BENCHMARK REPORT
CPG Deduction Practices 2026
The state of deduction management for mid-market CPG brands
Deductions cost CPG brands time, money, and morale. But despite the growing frustration, the problem remains unsolved. We surveyed a cohort of mid-market CPG companies to understand how deduction teams are structured, where the friction lives, and what leaders plan to do about it in 2026.
Key Insights:
- Promotions dominate the workload— ranked #1 for both quantity and value by the majority of respondents, and the single biggest target for improvement
- Most brands (60%) recover less than half of what they dispute— and fines and penalties are leading the charge in invalid deduction types
- Field sales collaboration remains unsettled— with no consensus on role or accountability, teams are leaving valuable context on the table
- Process must come before technology— automation tops the 2026 agenda, but teams without documented workflows risk automating the wrong things
Deduction Initiatives for 2026
% OF RESPONDENTS PLANNING EACH INITIATIVE IN 2026
