SKU-Level Data

A seismic shift in data portability

Since the advent of the internet, companies have been chasing the incredibly valuable asset known as SKU-level data — meaning access to the granular purchase data sitting inside your Amazon, Walmart, Target, Uber, and other accounts.

In the early 2010s, Lemon.com and Shoeboxed tried to solve this problem. Mastercard and Visa acquired Ethoca and Verifi, respectively, to pursue this data as well. Data aggregation and cleansing services can tell you where you spent money, but not what that money was spent on.

Since 2022, Atomic has been quietly scaling access to dozens of high-value merchants to enable SKU-level data access — also called Level 3 data or item-level data. Atomic now supports persistent SKU-level data access with many of the largest merchants in the world. For years, financial services providers have dreamed about whatthey could do with this data — now those use cases are coming to life via Atomic.

What makes this data the Holy Grail of data troves?

SKU-level data is considered the Holy Grail of data troves because it represents the final frontier of financial visibility. Transaction data is a shadow of what actually happened. SKU-level data is the reality.

If offered to them, new solutions allow consumers to enable access to their actual spend data — data that shows the reality of their financial situation, if they feel it can help their case.

Below are a few powerful use cases our customers are unlocking with this data:

1. The “Ultimate Underwriter” (Risk & Lending)

Today, a lender sees a $75 charge at Walmart and has to guess: Is this a responsible parent buying $75 of diapers and formula (low risk), or someone buying $75 of video games and beef jerky while behind on their rent (high risk)? How often do they spend like this, every week or once a quarter?

With SKU-level data, the lender could calculate a “lifestyle risk score,” allowing them to lend more safely to “thin-file” or “unbanked” consumers by evaluating the responsibility level of their consumption patterns. All of this would be opt-in, so if someone didn’t want to provide the data, no worries. If they’re a responsible spender, they can now prove it.

2. Predictive Life Events

We’re all familiar with the case of the young woman who received promotional baby product content before her parents knew she was pregnant. That’s a bit creepy.

But in a world where your financial services provider is working to be your financial partner, wouldn’t it make sense for them to help you prepare for life events? For example, if your financial institution knew you were undertaking home improvement projects based on what you’re purchasing, they could offer you a HELOC and even have an idea of how large it should be based on your actual spend.

3. The End of “Friendly Fraud”

A significant portion of bank “fraud” isn’t actually theft; it’s “I don’t recognize this charge” even though they often actually purchased the item. A consumer sees “Uber $122.14” in their transaction statement and doesn’t remember what that was for, so they dispute it. The cost to financial institutions is huge!

With sku-level data access the digital receipt for that purchase could be shown to the person questioning the transaction so that their transaction feed now shows, “Uber from Friends Bar (208 E 6th St, Austin, TX) to Georgetown, TX on October 31, 2026. $102.14 fare charge and a $20 tip.” The person remembers that night, mostly, and then decides not to move forward with the dispute. This saves the person time and mental energy, while saving financial institution a lot of money.

4. Truly Autonomous Finance

PFM tools like Mint didn’t get the expected traction with consumers largely because it required manual tagging of entries AND had no ability to take action. Even today, auto-categorization is a mess. A gas station charge could show up as $50 of gas and be filed under transportation, when in reality it was $50 of beer and cigarettes and should’ve been filed under entertainment.

Sku-level data allows the bank to perfectly categorize for all connected merchants.

In addition, with newly developed agentic solutions such as subscription cancellation or bill optimization the financial services provider can now not only enable greater transparency, they can actually help that consumer save money without them having to lift a finger. Cancel, pause or optimize a bill simply by saying, “yes, please.”

What has prevented success in this space previously?

The great merchant wall, restricting access to or kicking out any foreign body, has held back many worthy efforts on this front over the years. Previous attempts either skirted security or withered on the vine while waiting for partnerships to line up with the big players.

With the advent of our TrueAuth technology, which operates more like OAuth from the device, we’ve found a secure way for the consumer to exchange credentials with the guards at the merchant gate, verify the consumer’s identity, and grant third parties access to data without any confidential information ever leaving the device.

SKU-level data market development

This incredible innovation is paving the way for new use cases we never considered when developing the product. How would SKU-level data improve the way you interact with consumers? How will the market for SKU-level data develop over the coming years?

Information asymmetry is one of the most expensive problems in finance, and it’s finally being solved in a secure and scalable way. Come build the next wave of innovation in finance with us by unlocking the power of SKU-level data for your business.