Signal latency: what distributor feeds hide during promos

Sell-in spikes feel reassuring until you reconcile them against store-level sell-through. We build a latency table per distributor: how many days lag, which SKUs batch upload, and where manual adjustments land. During promos we require a secondary confirmation channel—often photo-based audits or courier scan samples—before planners uplift forecasts. That extra step annoys sales teams until the first phantom spike disappears. We also timestamp every feed pull. Latency drift is a leading indicator that a partner changed their ETL quietly. None of this replaces trust with partners; it replaces hope with evidence.