Grocery inventory accuracy hasn’t meaningfully improved in 20 years, yet the cost of getting it wrong continues to grow. OrderGrid Co-Founder Aidan Mittra joins Tom Enright, former lead retail supply chain analyst at Gartner, and Colin Peacock of ECR Retail Loss for a RETHINK Retail webinar exploring why one in three grocery shoppers don’t find everything they came for, what’s keeping retailers from closing the gap, and how to build the real-time inventory foundation that every grocery decision depends on.
Key Takeaways
- Inventory accuracy remains a persistent challenge: Despite two decades of technology investment, grocery on-shelf availability remains in the low 90%, leaving roughly one in three shoppers without everything they came for.
- Inaccurate inventory costs more than lost sales: Phantom stock, misplaced products and incorrect records contribute to wasted labor, unnecessary markdowns, food waste and missed revenue opportunities.
- New technologies are raising the stakes: Ecommerce, retail media and AI-assisted shopping all depend on reliable availability data. Without it, retailers risk disappointing customers and losing ground to competitors.
- Better accuracy doesn’t require a major technology overhaul: Real-time inventory systems can work alongside existing POS and ERP platforms, connecting store data to actions without costly infrastructure replacements.
- No single technology solves inventory accuracy: Combining computer vision, zero-scan detection, picking data and targeted cycle counts helps retailers identify gaps and direct store teams to fix them before more sales are lost.
Take the next step: Complete a short operations assessment and review your results with Tom Enright in a complimentary 1-on-1 session to identify opportunities to improve sales, margins and store execution.
Originally recorded for RETHINK Retail.
