Impact of Automatic Store Replenishment on Retail : Technologies and Concepts for the Out-of-Stocks Problem

Fast moving consumer goods retailing is a highly competitive market. European retailers are continuously aiming to improve customer loyalty by offering good service. At the same time, they are struggling to reduce costs in order to stay competitive. One technology that promises to decrease the number of out-of-stocks while simultaneously reducing store handling costs is automatic store replenishment (ASR). At the heart of ASR systems lies software that automatically places an order to replenish stocks. Many European grocery retailers have started to implement such decision support systems. Surprisingly, although several retailers have automated their order process in the last few years, there is almost no academic source examining this topic at the level of the store. It is worth noting that other technologies In retail, such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and the introduction of the barcode, have received far greater attention from the public and from researchers. Furthermore, while the topic of extent and root-causes of retail out-of-stock has received substantial interest over the course of the last years, the question to what extent existing and new practices remedy OOS is largely unanswered. In particular, there is a debate whether ASR improve or worsen OOS. Therefore, Dr. Alfred Angerer has well chosen a topic of both managerial and academic relevance.