South Africa, June 17 -- Businesses invest months of planning, marketing spend and hard-won shelf space into promotional campaigns only to discover, weeks later, that their sales stalled due to their products not being in stock in store.

Through engagements with suppliers operating in the modern trade channel, we find that this is a recurring reality. Moreover, research statistics endorse this fact.

For example, 52 global studies (that measured impact in US$) puts the average out-of-stock (OOS) rate in developed FMCG markets at approximately 8%.

This is a figure that has remained largely unchanged for over five decades despite significant investment in supply chain technology. This translates, for the average retailer, into a loss of a...