Accessibility Statement Skip Navigation
  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing
  • Login
  • GDPR
  • Create a Free Account
Return to PRWeb homepage
  • News
  • Resources
  • Contact
When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type.

Searching for your content...

No results found. Please change your search terms and try again.
  • News in Focus
      • Browse News Releases

      • All News Releases
      • Multimedia Gallery

      • All Multimedia
      • All Photos
      • All Videos
  • Business & Money
      • Auto & Transportation

      • Aerospace, Defense
      • Air Freight
      • Airlines & Aviation
      • Automotive
      • Maritime & Shipbuilding
      • Railroads and Intermodal Transportation
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Transportation, Trucking & Railroad
      • Travel
      • Trucking and Road Transportation
      • View All Auto & Transportation

      • Business Technology

      • Blockchain
      • Broadcast Tech
      • Computer & Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Components
      • Electronic Design Automation
      • Financial Technology
      • High Tech Security
      • Internet Technology
      • Nanotechnology
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Semiconductors
      • View All Business Technology

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Financial Services & Investing

      • Accounting News & Issues
      • Acquisitions, Mergers and Takeovers
      • Banking & Financial Services
      • Bankruptcy
      • Bond & Stock Ratings
      • Conference Call Announcements
      • Contracts
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Dividends
      • Earnings
      • Earnings Forecasts & Projections
      • Financing Agreements
      • Insurance
      • Investments Opinions
      • Joint Ventures
      • Mutual Funds
      • Private Placement
      • Real Estate
      • Restructuring & Recapitalization
      • Sales Reports
      • Shareholder Activism
      • Shareholder Meetings
      • Stock Offering
      • Stock Split
      • Venture Capital
      • View All Financial Services & Investing

      • General Business

      • Awards
      • Commercial Real Estate
      • Corporate Expansion
      • Earnings
      • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
      • Human Resource & Workforce Management
      • Licensing
      • New Products & Services
      • Obituaries
      • Outsourcing Businesses
      • Overseas Real Estate (non-US)
      • Personnel Announcements
      • Real Estate Transactions
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Small Business Services
      • Socially Responsible Investing
      • Surveys, Polls and Research
      • Trade Show News
      • View All General Business

  • Science & Tech
      • Consumer Technology

      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Blockchain
      • Cloud Computing/Internet of Things
      • Computer Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Consumer Electronics
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Gaming
      • Financial Technology
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Multimedia & Internet
      • Peripherals
      • Social Media
      • STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Consumer Technology

      • Energy & Natural Resources

      • Alternative Energies
      • Chemical
      • Electrical Utilities
      • Gas
      • General Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil & Energy
      • Oil and Gas Discoveries
      • Utilities
      • Water Utilities
      • View All Energy & Natural Resources

      • Environ­ment

      • Conservation & Recycling
      • Environmental Issues
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Products & Services
      • Green Technology
      • Natural Disasters
      • View All Environ­ment

      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Agriculture
      • Chemical
      • Construction & Building
      • General Manufacturing
      • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning)
      • Machinery
      • Machine Tools, Metalworking and Metallurgy
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Paper, Forest Products & Containers
      • Precious Metals
      • Textiles
      • Tobacco
      • View All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Telecomm­unications

      • Carriers and Services
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Telecommunications Equipment
      • Telecommunications Industry
      • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Telecomm­unications

  • Lifestyle & Health
      • Consumer Products & Retail

      • Animals & Pets
      • Beers, Wines and Spirits
      • Beverages
      • Bridal Services
      • Cannabis
      • Cosmetics and Personal Care
      • Fashion
      • Food & Beverages
      • Furniture and Furnishings
      • Home Improvement
      • Household, Consumer & Cosmetics
      • Household Products
      • Jewelry
      • Non-Alcoholic Beverages
      • Office Products
      • Organic Food
      • Product Recalls
      • Restaurants
      • Retail
      • Supermarkets
      • Toys
      • View All Consumer Products & Retail

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Health

      • Biometrics
      • Biotechnology
      • Clinical Trials & Medical Discoveries
      • Dentistry
      • FDA Approval
      • Fitness/Wellness
      • Health Care & Hospitals
      • Health Insurance
      • Infection Control
      • International Medical Approval
      • Medical Equipment
      • Medical Pharmaceuticals
      • Mental Health
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Supplementary Medicine
      • View All Health

      • Sports

      • General Sports
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Sporting Events
      • Sports Equipment & Accessories
      • View All Sports

      • Travel

      • Amusement Parks and Tourist Attractions
      • Gambling & Casinos
      • Hotels and Resorts
      • Leisure & Tourism
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Passenger Aviation
      • Travel Industry
      • View All Travel

  • Policy & Public Interest
      • Policy & Public Interest

      • Advocacy Group Opinion
      • Animal Welfare
      • Congressional & Presidential Campaigns
      • Corporate Social Responsibility
      • Domestic Policy
      • Economic News, Trends, Analysis
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • European Government
      • FDA Approval
      • Federal and State Legislation
      • Federal Executive Branch & Agency
      • Foreign Policy & International Affairs
      • Homeland Security
      • Labor & Union
      • Legal Issues
      • Natural Disasters
      • Not For Profit
      • Patent Law
      • Public Safety
      • Trade Policy
      • U.S. State Policy
      • View All Policy & Public Interest

  • People & Culture
      • People & Culture

      • Aboriginal, First Nations & Native American
      • African American
      • Asian American
      • Children
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Hispanic
      • Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual
      • Men's Interest
      • People with Disabilities
      • Religion
      • Senior Citizens
      • Veterans
      • Women
      • View All People & Culture

  • Hamburger menu
  • Cision PRWeb provides efficient communication tools to continuously engage with target audiences across multiple online channels
  • Create a Free Account
    • ALL CONTACT INFO
    • Contact Us


      11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday

  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • News in Focus
    • Browse All News
    • Multimedia Gallery
  • Business & Money
    • Auto & Transportation
    • Business Technology
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Financial Services & Investing
    • General Business
  • Science & Tech
    • Consumer Technology
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Environ­ment
    • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
    • Telecomm­unications
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Consumer Products & Retail
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Policy & Public Interest
  • People & Culture
    • People & Culture
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR

Real-World Retail Inventory Levels Worse Than Expected, Driven By Hidden Stockouts and Understocking of Top-Selling SKUs, With Highest Impact on Smaller Stores

Pensa shares early findings across customer deployments of AI-powered system for retail inventory visibility.


News provided by

Pensa Systems

Jan 12, 2020, 08:00 ET

Share this article

Share toX

Share this article

Share toX


NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- NRF 2020 Vision: Retail's Big Show

Pensa Systems, a leading innovator in autonomous perception systems for retail inventory, today released early learnings from multiple customer deployments that show real-world on-shelf inventory levels may be worse than long-accepted estimates. That's a potentially significant finding, given that industry reports already identify stockouts as a $1 trillion problem for brands and retailers.

“Retailer and brands assumptions about OSA rates are frequently off target because they don’t have the real-time, real-world data they need to better manage and optimize inventory turns," said Pensa CEO and co-founder Richard Schwartz.

Post this

Specifically, Pensa's early deployments show:

  • OSA may be worse than expected. While industry best practice has long aspired to 98 percent on-shelf availability (OSA), Pensa has found that the reality often is routinely averaging 90-96 percent; in fact, stockouts can be up to 25-30 percent - much higher than reported by inventory systems or the industry practice of "gunning the holes" to identify stockouts. There is also significant variability by store size, SKUs, manufacturers and individual store restocking processes.
  • "Hidden stockouts" represent up to 30 percent of the problem. Hidden stockouts refer to situations where an otherwise obvious gap from the stockout is "faced over" with an adjacent item or the wrong product, or where the desired product is actually in stock but hidden by other products in the wrong location, or only available in secondary locations but not where shoppers expect to find it. Pensa found that hidden stockouts can account for up to 30 percent or more of all stockouts.
  • Stores often understock their top-selling products. This has been one of the most surprising findings for brands and retailers, given how motivated both are to ensure popular products are always on the shelf. The unfortunate reality found in multiple Pensa deployments, however, is that stockout rates are typically highest for top-selling products – often hitting 8 to 12 percent or more at many stores.
  • Less popular products remain out-of-stock longer. Slower moving niche items on the shelf can be present to provide variety to the consumer. Ironically perhaps, hidden stockouts and inventory distortion conspire to cause these items to appear in stock and not selling, when in fact, they are out-of-stock and remain so undetected for long periods of time. Wrong conclusions can be self-perpetuating and supply chain practices for slower moving items exacerbate the impact.
  • Small stores perform worse than average. While small stores obviously have less overall shelf space, they often stock too wide a variety in a desire to compete with larger stores and online retailers. Pensa's initial analysis indicates this could very well be counter-productive, as it leads smaller stores to more frequently run out of top-selling products and exhibit high stockout rates overall.
  • Automated stockout detection can add 2-4 percent to the bottom line. The industry has long lacked consistent real-time shelf inventory data. But now that real-time tracking data is a viable possibility, our deployments have demonstrated that it can underpin quick wins and long-term improvements, allowing retailers to adjust inventory operations and brands to have more precise visibility across stores and categories.

"Retailer and brands assumptions about OSA rates are frequently off target because they don't have the real-time, real-world data they need to better manage and optimize inventory turns," said Pensa CEO and co-founder Richard Schwartz. "It's well-known that stockouts result in lost revenue, lower profits and low customer satisfaction. But with access to the right data via intra-day scans and powerful analytics, retailers can improve store operations, inventory planning and planogram compliance, and brands can optimize their product allocations, category plans and supply chain delivery."

About Pensa Systems
Pensa is a leading innovator in autonomous perception for retail inventory. Its system uses breakthrough technology – including artificial intelligence, autonomous drones and computer vision – to see and understand what's on store shelves, providing crucial data to minimize stockouts, optimize product planning, and boost revenues and profitability. Pensa partners with top retailers and CPG brands globally to address a trillion-dollar "blind spot" at a critical time for the retail industry. Please visit http://www.pensasystems.com to learn more, and stay connected via Twitter and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Pensa Systems

Related Links

https://www.pensasystems.com/

Modal title

Contact PRWeb

  • 11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday
  • Contact Us

About PRWeb

  • About PRWeb
  • Partners
  • Partnership Programs
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Resources

Why PRWeb

  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing

Accounts

  • Create a Free Account
  • Log in
  • Contact Us

Do not sell or share my personal information:

  • Submit via [email protected] 
  • Call Privacy toll-free: 877-297-8921

Contact Cision

Products

About

My Services
  • All News Releases
  • Online Member Center
  • ProfNet
Cision Distribution Helpline
888-776-0942
  • Legal
  • Site Map
  • RSS
  • Cookie Settings
Copyright © 2025 Cision US Inc.