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When shoppers encounter an empty spot where your product should be, 20% will buy a competitor’s item, 15% will postpone their decision, and 9% will walk away without buying anything. Altogether, poor on-shelf availability (OSA) results in losing 44% of potential buyers.

In a competitive retail environment filled with sales, promotions, and deals, you can’t afford to hand over those customers to competitors. Yet that’s exactly what happens when supply chain problems are treated as the sole reason behind OSA gaps.

So, where else should we look for the root cause — and what strategies are truly effective for improving on shelf availability? That’s exactly what we’ll explore in this article.

The Cost of Poor On-Shelf Availability

Supply chain disruptions are real and significant. In fact, 88% of European FMCG brands reported supply chain issues in 2024, with 35% forced to reduce or halt production. Naturally, disruptions impact on-shelf availability. But are they always the only culprit?

Not necessarily. An empty shelf doesn’t always mean a product is out of stock. This is especially true for businesses that already follow advanced supply chain practices. According to McKinsey, applying artificial intelligence in operations can reduce such errors by up to 50%, which directly contributes to improving on shelf availability.

The reality is that by focusing only on supply chain optimization, companies risk losing that 44% of customers while also overspending on processes that may already be efficient.

Store-Level Execution Matters

Through years of experience in FMCG automation, helping companies streamline operations and gain real-time insights, we’ve seen that many OSA issues originate not in the supply chain but in the stores themselves — often due to poor execution.

Consider the example of YourCompany, a new soft drinks brand. The supply chain team successfully delivered products to distribution centers and ensured optimal stock levels across retail outlets. Yet, in the crucial first weeks of the launch, during major ad campaigns, sales underperformed in key urban stores — despite products being physically present.

What went wrong?

Backroom or Still in Boxes
In many locations, products were sitting in shipping cartons in back rooms or on sales floors, waiting to be unpacked. With staff overwhelmed, instructions unclear, and priorities competing, the drinks never reached the shelves or coolers. Shoppers never even saw them.

Poor Trade Execution
At the same time, trade marketing teams missed critical store visits and failed to enforce planogram compliance. Instead of securing prime eye-level placement or cooler space, the products were relegated to less visible spots, making improving on shelf availability nearly impossible.