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Blog · 22 September 2026

Which products are most often missing in store?

In shortIn the UK, the ECR UK industry measure found on-shelf availability of about 92% on fast sellers, and the Retail Economics and DHL audit finds an out-of-stock item in one grocery trip in five. But averages hide wide gaps: in a French ECR survey covering 2013-2014, hair colour reached 15.6%, make-up 14.2%, champagne 13.6% and infant formula 10.3%, while butter, sliced bread and eggs stayed below 2.5%. The worst affected are often products that sell in bursts, or that have no equivalent for the people who buy them.

What the surveys say

ECR UK’s industry measure put on-shelf availability at about 92% on fast-selling grocery lines, and the Retail Economics and DHL audit of 2026 finds an out-of-stock item in one grocery trip in five. In other words, missing products are not an exception: they are part of an ordinary shop.

A more detailed French survey, covering September 2013 to September 2014, ranked categories against a 5.7% average:

Category Out-of-stock rate
Hair colour 15.6%
Make-up 14.2%
Champagne 13.6%
Pens 12.3%
Facial care 12%
Light bulbs 11.9%
Infant formula 10.3%
Effervescent tablets 10%
Frozen seafood 9.8%
Ice cream 9.5%
Butter 2.4%
Sliced bread 2.3%
Eggs 2.2%

Why these categories and not others

Three mechanisms recur:

Products with irregular sales. One precise shade of hair colour sells a few times a week. The store’s ordering system works on an average, keeps one or two units in hand, and a single shopper taking two empties the slot.

Festive and seasonal products. Champagne, frozen seafood, ice cream: they concentrate their sales into a few weeks. Quantities are ordered in advance, and there is no catching up once the period has passed.

Products with many variants. Make-up, hair colour, light bulbs: dozens of lines each taking little space. The more variants there are, the harder it is to hold them all.

Conversely, butter, eggs and sliced bread sell in large quantities every day, are delivered often, and are watched closely by stores because their absence is noticed immediately.

The paradox: these are often the products with no replacement

That is what makes these out-of-stocks particularly annoying. On many products you simply take the brand next to it. On a precise shade of hair colour, an infant formula, a gluten-free or lactose-free product, there is no equivalent: the only option is to go elsewhere.

The worldwide study by Gruen, Corsten and Bharadwaj, run on 71,000 shoppers facing real out-of-stocks, measures that 31% of them go and buy the product in another store and 9% give up.

What you can do for these products

  1. Ask for one to be set aside. On products that sell rarely, this is the most effective solution, and stores often grant it.
  2. Say that you have no alternative. An aisle manager who knows some shoppers cannot substitute will raise their usual order.
  3. Report it, even if you end up finding it elsewhere. These products sell little: the store’s sales-based tools do not see their absence. Your report is sometimes the only trace.

How to report in two seconds

With ShelfAlert, there is nothing to install. Open shelfalert.io/signaler in your phone’s browser, or scan the ShelfAlert code if the store displays one.

  1. Scan the barcode of an identical neighbouring product, or the shelf label.
  2. If nothing scans, take a photo: the product is identified automatically.
  3. Confirm. The store manager, if subscribed, receives your report in real time.

What if the store isn’t on ShelfAlert yet?

Tell its manager, or send them the page for store managers: the trial is free for 14 days, with no payment card.

Sources

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