As a mid-size to large retailer, ensuring your customers have a positive experience in your store is a top priority. So you focus on customer facing actions like a great loyalty system, rapid checkout and well-trained and friendly staff. All of which is great. But it’s important not to forget how your back of house processes can also impact customer satisfaction – and none more so than retail inventory management.

In this article, we share 5 must-know statistics about inventory management in mid-size retail, and how understanding and addressing them could provide the boost to customer experience that will put you ahead of your competition.

One of the biggest frustrations for customers is coming to your store only to find the item they want is out of stock. Stock outs lead to lost revenue and unhappy customers who don’t return and may also tell others about their bad experience.

Real time inventory information, using retail management software like iVend, gives you up to date, accurate information about what stock is where, so you can get it to the customer, rapidly and efficiently.

Recent research shows that retailers who implement real-time inventory management systems see an increase in customer satisfaction of a very significant 20%.

If out of stocks were a rare occurrence, a ‘Blue Moon’ moment, then maybe you could live with them. But the reality is that they are worryingly frequent. So much so that 82% of all in-store shoppers have had an OOS experience in the last year. This leads to frustration and loss of sales but turn it around and it represents a massive opportunity for differentiation for those who can get it right. So another way to look at this statistic is that if 82% of shoppers in your competitors’ stores can’t find the goods they want, you have the chance to offer a very attractive alternative, by implementing effective retail inventory management. This can help to reduce out of stock experiences and have a positive impact on your customers’ experience.

In the online world, stock availability and transparency of information are no less important. In fact, online it is even easier for a disgruntled shopper to go to your competition – they don’t even have to move away from their screen. That’s why a massive 69% don’t hang around on your site to look for something else. They vote with their feet (or their fingers) and leave you with an abandoned trolley. This, as for the brick and mortar lost shopper, means not only the loss of the revenue for that transaction, but also potential losses in the future as the shopper stays with your competitor and spreads the word about how they couldn’t get what they wanted on your site.

The way to ensure that you don’t lose customers to stock outs is smart inventory management, using automated re-ordering when stock levels drop below a threshold, and providing real-time updates that feed into the website. This approach can have a transformative impact on the online shopping experience and therefore on sales.

Staying with the online world, this statistic is an important one to understand if you’re running an online retail operation. As we saw with the previous statistic, having the right goods in stock is essential for avoiding abandoned carts. But even when the goods are in stock, there can still be pitfalls that can impact customer satisfaction. In a world where retailers like Amazon have set expectations of next day (or even same day) delivery, if you’re slow in getting the goods out to the customer, it will have a negative impact on customer satisfaction. But if you have an optimized inventory systems, you can improve order fulfilment by 30%, reducing delivery delays and increasing customer satisfaction.

This statistic highlights the fact that there is plenty of scope for improvement in inventory accuracy. Overall within the industry, retailers report their accuracy at just 70% – and typically the smaller the retailer, the lower the accuracy figure. Understanding this statistic shows retailers that they can make a significant difference if they are willing to invest in retail management software that includes smart inventory management, real-time visibility, and automated replenishment and gives the precise stock data that allows them to provide a better customer experience.

For mid-sized retailers, great customer experience isn’t just about well trained staff or a great promotions and loyalty program. It all starts in the warehouse. By investing in inventory automation, real-time visibility, and smarter replenishment, you not only protect your margins—you provide a positive, memorable experience for your customers. That means fewer lost sales, more repeat visits, and a boost to your bottom line.