A new international survey of 4000 consumers has revealed that shopping experiences both online and in-store are not meeting the customer expectation of purchasing goods anytime, anywhere.

The study by Blue Yonder, a cloud-based provider of predictive applications for retail, explored consumer shopping habits online, in supermarkets, in discount retailers and in the mass merchants across the USA, UK, France and Germany.

The top findings included:

• 81 per cent of shoppers say they are unable to get produce they want in store, online and at discount retailers, yet 91 per cent of grocery retail professionals are confident they are meeting customer expectations of availability.
• Of those that struggle with availability, 35 per cent state they are let down at least once a week.
• Lack of availability is even felt when shopping online, with 69 per cent stating they have issues. This rises in the supermarkets to 85 per cent.
• 30 per cent of all shoppers abandoned their carts if they were unable to find the produce they wanted, with 28 per cent saying that they felt unsatisfied when buying a similar product as a substitute.
• Lack of produce availability has caused 20 per cent of shoppers to stop shopping with a retailer permanently or for a period of time, with this figure rising to 31 per cent for online retailers.

Professor Michael Feindt, chief scientific advisor and founder of Blue Yonder, said: “We all understand replenishment is incredibly difficult to get right, especially in regards to fresh grocery. Disruptive shopping behaviors have made increases in demand more variable while grocery shopping missions based on trust, freshness, choice and – of course – value, all add to the complexity of replenishment decisions.

“The demands on grocery management show no sign of abating in the always-on world. Yet, despite this, we have found in our previous survey of 750 grocery retailers that 46 per cent of grocery directors admitted that their replenishment decisions are driven by gut feeling.”