Omnichannel

Phantom inventory haunting retailers

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November 3, 2023

As a third of U.S. shoppers experience an out-of-stock experience retailers are being haunted by phantom inventory.

In fact, data from a Retail insight report revealed 50% of reported items listed as in-stock online were not available in-store and 33% of customers had experience inventory errors with retailers' store systems.

The poor product availability is negatively impacting sales and, long term, customer loyalty, according to a press release on the report's finding. Retail Insight provides store operations execution software.

Retailers' average inventory records are only 60% accurate, according to the data.

A quarter of shoppers (24%) said shelf gaps would make them abandon their shopping mission and leave the store without buying other items in their basket, while three in 10 (30%) said poor stock availability would make them either stop shopping or shop less with a grocer. A further 24% would switch to a competitor supermarket if their usual grocer had shelf gaps.