Examining retail on shelf availability: promotional impact and a call for research

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.