70% of shoppers face stock shortages, says European State of the Store study from Infosys

London – November 7, 2013

A study released today by Infosys revealed that the retail industry is regularly missing out on sales opportunities with seven in ten British shoppers often faced with in-store stock shortages.

The independent study, State of the Store, is based on a survey of 2,250 consumers and 75 major retailers in France, Germany and the UK. The study found that there are significant revenue opportunities for retailers who collaborate with their fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) suppliers to create a more personalized and convenient shopping experience. By working together to ensure they stock the right amount of the right product, in the right part of the store, supported by the right promotions, both retailers and their FMCG suppliers can secure profitable growth and increase market share.

What UK shoppers said:

  • The survey uncovered that British consumers are much more likely to impulse shop in-store (68%) than online (6%) – something that makes it even more important for retailers to ensure their shelves are always stocked and are maximizing shoppers’ in-store experience
  • When in store, 71% of consumers found their main choice of products to be unavailable at least once over the past three months. In these instances, over a third of consumers (39%), go to another store or delay their purchase
  • After price (37%), ease of finding products (28%) was cited as one of the main reasons for consumers choosing to shop online rather than in-store, followed by product availability (22%) and promotions (22%)
  • Bargains were top of the list, with 71% saying they will spend more on products if they are on promotion
  • Incidentally, 21% of consumers are already more likely to buy a product if a promotion is sent to them via their mobile device when in store

What British major retailers said:

  • Retailers believe that sales representatives from FMCG suppliers spend most of their time in-store on new product launches and sales presentations (80%), promotion execution (68%) or store audits (64%)
  • Retailers would also like sales representatives to dedicate time to ensure the availability of products (76%). Only 48% of retailers believed representatives do this when in-store
  • 60% of retailers want to co-create more targeted promotions, while 48% said they were looking for support to develop local store-specific programmes
  • The study also revealed that absence of shared real-time customer trends between the two parties was seriously impacting an effective in-store experience. In fact, only 16% of retailers share customer data on a daily basis
  • While 71% share basic shelf data, only 48% of retailers are prepared to share Point-of-Sale (PoS) data with their FMCG suppliers and only 38% are willing to provide shopper behavior characteristics

Quote:

Karmesh Vaswani, Vice President and Head of Europe – Retail, Consumer Goods and Logistics at Infosys: “Radically changing consumer expectations have disrupted the traditional model of retailing. Today, major retail chains need to create an ‘ideal store’ experience which meets the needs of local shoppers in each and every store. This requires new forms of close collaboration between retailers and FMCG suppliers to get the tills ringing. Those in the industry that get this right will reap the rewards in terms of increased sales and improved customer loyalty.”

Supporting resources:

Research Methodology

Vanson Bourne on behalf of Infosys polled a total of 750 consumers and 25 retailers including store managers and category buyers/leads of food and non-food products in the United Kingdom between July 29 and August 30, 2013. The same questions were posed to equal numbers of consumer and retailers in France and Germany.

 

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