Blog · 21 September 2026
'We have none left': what should the team tell a shopper in front of an empty shelf?
In shortIn front of an out-of-stock, 31% of shoppers go and buy elsewhere and 15% delay their purchase: those are the ones a good answer can keep. An employee must be able to give four pieces of information: is the product in the back room, when is it back, which close product is available, and can it be set aside or the shopper told. 'We have none left' with nothing after it is the worst answer, because it confirms to the shopper that they must go elsewhere. And every question asked is an out-of-stock report, to note rather than forget.
What is at stake in the answer
The study by Gruen, Corsten and Bharadwaj measures reactions in front of an out-of-stock: 26% switch brand, 19% switch size, 15% delay, 31% buy elsewhere, 9% give up. Those proportions describe shoppers left alone in front of the shelf. The one who asks an employee gives the store a chance to change their reaction: the shopper who was going to leave may substitute, and the one who was going to give up may come back.
The question asked is also the only time an out-of-stock presents itself to the store of its own accord, with the product name and the time.
The four pieces of information to be able to give
- Is it in the back room? A large share of out-of-stocks are products present in the store but not on the shelf (organising the back room). The employee must be able to check in two minutes, or say honestly that they cannot do it right now.
- When is it back? The day of the aisle’s next delivery is simple information the whole team can know. “Tomorrow morning” keeps a shopper; “I don’t know” loses them.
- Which close product is available? Not just any: the same product in another size, or the nearest SKU. For products without a substitute, it is better to say so than to suggest at random (organic and free-from products).
- Can it be reserved, or the shopper told? For an awaited product, set it aside at the next delivery, or take a number. Few shoppers ask; those who do are the most loyal.
The phrases to avoid
| Answer | What the shopper hears |
|---|---|
| “We have none left.” | go and look elsewhere |
| “It’s not my aisle.” | nobody is dealing with it |
| “If it’s not on the shelf, we don’t have any.” | often false: the product may be in the back room |
| “It’s the supplier.” | sometimes true, but with no date or substitute, useless |
| “Come back later.” | with no detail, the shopper will not come back |
And the useful version of each: “Let me look in the back room”, “I’ll tell my colleague on that aisle”, “The delivery is tomorrow morning”, “In the meantime, this one is the closest”, “I’ll set it aside for you”.
Turn every question into a count
Every “have you run out of…?” is an out-of-stock noticed by a shopper. Almost none is written down. Three simple practices:
- a notebook or shared note per aisle and at the till: product, time, answer given (detecting out-of-stocks with till data, for the role of checkout staff);
- a five-minute catch-up at the end of the day: products asked for several times go to the top of the next day’s replenishment;
- feedback to the employee: what they noted has been treated. Without that feedback, the notebook stops within two weeks (getting the shelf team hunting gaps).
When the out-of-stock lasts
For a long out-of-stock, the spoken answer is not enough: the team answers the same question ten times a day. A shelf card, with the reason, the return date if known and the replacement product, does the job for them (shortages and long out-of-stocks).
Train the team in ten minutes
The training fits on one sheet: the four pieces of information, each aisle’s delivery day, where to note the request, and the rule “we never say we have none left without offering what comes next”. Ten minutes at the briefing, repeated for every new starter and every seasonal worker.
A worked example (hypothetical)
Take a fictional supermarket that has products asked for and absent noted for two weeks. The team notes 60 requests. For 22 of them, the product was in the back room; for 25, it was arriving with the next delivery; for 13, the out-of-stock came from the supplier. In the first case, the product was put out within the hour; in the second, the employee could give the return day. The scenario illustrates the expected split: a good share of “we have none left” answers are false. The figures are illustrative.
What shopper reporting changes
Many shoppers ask nothing: they look at the empty shelf and leave. ShelfAlert gives them a way to say so in a few seconds from their phone, without looking for an employee, and the store can answer them when the product is back. It is the requests notebook, kept by the shoppers themselves. 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.