You’re jolted awake by a nightmare that feels all too real.
Your top seller is missing from the shelf. And no one noticed!
Distribution voids are silent threats to brands and manufacturers, making items disappear from shelves and quietly draining profits. They often go undetected, leading stores to stop carrying a product entirely until the void is corrected.
The hidden causes of lost shelf space
Keeping shelves stocked and organized while customers shop is tough. It demands constant attention to maintain a clean, well-stocked store. Here’s how it happens:
- During busy hours, shoppers often leave items on the wrong shelves or in random areas of the store.
- Shelf tags can get knocked off or accidentally taken, ending up in carts, bags, or on the floor.
- When a product is out of stock, employees may remove the shelf tag and fill the space with another item for visual appeal. Without the original tag, the product can fall off reorder tracking entirely.
If there’s no product, tag, or clear cue, store employees won’t realize anything’s missing. That’s how voids go unnoticed. Before long, the item vanishes from the reorder system, and if it’s a top-seller, that silence shows up in your sales numbers.
Out of sight, out of cart
If shoppers can’t find your product, they’ll grab whatever’s available. If it keeps happening, you’ll lose their loyalty. Meanwhile, your product sits in the backroom, cut off from the path to purchase.
How to avoid voids
You can’t fix what you can’t see. Identifying voids requires large-scale store audits, a major challenge for brands with thousands of locations.
That’s where Observa comes in. We find the voids, deliver actionable insights, and fix the issues fast. The result? Better visibility, higher sales, and renewed shopper loyalty.