Staff shortages have become a significant issue for UK supermarkets, particularly during busy periods like Q4. Rising labour costs, increased online shopping demand, and supply chain disruptions have left many stores struggling to maintain adequate staffing levels. For brands, this creates real challenges when it comes to keeping shelves stocked and ensuring point-of-sale (POS) compliance.
Obstacles Brands Face Due to Supermarket Staffing Shortages
- Impact on Stock Availability
With fewer staff on hand, product replenishment is often delayed. Stock can sit in storerooms for hours or even days, especially during peak periods like Christmas. This leads to empty shelves and missed sales opportunities, particularly for brands investing in marketing efforts. Even when customers are ready to buy, a lack of stock can mean lost revenue.
- POS Compliance Issues
POS displays are essential for capturing consumer attention, but without sufficient staff, these materials are often not prioritised. Delayed or improperly set up displays can result in poor visibility for your products, diminishing the impact of your promotional efforts and reducing your return on investment during key sales periods.
- The Problem Intensifies in Peak Periods
Q4 brings heightened foot traffic and increased demand, further stretching supermarket staff. Key tasks like restocking shelves and setting up POS displays often take a back seat to more immediate needs, causing chaos in-store and missed opportunities for brands to maximise sales.
- How Brands Can Overcome These Challenges
Many brands are now using third-party field teams to ensure stock availability and POS compliance. These teams work in-store to monitor stock levels, replenish products, and ensure that displays are properly implemented. Real-time reporting allows brands to quickly address issues, ensuring their visibility and sales potential are maximized, even during labour shortages.
Make sure you don’t leave stock and compliance to chance this Q4
As we approach the critical Q4 period, ensure your products are fully stocked and your promotions are working for you, even when supermarket staff are stretched to the limit.
At Cosine we offer a flexible field team resource you can ramp up or down as required, aligning resources precisely with your needs. Providing unmatched flexibility, quality and data-driven agility we will:
Maximise Stock Availability: If stock’s not out – we'll rectify it. Using data insight to enable swift and efficient response to where action is needed.
POS, Fixture & Promotional Compliance: Get what you pay for. We make sure your displays are correct, giving your brand maximum visibility.
Real-Time Reporting: Get timely updates so you can adjust strategies as needed.
With national coverage and teams ready to deploy in as little as 72 hours, we’ll help you stay ahead this Q4.
Contact Tim Harris for details tim.harris@cosine-group.com .