Stock proves top challenge for driving in-store efficiencies – Pricer

Stock is the number-one challenge facing grocery retailers in their bricks-and-mortar store estates, with both stock availability and replenishment capabilities hampering retailers’ efforts to drive efficiency and deliver customer experience in-store, the latest research from electronic shelf label (ESL) provider, Pricer, shows.

Original research of 100 UK grocery retailers revealed that over a third (34 per cent) of senior c-suite executives cited stock as the top issue causing inefficient operations in their store estates, followed by serving online orders through the store network (16 per cent).

One in three (29 per cent) said stock availability was pain-point, with shelf gaps proving a key challenge. Over half (52 per cent) of UK retailers said up to 20 per cent of their store inventory is unavailable at any given time on shelf, while a fifth (18 per cent) said over 50 per cent of their inventory wasn’t available on shelf at any given time in-store. Meanwhile, separate original research of over 2,000 UK shoppers in Pricer’s latest UK Consumer Insight Report, showed that six in ten (61 per cent) shoppers currently experience out-of-stocks in-store.

And as the role of the bricks-and-mortar evolves, with the store now expected to play a greater part in digital, two fifths (39 per cent) of the retailers polled felt that in the last 12months there has been more pressure put on the store to fulfil ecommerce orders – this is also impacting stock replenishment strategies.

And the challenge of efficient replenishment is being keenly felt by store associates; 52 per cent of those polled by Pricer said being able to restock shelves in a timely manner was the top challenge in their everyday roles. Over a third (35 per cent) said computer vision capabilities at the shelf-edge to alert them when items need replenishing would help them be more efficient in their roles, while 22 per cent said they would benefit from pick-to-light technology, which flashes to alert the store staff which items comprise an online order picked from store.

“Stock availability – or lack thereof – and effective replenishment aren’t just a headache for retailers, we know they also are a great source of dissatisfaction for shoppers," said Duncan Potter, Pricer CMO. "Our research shows shelf gaps and unavailable stock not only creates poor customer experience (CX) at the shelf-edge, but also risks lost future sales in the long-term, eroding hard won customer loyalty.”

“As the number and type of store journeys grow, shopping baskets will be less predictable and that demands a more agile and nimble approach to assortment, allocation, replenishment and picking strategies,” he added. “This can be achieved by effectively digitalising the shelf-edge to cope with these new pressure points and ease bottlenecks, so shelves remain stocked and customers’ demands are upheld.”