How bad is the out-of-stock problem? Worse than retailers think

Supply Chain News: The consumer goods-to-retail supply chain has been battling the out-of-stock problem for decades, with various initiatives from Efficient Consumer Response to CPFR to RFID, all basically tackling the same problem, which does not seem to ever get much better.

But the problem is larger than many have come to believe, according to a new report from IHL Group. Analysts Lee Holman and Greg Buzek say retailers are in denial about out-of-stocks. In fact, they say their study found that the true out-of-stock rate experienced by consumers is 17.8 percent, which is 123 percent higher than the out-of-stock rate claimed by retailers for themselves.

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