On-shelf Availability Improvement for Fresh Category in Retail Stores of Discounter Format

Key words On Shelf Availability, Retail Stores of Discounter Format, FRESH products, replenishment management, product shelf life management, FEFO (First Expiry First Out) principle, time temperature monitoring in the supply chain, Fruit and Vegetables Quality Monitoring in the supply chain On-shelf availability until now remains one of the urgent and unresolved problem for food retail companies. On shelf availability is the main effectiveness measure of retail performance. Under the fierce competition and worsening economic situation retail companies have begun pay more attention to development of the discounter format stores. Moreover the wide assortment and high quality of FRESH products have become one of the basic drivers and competitive performance requirement for food retailers, including discounters, that also distinguishes the leaders companies from underperformers. The paper target is development of a measure system for on shelf availability improvement of FRESH products in discounters retail stores. Within the framework of current investigation the main problems are determined, with which retail companies come across while improving fresh products on shelf availability. Major causes of low shelf availability are identified and additionally the metric system of out-of-stock management process effectiveness is proposed. Finally, the complex measure system of on shelf availability improvement is developed in case of discounters format retail stores, which is adapted for fresh products peculiarities.