Purpose Retailers increasingly invest in shelf-visibility technologies to improve on-shelf availability (OSA), yet the levels of out-of-stocks in grocery and nongrocery retail consumables stubbornly remain about 8%. This study examines how retailers orchestrate complementary operational capabilities: digital sensing tools, execution routines and frontline empowerment structures to achieve high OSA performance. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on survey data from 55 international retailers from the grocery and nongrocery consumables sector, the study assesses the usage and implementation of five core shelf signals, including traditional gap scans, inventory records data, lost sales predictions, pick rate data and shelf images. The study adopts a configurational approach grounded in organizational complementarity and resource capability theory, where the shelf signals, execution practices and empowerment mechanisms are grouped into capability domains and compared across retailers exhibiting higher versus lower OSA performance. Findings Recommending a 95% OSA boundary optimum target, the analysis reveals that OSA performance emerges not from the adoption of any particular signaling technology, but from the alignment and reinforcement of sensing, execution and empowerment capabilities. High OSA retailers demonstrate stronger complementarity among these domains, while lower or developing OSA retailers exhibit capability gaps or misalignment that restrict the value of digital visibility. Originality/value The study highlights the importance of examining retail execution through a configurational lens, and retailers should view OSA improvement as a capability alignment challenge rather than as a technology problem. Investments in digital visibility must be matched by disciplined routines and empowered associates to generate operational value. This study shifts the discussion of OSA from a focus on technologies to a focus on complementary operational capabilities, providing an explanation for why some retailers translate digital visibility into shelf performance while others do not.
Corsten et al. (Tue,) studied this question.