component industries down to selected five-digit lines such as computer and peripheral equipment (42343). ONS's headline distributive-trade series is the Retail Sales Index, one step downstream at retailers selling to consumers; its direct wholesale coverage arrives annually through Annual Business Survey industry tables for SIC section G.
Do the two datasets overlap anywhere?
On three ideas rather than identical fields: a period label anchoring each row, numeric values in declared units, and an industry or store-type breakdown below the total. Both publish growth alongside levels too - seasonally adjusted versus not seasonally adjusted pairs on one side, year-on-year and month-on-month percent columns on the other. Inventory stocks and turnover ratios have no ONS analogue here; implied deflators and internet-sales splits have no MWTS equivalent.
Which one should a distributor analyst sample first?
Sample both, pick by fit - the question decides. For US channel stocking, working-capital intensity or GDP-grade demand signals, start with [Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey (MWTS) - Sales & Inventories](/datasets/distributors/monthly-wholesale-trade-survey-mwts-sales-inventories). For UK consumer demand, e-commerce penetration or wholesale turnover benchmarks, start with [ONS Business, Industry and Trade - Wholesale & Retail](/datasets/distributors/ons-business-industry-and-trade-wholesale-retail). Samples are cut to your industries and windows either way.
Can Datadory deliver both datasets together?
Yes. Either record arrives alone or merged onto one delivery calendar, aligned on period, units and industry keys so the transatlantic join is done before it reaches you - delivered daily, weekly, or hourly, your call. Name the geographies, series and windows when you request the sample and it lands pre-cut, with field definitions and coverage profiles attached.