Market Share: What It Is and the Formula for Calculating It

What Is Market Share?

Market share is the percent of total sales in an industry generated by a particular company. Market share is calculated by dividing the company's sales over the period by the industry's total sales over the same period. This metric is used to give a general idea of the size of a company in relation to its market and competitors. The market leader in an industry is the company with the largest market share.

Key Takeaways

Market share represents the percentage of an industry, or a market's total sales, earned by a particular company over a specified period.
Market share is calculated by dividing a company's sales by the total sales of the industry over a period.
This metric is used to give a general idea of the size of a company in relation to its market and competitors.
A market leader is a company in an industry that has the highest market share and generally wields the most influence.
Ways to increase market share include implementing new technologies, generating customer loyalty, and acquiring competitors.

Calculating Market Share

A company's market share is its portion of total sales in relation to the market or industry in which it operates. To calculate a company's market share, first determine a period you want to examine. It can be a fiscal quarter, year, or multiple years.

Next, calculate the company's total sales over that period. Then, find out the total sales of the company's industry. Finally, divide the company's total revenues by its industry's total sales. For example, if a company sold $100 million in tractors last year domestically, and the total amount of tractors sold in the U.S. was $200 million, the company's U.S. market share for tractors would be 50%.

The calculation for market share is usually done for specific countries or regions, e.g., North America or Canada. Investors can obtain market share data from various independent sources, such as trade groups and regulatory bodies, and often from the company itself; however, some industries are harder to measure accurately than others.

Formula for Market Share

Market Share = Total Company Sales / Total Industry Sales

Benefits of Market Share

Investors and analysts monitor increases and decreases in market share carefully, as this can be a sign of the relative competitiveness of the company's products or services. As the total market for a product or service grows, a company that is maintaining its market share is growing revenues at the same rate as the total market. A company that is growing its market share will be growing its revenues faster than its competitors.

Gains or losses in market share can have a significant impact on a company's stock performance, depending on industry conditions.

Market share increases can allow a company to achieve greater scale with its operations and improve profitability. A company can try to expand its market share by lowering prices, using advertising, or introducing new or different products. In addition, it can also grow the size of its market share by appealing to other audiences or demographics.

Market Share Impact

Changes in market share have a larger impact on the performance of companies in mature or cyclical industries where there is low growth. In contrast, changes in market share have less impact on companies in growth industries. In these industries, the total pie is growing, so companies can still be growing sales even if they are losing market share. For companies in this situation, the stock performance is affected more by sales growth and margins than other factors.

In cyclical industries, competition for market share is brutal. Economic factors play a larger role in the variance of sales, earnings, and margins, more than other factors. Margins tend to be low, and operations run at maximum efficiency due to competition. Since sales come at the expense of other companies, they invest heavily in marketing efforts or even loss leaders to attract sales.

In these industries, companies may be willing to lose money on products temporarily to force competitors to give up or declare bankruptcy. Once they gain greater market share and competitors are ousted, they attempt to raise prices. This strategy can work, or it can backfire, compounding their losses; however, this is the reason why many industries are dominated by a few big players, such as discount wholesale retail with stores including Sam's Club, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Costco.

How Can Companies Increase Market Share?

A company can increase its market share by offering its customers innovative technology, strengthening customer loyalty, hiring talented employees, and acquiring competitors.

New Technology

Innovation is one method by which a company may increase market share. When a firm brings to market a new technology its competitors have yet to offer, consumers wishing to own the technology buy it from that company, even if they previously did business with a competitor. Many of those consumers become loyal customers, which adds to the company's market share and decreases market share for the company from which they switched.

Customer Loyalty

By strengthening customer relationships, companies protect their existing market share by preventing current customers from jumping ship when a competitor rolls out a hot new offer. Better still, companies can grow market share using the same simple tactic, as satisfied customers frequently speak of their positive experiences to friends and relatives who become new customers. Gaining market share via word of mouth increases a company's revenues without concomitant increases in marketing expenses.

Talented Employees

Companies with the highest market share in their industries almost invariably have the most skilled and dedicated employees. Bringing the best employees on board reduces expenses related to turnover and training and enables companies to devote more resources to focus on their core competencies. Offering competitive salaries and benefits is one proven way to attract the best employees; however, employees in the 21st century also seek intangible benefits such as flexible schedules and casual work environments.

Acquisitions

Lastly, one of the surest methods to increase market share is acquiring a competitor. By doing so, a company accomplishes two things. It taps into the newly acquired firm's existing customer base, and it reduces the number of firms fighting for a slice of the same pie. Shrewd executives, whether in charge of small businesses or large corporations, always have their eye out for a good acquisition deal when their companies are in a growth model.

Market Share Example

All multinational corporations measure success based on the market share of specific markets. China has been an important market for companies, as it is still a fast-growing market for many products. Apple Inc., for example, uses its market share numbers in China as a key performance indicator for the growth of its business.

Apple's market share in China's smartphone market has varied over the years. For instance, in Q3 2022, it had 14% of the market. In Q4 of 2023, it controlled 21% of the market.

What Is Market Share?

Market share shows the size of a company, a useful metric in illustrating a company’s dominance and competitiveness in a given field. Market share is calculated as the percentage of company sales compared to the total share of sales in its respective industry over a period. A company’s market share can influence its operations significantly, namely, its share performance, scalability, and prices that it asks for its products or services.

Why Is Market Share Important?

Simply put, market share is a key indicator of a company's competitiveness. When a company increases its market share, this can improve its profitability. This is because as companies increase in size, they can also scale, offering lower prices and limiting their competitors' growth.

In some cases, companies may go so far as operating at a loss in some divisions to push out the competitors or force them into bankruptcy. After this point, the company may increase its market share and further increase prices. In financial markets, market share can significantly affect stock prices, especially in cyclical industries when margins are narrow and competition is fierce. Any marked difference in market share may trigger weakness or strength in investor sentiment.

What Strategies Are Used to Gain Market Share?

To gain greater market share, a company may apply one of many strategies. First, it may introduce new technology to attract customers that may have otherwise purchased from its competitor. Second, nurturing customer loyalty is a tactic that can result in both a solid existing customer base and expansion through word of mouth. Third, hiring talented employees prevents costly employee turnover expenses, allowing the company to prioritize its core competencies instead. Finally, with an acquisition, a company can reduce the number of competitors and acquire their base of customers.

How Do You Measure Market Share?

To determine a company's market share, you divide its total sales by its industry's total sales over a given period. For example, if a company sold $2 million worth of dishwashing liquid and the industry's total sales were $15 million, the company would have a market share of 2/15 = 13.3%

What Is a Low Market Share?

A low market share is considered to be less than half of the market share of the industry leader. So if the industry leader has a market share of 40% and another company has a market share of 10%, that company would be considered to have a low market share as 10% is less than 20% (half of 40%).

The Bottom Line

Market share is the percent of total industry sales a company has. The higher the market share, the more sales a company has than its competitors in their industry. Market share indicates how large a company is and how much influence it has in its industry. It can also be an indicator of growth and success.

Companies generally seek to increase their market share. Ways to do this are implementing new technologies, delivering a higher quality product, implementing good marketing, acquiring competitors, and generating customer loyalty.