This paper reports a field-based case study of retail sales and pricing practices for ITC Connect, a slim-cigarette brand in ITC Limited’s FMCG – Cigarettes portfolio, in Osmanabad territory, Maharashtra. Drawing on primary field data collected during a sales-and-distribution internship — stock audits and visibility ratings at the top 10 outlets on each of 7 distributor-salesman (DS) routes (N = 70 outlets, 16 localities), conducted between 22 June and 1 July 2026, together with semi-structured retailer feedback recorded in a parallel visit tracker — the study examines how product availability, shelf visibility, and competitor presence jointly shape Connect’s market performance. Descriptive analysis shows an average of 4.87 Connect units per outlet (341 units total) against 7.81 units of the leading competing brand, referred to here as Stellar Shift (547 units total, singles and duos combined), with the competitor holding a stock advantage in 55 of 70 outlets (78.6%). Field price observations placed Connect’s actual retail selling price at approximately ₹25–30 against approximately ₹20 for the competitor. Pearson correlation analysis, however, found no significant inverse relationship between Connect and competitor stock levels at the outlet level (r ≈ −0.02 to −0.10, p > 0.40 in every case), indicating that the two brands’ shelf presence is not a simple zero-sum trade-off, and that factors beyond price alone — including shelf visibility and distributor servicing — plausibly contribute to the observed stock gap. Thematic analysis of retailer feedback collected across all 70 outlets found that 25 outlets (35.7%) reported no complaints with availability or display, 19 (27.1%) reported active consumer awareness and repeat demand for Connect, while a further 4 outlets (5.7%) explicitly reported that price-premium smokers preferred the competing brand. The study integrates these findings with literature on FMCG pricing strategy, sales-promotion design, and India’s Kirana-dominated retail structure to derive practical implications for availability, visibility, and retailer engagement. The paper closes with a discussion of its limitations — principally its single-territory scope and its reliance on point-in-time stock counts rather than continuous sales-register data — and outlines directions for future research.

Keywords: FMCG pricing; retail execution; consumer price sensitivity; India retail; ITC Connect; cigarette distribution; Kirana stores; competitive strategy