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The purpose of this paper is to present an investigation into the causes of promotional on‐shelf‐availability (on‐shelf‐availability) shortfalls in retailing.

The research follows a multiple‐case study research design involving seven major retailers and four multinational food manufacturers operating in the UK. The data collection took the form of semi‐structured interviews with 110 practitioners across 24 sites. Observations and documentation were used as supporting evidence.

Improving promotional on‐shelf‐availability presents retailers and manufacturers with a complex set of inter‐connected problems distributed across the supply chain. This research identified 32 causes affecting on‐shelf‐availability, grouped into eight themes, six of which are generic (forecasting, collaboration, replenishment, IT, distribution and production), and two which are specific to promotions (timescales and promotional process). This classification provides practitioners with a framework to improve promotional on‐shelf‐availability and academics with a more comprehensive range of the factors affecting on‐shelf‐availability, including two new themes not previously documented.

Although the number of cases does not allow statistical analysis, the size and scope of the organizations involved helps to underpin the generalizability of the findings. The volume of data collected for retailers is significantly higher than for manufacturers, although this only reflects the importance of retailers in ensuring on‐shelf‐availability.

This paper presents a framework designed to provide a steer for further research into promotional on‐shelf‐availability and to help retail professionals to prioritize their actions towards improving promotional on‐shelf‐availability.

While on‐shelf‐availability has been the subject of much research, promotional on‐shelf‐availability has not been investigated in significant depth. This research is, to our knowledge, the first to investigate the causes of poor promotional on‐shelf‐availability and expands the knowledge of the field by highlighting the similarities and differences between traditional on‐shelf‐availability and promotional on‐shelf‐availability. Given the increasing use of promotions as a competitive strategy this area of research is both timely and important.

Infrastructural revolution, intense competition and customer attraction towards organised apparel retailing in India are potentially affecting traditional retailing. The authors seek to identify the factors that customers perceive during shopping in organised apparel retail store. This study also investigates the indirect effects of identified factors on behavioural outcomes such as loyalty.

The study randomly selected the customers immediately after shopping to minimise the experience's carryover effects. A sample of 648 customers was collected. Data were analysed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The study has found that in-store logistics is the second order factor with ease of return, on-shelf availability, product accessibility, shopping convenience, and product information as the variables. The result shows that in-store logistics, store environment, store communication, merchandise assortment, perceived price and employee attribute influence customer satisfaction. As expected, these factors indirectly influence the loyalty.

This study focused on organised multi-brand apparel retailing, and the survey was conducted in a tier-II city of India only. Hence, any attempt to generalise the findings must be undertaken with caution.

In the context of multi-brand retailing, competition is fierce. New entrants and traditional apparel retailers hesitate to adopt organised apparel retailing. The findings of this study can be helpful for new entrants and traditional apparel retailers to adopt organised apparel retailing.

Previous studies in the field of multi-brand retailing have mainly focused on the marketing aspect of retail stores. This study contributes to the operations aspect and tests the impact of operational function (in-store logistics) on customer satisfaction.

The perils of the Distribution Manager's role are never more clearly illustrated than by the Christmas rush and the January hangover. If Christmas 1988 meant seat of the pants survival, now is the time to reflect on it and plan your strategy for what the pundits say will be a tougher 1989. This article examines how centralised distribution has changed the role's emphasis from physical distribution to supply chain management, and how the successful management of stocks is the key to success.

This paper aims to examine the use of a qualitative data analysis technique, the documentary method, in the development of knowledge in logistics. The value of the method is illustrated through an example of its application in a study of in‐store logistics processes at six leading European retail stores.

Extant literature is outlined regarding philosophical underpinnings of the documentary method and is followed by an explanation of the method and its application. Finally, an illustration is provided of its adaptation and use in a logistics research project.

Drawing on a social constructionist approach, the documentary method can add to the development of logistics research by providing rich descriptions of actual practice, problems and issues in logistic processes – compared with the stated goals of such processes.

The documentary method is not suitable for all areas of logistics research and will need certain adaptations and adjustments when transferred into particular research contexts. In addition, the research question, philosophical stance, and knowledge of qualitative methodologies will ultimately determine the appropriateness of the technique.

The paper presents the first application of the documentary method in the field of logistics.

The purpose of this paper is to address the effects of retail out-of-stocks from a service-dominant (S-D) logic view.

Conceptual, combining classic S-D logic research with recent research of S-D logic in supply chains, and applying this to out-of-stocks in a retail setting of fast-moving consumer goods.

The paper unveils out-of-stocks as emergent operant resources that alter and attenuate value creation across manufacturers, retailers, shoppers, users and their networks. The paper develops a model of value co-creation where manufacturer supply and shopper/user demand meet in the retailer ' s realm. Differentiating between shopper and user in a sequential model of value creation, it identifies the shopper as an active entity whose response to out-of-stocks redistributes value within the retail service ecosystem. An additional model is developed that illustrates the novel costs of an out-of-stock as uncovered by the S-D logic perspective, allowing retailers and manufacturers to align their interests in improving on-shelf availability.

Moving distribution thought and management towards a goal of service provision, this article suggests three logistics research possibilities: retailer-manufacturer misalignment, spatio-temporal supply-demand mismatch, and shopper-user interaction.

This article shows how the S-D perspective can bring previously misaligned incentives of supply chain actors into alignment. Previous goods-dominant research showed little common ground for manufacturers and retailers to jointly improve on-shelf availability. The S-D logic view demonstrates compelling rationale for both parties ' involvement.

The paper extends S-D logic literature by considering value attenuation through failures in physical distribution and logistics management, adding that non-availability causes operand resources to become operant and attenuate/redistribute value. The paper extends the out-of-stock literature by providing a theoretical foundation, and by showing the ecosystem effects of out-of-stocks.

This paper aims to focus on the store ordering and replenishment practices which appear to be the major cause behind the problem of out‐of‐stock situations. A collaborative store replenishment practice, enabled by an internet‐based platform is examined. By enabling information and knowledge sharing between retail store managers and suppliers' salesmen, this practice leads to increased order accuracy and, as a result, to fewer out‐of‐stock situations.

The research presented in this paper has been empirical in nature, involving a field experiment with a major retailer and several suppliers in Greece. Pre‐ and post‐experiment measurements were conducted and the quantitative results were statistically analyzed in order to assess the impact of collaborative store ordering on shelf availability. The quantitative measurements were repeated over several years, offering a longitudinal view on the experiment. Qualitative findings from the field experiment are also discussed.

The empirical results from the field experiment show a reduction in out‐of‐stock situations by more than 50 percent combined with no significant statistical variation in total observed inventory levels. Qualitative findings regarding the practical aspects of the process as well as organizational issues are also acquired.

Low shelf availability and the respective sales loss is one of the major issues retailers and suppliers face today. This paper examines a new replenishment process, involving supplier‐retailer collaboration supported by daily information sharing of POS data and other information over an internet platform, which leads to increased shelf availability by addressing one of its major causes. Thus, the empirical results presented in the paper have important implications for practitioners. In addition, the paper contributes from a methodological perspective to the academic community, by describing the way the field experiment was conducted and the quantitative results were analyzed as a means to evaluate a new business practice and Internet‐based collaboration platform.

On‐shelf availability (OSA) has been a major cause of concern to UK grocery retailers over the last five years and the topic has been the focus of commissioned research reports by various trade associations. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of how one major grocery retailer tackled the OSA issue that had been exacerbated by management focus on new technology and distribution facilities.

The purpose of the research was to determine if any relationship existed between OSA and store picking for home shoppers, OSA and promotions and OSA and store size. This paper discusses the academic and practitioner literature on OSA and out‐of‐stocks (OOS) and then presents a single company, in‐depth case study of one multiple grocery retailer. Primary research was undertaken with senior managers of the company but also at regional distribution centre (RDC) and store level to chart how new logistics strategies were implemented at an operational level in Scottish stores.

It was noted that the advent of home shopping has aggravated the “last 50 yards” and a company can experience acute OSA difficulties. Network changes involving a mixture of old and new systems create short‐term pressures and profitability shortfalls. The new high‐tech networks push products out to stores but overstocks occur in backrooms of stores and do not reach the shelves. Demand and supply may not synchronised.

Although there is primary empirical research related to the case study the major output is a framework presented for future investigation, thus there is no expansive empirical study in this paper.

With the exception of smaller stores where OSA remains a problem, the company has succeeded in improving OSA levels in the other areas.

This paper adds to our knowledge of OSA and OOS by investigating the flow of goods from the RDC to the store shelf and presenting various critical points in the process flow that have received scant attention from academics and practitioners.

On‐shelf availability (OSA) is a key challenge for all retailers. Items that are out‐of‐stock (OOS) result in customer dissatisfaction; thus OSA/OOS are important customer service issues. Customer reactions to OOS range from product substitution to seeking products elsewhere. There remains much to do to research factors and causes of OOS affecting OSA from a supply chain perspective in a non‐grocery retail context. This research note aims to report on an exploratory investigation of OSA/OOS of four non‐grocery, high street retailers.

This paper discusses the extant academic and practitioner OSA/OOS literature to develop research questions for the investigation, which was conducted through in‐depth, qualitative interviews. Although a large sample was solicited only four different retailers in the fast‐moving consumer good categories of general merchandise, electronics, books, and mobile phones agreed to participate.

Findings indicate that the four retailers are not as focused on OSA as grocery retailers and that there is lack of collaboration with suppliers. This may have a significant impact on revenues and profitability as extant studies show that 65 per cent of consumers will not purchase in a store if confronted with an OOS situation.

Because of the low response rate only general trends across and within these four categories are reported. Notwithstanding, several important issues emerged for future research in this area and the non‐grocery arena.

Earlier work has provided insight into how supply chain issues affects OSA and OOS in grocery retailing. This paper extends that work to a non‐grocery setting, albeit on a limited basis, but provides scope for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to: first, provide a systematic review of the drivers of retail on-shelf availability (OSA) that have been scrutinized in the literature; second, identify areas where further scrutiny is needed; and third, critically reflect on current conceptualizations of OSA and suggest alternative perspectives that may help guide future investigations.

A systematic approach is adopted wherein nine leading journals in logistics, supply chain management, operations management, and retailing are systematically scanned for articles discussing OSA drivers. The respective journals’ websites are used as the primary platform for scanning, with Google Scholar serving as a secondary platform for completeness. Journal articles are carefully read and their respective relevance assessed. A final set of 73 articles is retained and thoroughly reviewed for the purpose of this research. The systematic nature of the review minimizes researcher bias, ensures reasonable completeness, maximizes reliability, and enables replicability.

Five categories of drivers of OSA are identified. The first four – i.e., operational, behavioral, managerial, and coordination drivers – stem from failures at the planning or execution stages of retail operations. The fifth category – systemic drivers – encompasses contingency factors that amplify the effect of supply chain failures on OSA. The review also indicates that most non-systemic OOS could be traced back to incentive misalignments within and across supply chain partners.

This research consolidates past findings on the drivers of OSA and provides valuable insights as to areas where further research may be needed. It also offers forward-looking perspectives that could help advance research on the drivers of OSA. For example, the authors invite the research community to revisit the pervasive underlying assumption that OSA is an absolute imperative and question the unidirectional relationship that higher OSA is necessarily better. The authors initiate an open dialogue to approach OSA as a service-level parameter, rather than a maximizable outcome, as indicated by inventory theory.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the direct and interaction effects of shelf space, case pack quantity, and consumer demand on shelf stockouts, i.e. stockouts at the shelf level when inventory is available in the backroom of a retail store.

This study uses discrete‐event simulation based on data collected from the ready‐to‐eat breakfast cereal category with multiple stockkeeping units (SKUs) to model a retail supply chain consisting of a supplier, a retailer, and consumers.

The results indicate that shelf space and case pack quantity have direct effects on shelf stockouts. Furthermore, evidence is found for interactions among shelf space, case pack quantity and consumer demand. Though many retailers adopt simple heuristics for shelf space allocation, such as a multiple of case pack quantity, this study suggests that such heuristics tend to over‐ or underestimate shelf space requirements when consumer demand is ignored.

This study suggests that managers should allocate shelf space for SKUs on the basis of not only case pack quantity but also consumer demand.