Brand field reps' out-of-stock reports: how can the store use them?

A count the store does not ask for enough

Major brands employ sales reps and field merchandisers who visit stores at regular intervals. Part of their visit is to check that their products are on the shelf, in their place, with the right facing and the right label. They note absences: for the brand, an out-of-stock is a lost sale, and according to Gruen, Corsten and Bharadwaj, 26% of shoppers then move to a competing brand.

So this count already exists. It usually leaves with the rep, and the store sees only the consequence: a remark at the end of the visit, or a line in a report sent to head office.

What this count is worth

Its strengths: it is made by someone who knows the expected range SKU by SKU, who can tell an absent product from a misplaced one, and who also looks at the label and the facing. It is free for the store.

Its limits:

• it covers only part of the aisle: national brands that have a sales force. Own label, small brands and local products have nobody (out-of-stocks on own-label products);
• it is made at the time of the visit, usually on a weekday and during the day, when the shelf has just been filled. Late-afternoon and Saturday out-of-stocks, the most costly, escape it (Saturday and pre-holiday out-of-stocks);
• it is occasional: one visit every one to four weeks gives a snapshot, not a duration;
• it serves the brand: the rep first seeks to defend their facing and their SKUs.

How to use it

1. Ask for the report at every visit, in writing or as a photo, for the department manager concerned. Most reps give it willingly.
2. Compare it with the store’s count on the same day: the gaps show what the team does not see, often misplaced or unlabelled products.
3. Sort the causes with the rep: an out-of-stock that comes from the warehouse or the supplier is their subject as much as the store’s. They often have the information (national shortage, change of packaging, discontinued SKU) before the store does (shortages and long out-of-stocks).
4. Do not set facing under pressure: a request for a wider facing is judged on velocity, not on insistence (facing and shelf capacity).
5. Keep your own count at peak sales hours: the rep’s does not replace it (on-shelf out-of-stock rate: how to calculate it).

Source of the count	What it covers	When	What it misses
Brand sales rep or field merchandiser	their SKUs	on their visit, daytime	own label, small brands, evenings and Saturdays
Store team	the whole aisle	at chosen hours	between two counts
Till data	fast movers	continuously, with delay	slow movers
Shoppers	what they are looking for	at the time of the out-of-stock	what nobody looks for that day

No single source is enough; they complement each other.

A worked example (hypothetical)

Take a fictional hypermarket where a coffee brand’s rep comes on Tuesday morning and notes 1 SKU absent out of 18. The store’s count, made on Saturday at 5 pm, finds 5 out of the same 18. Both counts are right: they do not look at the same moment. Putting them side by side, the department manager and the rep agree to widen the facing of two fast-moving SKUs and raise their reorder point before the weekend. The figures are illustrative.

What shopper reporting changes

The rep’s count covers their brands, at the time of their visit. Shopper reports with ShelfAlert cover everything shoppers look for, at the time they look for it: the two cross-check, and the store can share with each brand the reports that concern it. 14-day trial, no payment card: see the plan for store managers.

Sources

• Gruen, Corsten, Bharadwaj, “Retail Out-of-Stocks: A Worldwide Examination”, GMA, 2002: full study (PDF).
• Corsten, Gruen, “On Shelf Availability”, 2004: summary.