Monitor the Sales Floor to Avoid Out-of-Stocks

With shoppers feeling so uncertain, retailers' caution in ordering is perfectly understandable. Still, are you ready to be in stock on the items customers will want? One risk in being out-of-stock is that you'll miss the opportunity to make the sale. But the longer-term risk is that customers will stop thinking of your store as the place to go for an entire product category, and perhaps other product categories as well.
     A survey by the IHL Group, based in Franklin, Tennessee, found customers often say the store is OOS even when the retailer thinks the store is in-stock. This is because the customer has a broader definition of OOS than the retailer does.

• The shelf is empty. Even when you attend to your point-of-sale and inventory level data—as you should be doing frequently—you might miss the fact that items to fill in the empty shelves have not made it from your receiving or storage area onto those shelves.
• The merchandise is on a shelf, but not easily available to the customer. It could be on a high perch, which puts it out of sight, or in a locked cabinet, which puts it out of reach, when there aren't store staff right there to help.
• The customer is looking for an item with characteristics you're not tracking. They want a specific pattern on the skirt or a smaller quantity in each package. Your recordkeeping systems indicate you have the item, but unless your staff are talking with the shoppers, you won't realize that in the customer's view, you're OOS.

     Maybe it's too late to ensure in-stock for all of Quarter 4. So be out there on the sales floor to check that shelves are replenished and staff are available to help customers find what they're seeking.