Consumers vote with their feet → on-shelf availability (OSA) is make-or-break for retailers and suppliers.

Thin retail margins make OSA a battleground, but every out-of-stock (OOS) also means lost sales for suppliers. With ~4% of retail revenue lost to OOSs, suppliers can’t afford to ignore the problem.

Here’s the real challenge: you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Too often, OSA is tracked in silos - owned by one team (if that!), treated as a reporting exercise, or looked at only after the damage is done. The result? suppliers are left reacting instead of preventing.

That’s why we built a quick self-assessment - not to point fingers, but to help you step back and see where your organization truly stands.

Think of it as a mirror: a chance to measure whether your current practices set you up to prevent OOSs or whether you’re still stuck firefighting.

The OSA Self-Assessment

Answer each question: Yes or No.

A. Is measuring OSA a clear priority for your company’s leadership and your team, with visibility and accountability at the highest levels?

👉 Yes / No

B. Is there clear ownership and accountability within your organization for OSA, ensuring a particular team/function is responsible for tracking OSA performance and driving improvements across stores and SKUs?

👉 Yes / No

C. Do you track OSA consistently for every store, SKU, and customer, using reliable data that clearly shows where products are missing and allows you to take immediate action?

👉 Yes / No

D. Do you receive daily alerts or exception reports that accurately identify low inventory or OOSs for each store by customer and/or by brand, category, or geography?

👉 Yes / No

E. Can you pinpoint the root causes of OOSs, including phantom inventory, distribution voids, misplaced stock, and poor in-store execution?

👉 Yes / No

F. Can you quantify the impact of OOSs on sales, revenue, and profitability, including the cost of each lost sale at the customer and store level?

👉 Yes / No

G. Are your inventory and OOS alerts connected to your internal systems, enabling sales and retail operations teams to coordinate and respond immediately and work proactively with customers to prevent OOSs and keep shelves full?

👉 Yes / No

H. Can you reliably calculate the total sales recovered across SKUs, brands, categories, customers, and regions when OOS situations are resolved?

👉 Yes / No

I. Can you measure the return on investment for your merchandising and in-store initiatives, including how they impact sales, OSA, and overall profitability?

👉 Yes / No

J. Do you have standardized internal processes - and coordinated procedures with your customer counterparts - for identifying, communicating, and resolving OSA issues quickly and effectively?

👉 Yes / No

Now, tally your “Yes” answers:

0–4 → 🚨 At Risk

Lost sales, strained relationships, and consumer dissatisfaction are likely everyday realities. Immediate action is critical.

5–9 → ⚖️ In the Middle

Your team is surviving, yet millions in sales are still at risk. Time to double down and close the gaps.

10–12 → 🏆 Leading Edge

You’re in strong shape. The challenge now is sustaining consistency, strengthening retailer collaboration, and pushing the frontier of predictive OSA.

Which persona fits your organization?

• The Firefighter (0–4): Always reacting, rarely ahead.
• The Optimizer (5–9): Getting by and leaving money on the table.
• The Innovator (10–12): Proactive, data-driven, and shaping retailer expectations.

OSA is no longer a background metric. It’s a frontline driver of revenue, relationships, and consumer trust.

The suppliers that lead won’t just measure OSA - they’ll own it. And ownership starts with clarity: knowing exactly where you stand today, and what that means for tomorrow.

We’ll be sharing aggregated insights back with the community in the coming weeks - because collaboration is the only way to turn OSA from a problem into a competitive advantage.