University Library: Research Market Share & Rankings: Home

What is market share?

Market share is the percent of total sales in an industry generated by a particular company (Hayes, 2022).

Investors and analysts monitor market share as a sign of a company's competitiveness.
Innovative technology, customer loyalty, acquisitions, and talented employees can impact a company's market share.

Market share data can be difficult to find. In many cases, the data you find will not be for the exact industry or product you are researching. You may need to use the available data to project the market share. If you are seeking market share for an assignment, check with your instructor for their expectations. Can you use data from other products? What kind and how much justification should you provide?
Consider the different terms that describe your product. You may need to conduct multiple searches using each term (e.g., athletic clothing, athletic apparel, sports apparel, sportswear, athletic wear).
Branch out. You may need to expand your search to a broader market if you can't find your specific market (e.g., clothing retail, sporting goods industry, etc.). Sometimes, general reports provide useful information and even break down the broader market.
Make time. Finding market share information may require more time than other industry and company research. It may involve more sophisticated searching through the results.
Market share data tends to be broken down geographically. You can try extrapolating data from another area if your area is unavailable.

Finding Market Share
Calculating Market Share

Industry Reports

Start with available market research reports, company reports, and industry profiles. Market share data will often appear in a table, which may not be accessible in a keyword search. Open these reports and scan through them for data.

IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Use the search box to locate your industry by name, keyword, or NAICS code. Use the navigation bar on the industry report to select Market Share, located under the Companies heading. A graph displays the breakdown of market share and a listing of companies. Their market share and key financials can be exported to a spreadsheet.

Gale Business: Insights - Market Share Reports
Browse or search for your industry, then scroll down to the Industry Articles section (about halfway down the page on most profiles) and click the Market Share/Rankings link. You will need to scan through the reports to find which ones are most relevant. Some will give the ranking for the specific industry, but others will only give the ranking for the larger industry sector.

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
1. For a list of competitors (and a breakdown of revenue): Enter your company name (or a company that operates in your industry) and then select the Competitors tab at the top.
2. Investor reports can offer a market breakdown. Use the Investext tab to search for your company name. This may result in an overwhelming number of reports. Narrow your results to those provided by Marketline, which provides market research. Add the Contributor search line to your search and use the Use CONTRIBUTOR Lookup link to select Marketline.

Business and Trade Publications

If you don't succeed in finding your market share data in our industry profiles, you will need to turn to trade and business publications. Many of the databases in the Industry Profiles guide will offer links to recent news stories featuring your company, but you will want to conduct a more targeted search for market share information.

Use ProQuest One Business or Business Source Complete and search using the name of the company or product category with the term "market share" in quotes. For example:

"market share" AND "kit kat"

"market share" AND (chocolate OR confectionery OR candy)

"market share" AND hershey

Trade Associations

Trade and industry associations advocate for their sector and affiliated companies. They collect and provide information specific to that industry.

Some resources are accessible on their websites, although some data may only be available to members. If this research is for an assignment, you may also want to contact the association directly and explain that you are a student researching the industry. They may be willing to provide the data you need.

To find industry associations:

Directory of Associations
Use the drop-down boxes to find an association based on location, type, category, and/or membership size.

Gale Business: Insights This link opens in a new window
Open an industry profile and locate the list of content types under the Industry Articles heading (about halfway down the page). Click on the Associations link.

Google Advanced Search
Search for your industry name with the word association and site:.org at the end (e.g., coffee association site:.org). Adding the site:.org command to a Google search will limit the results to those with domains ending in .org, which applies to most associations.
Occupational Outlook Handbook
Find relevant trade & professional associations in the More Info tab for each occupation.

Plunkett Research Online This link opens in a new window
Select Research an Industry. Select the general industry name from the Industry Group drop-down box, or use one of the other search box options. On the next page, select Industry Associations. You can view a list of all associations in the industry, or search for associations in specific locations.

Google Search

Market share information may be found by searching the internet for reports and blogs published by industry analysts. You will need to sort through advertisements and reports being sold by companies, but you may find references to market share.

Enter the product and the terms "market share" in the search box (for example: computer tablets "market share"). Use the Tools drop-down menu at the top of the Google results page to specify a year or enter a range of time.
If you find information from a blog, be sure that the source is cited. If it isn't, try another search to see if the information is mentioned or cited elsewhere. Be skeptical of numbers without a source.

How to Calculate Market Share

If you cannot find market share information in the library's databases or on the web, you may need to estimate it.

Market share is calculated by taking the company's sales over a period of time and dividing it by the total sales of the industry over the same period.

company sales (if the company has only one product) ÷ industry sales

product sales ÷ industry sales

Industry revenue and company sales information can be found in sources listed on the Find Industry Profiles and Find a Company Report guides.

Market Size

If you are working with a niche market or new industry, you may need to estimate its size. Here are some in-depth articles on how to do this:

Company Rankings

Company rankings, published regularly, can help you find market leaders (companies holding the most market share) and are a source for understanding an industry's competitors. They offer a list to search for company reports, which will provide market share information as part of their analysis.

Gale Business: Insights This link opens in a new window
- Search by industry: Select Industries from the Browse drop-down menu and search or browse for your industry. The industry profile page will have a list of top companies by revenue in that industry.
- Search by company name: Enter your company's name in the search box and select it when it appears in the drop-down menu. The company profile page will have a list of top companies (competitors) in that industry and their revenues.

Forbes Lists
Scroll down to Companies and select a company from a list based on Forbes' ranking categories.
Fortune 500 (2023)
Use this list of the 500 highest-earning companies in the United States to track the biggest industries and competitors nationally.
Fortune Global 500 (2022)
Use this list of the 500 highest-earning companies on a global scale to track the biggest industries and competitors around the world.
Inc 5000 (2022)
Use this list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in America to track new and expanding industries.

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References

Hayes, A. (2022, August 23). Market share: What it is and the formula for calculating it. Investopedia.