Main causes of out-of-stock in the retail industry North America 2020

A study from 2020 on North-American retail showed that products not available on the store shelf induced consumers to shop elsewhere producing a sales loss of 71.4 billion U.S. dollars for the retailer. When marketing departments did not communicate the promotions in time with the supply chain, stores experienced a shortage of advertized products resulting in 40.2 billion U.S. dollars losses. Furthermore, products might have been available in the store but not on the shelf for several reasons. In lack of assistance, consumers did not make the purchase and chose a competitor. In this case, out-of-stocks amounted to 35.7 billion U.S. dollars.