News

Poor inventory control equates to shopper disappointment, lost sales for retailers

A whopping 81 percent of consumers experienced an "out-of-stock" experience in the past 12 months, resulting in lost sales for retailers and lots of disappointment for in-store shoppers.

October 12, 2015

A whopping 81 percent of consumers experienced an "out-of-stock," experience in the past 12 months, resulting in lost sales for retailers and lots of disappointment for in-store shoppers.

A new GT Nexus study reveals those disappointed shoppers then lead to lost shoppers for the brand as 57 percent of in-store shoppers who blame the retailer or manufacturer when a product was unavailable, according to an announcement.

The survey involved 5,000 adults in the U.S., U.K., Germany and France, and was conducted by YouGov and GT Nexus.

"This study shines a spotlight on a global inventory crisis that is frustrating consumers, and impacting the bottom line of retailers," said Kurt Cavano, founder and chief strategy officer at GT Nexus.

"In today’s competitive environment it is hard enough to get the attention of consumers, but winning them and then losing them due to stock-out is very damaging. It raises the question to retailers that, ‘If you can’t execute well on omnichannel, maybe you shouldn’t offer it at all.’ Retailers need end-to-end supply chain visibility to execute in this environment," said Cavano in the announcement. "This means connecting all of the players in your supply chain, inside and outside your four walls, creating a true multienterprise supply chain. Do this well and you can effectively and profitably meet consumer demands. Do this poorly and you won’t be around much longer."

Consumers voiced strikingly similar replies regardless of geographic region. Here is a look at U.S. and U.K. data:

United States

• 75 percent of all adults have suffered from an unavailable product in-store in the last 12 months (63 percent online)
• 38 percent of shoppers experienced in-store stock-outs often or very often in the last year
• 26 percent of shoppers experienced online stock-outs often or very often in the last year
• 33 percent of frustrated in-store shoppers blamed the retailer when a product was unavailable
• 58 percent of frustrated in-store shoppers became lost sales — where shoppers bought from another retailer or did not buy at all
• 65 percent of frustrated online shoppers became lost sales

United Kingdom

• 83 percent of adults have suffered from an unavailable product in-store in the last 12 months (70 percent online)
• 21 percent of adults experienced in-store stock-outs often or very often in the last year
• 41 percent of disappointed in-store shoppers who remember what they were looking for blamed the retailer when the product was unavailable
• 57 percent of disappointed in-store shoppers who remember what they were looking for became lost sales
• 65 percent of disappointed online shoppers who remember what they were looking for became lost sales