Shopping and not finding what you’re looking for is a tale as old as time. But over the past two years, out-of-stock items—both in-store and online—have become more common.

As supply-chain issues have mounted and consumer demand has shifted to the essentials, online retailers need to more intentionally shore up inventory or potentially lose customers who are but a click away from another option.

“The biggest impact an out-of-stock has on a brand is damage to its reputation,” Michael Keenan, freelance commerce writer and contributor at Shopify, told Retail Brew. “Customers are willing to forgive a brand to an extent, but if they keep experiencing out-of-stocks, then they’re likely going to leave.”

From March 2020 through February 2022, online shoppers received 60 million out-of-stock messages, according to Adobe Analytics.

• Pre-pandemic, the odds of a shopper seeing an OOS message was 1 in 200 pages. That figure has risen to 1 in 59 pages, a 235% increase.
• In 2021, 7.4% of retail sales were not realized due to out-of-stock/out-of-shelf items, which cost retailers $82 billion, per NielsenIQ data.

For companies like SnackMagic, a customizable snack service, these challenges have offered up a business opportunity.

The service curates packages from CPG brands including Partake Foods, Dots Pretzels, Pipcorn, Belgian Boys, and Milk Bar. The company uses a proprietary inventory management system, in which its partners track how much product is in stock, how quickly it’s moving, and how much capacity there is.

• “Going into the holidays, we know it’s gonna get crazy,” Shaunak Amin, co-founder and CEO of SnackMagic, told Retail Brew. “So we’ll automatically up everybody’s capacity, and we’ll let them know.”

Keep reading here.—KM

In 1977, the Food and Drug Administration essentially ended the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids and required a prescription instead. The regulation was intended to ensure that consumers got hearing aids that really helped. But the industry also grew more consolidated and the devices, which generally are not covered by health insurance, are expensive.

• The average price for a pair of hearing aids is ~$4,600, “making them prohibitively expensive for many Americans,” according to a June report from the offices of Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Chuck Grassley.

On August 16, the Biden Administration and the FDA announced a plan—like the measure 45 years ago—to help consumers needing hearing aids. But this time OTC was not the problem.

It was the solution.

The new regulation establishes an OTC category, enabling consumers to purchase devices without prescriptions.

• Consumers will save “nearly $3,000” on OTC hearing aids, President Biden said in a statement on Aug. 16.

The speed of sound. Blake Cadwell is 31 and has a form of hereditary hearing loss. He got through his twenties without getting a hearing aid.

Then, the pandemic happened.

“It’s really hard to hear through masks and I’m a lip reader,” Cadwell told us.

In May, after he found the process of purchasing a hearing aid complicated, Cadwell launched Soundly, an online marketplace for the devices. For prescription devices, shoppers can compare and purchase devices that are competitively priced, then go to one of about 5,000 audiologists it has partnered with across the country to complete the purchase.

Cadwell said Soundly will carry OTC brands when they’re expected to come on the market later this year. And he’s happy that people like him who waited to get a device may finally hear what they’ve been missing.

“When they see a product for $800 instead of $4,500 and that they can just get it, program it themselves, [and] if they don’t like it, they can return it like they would a pair of AirPods or something,” Cadwell said, “they’re gonna be a lot more open to that.”

Keep reading here.—AAN

Today’s top retail reads.

Up in the air: Fashion companies that signed on with buy now, pay later to acquire more customers are now clueless about the future of their customers’ data. (Business of Fashion)

Next up: Two years after introducing its sustainability strategy, Project Earth, Selfridges is betting on a fast-changing sustainability-led overhaul of its stores. Managing director Andrew Keith calls it a period of “experimentation and exploration.” (Vogue Business)

No more: With Papa Johns’s latest debut of “Papa Bowls,” consumers may be nearing peak bowl-meal fatigue. (The New York Times)

Don’t forget! The SKU: A Retail Brew Summit is coming to NYC this fall. Join a community of corporate retail leaders for a day of networking and insightful conversation about meeting demand and maximizing profit, using technology to drive sales, sustainability, and more. Tickets are only $549 for a limited time!

Three of the stories below are real...and one is most definitely not. Can you spot the fake?

1. Magnolia Bakery has introduced a two-in-one body cleanser and exfoliator inspired by its iconic banana pudding.
2. Heinz debuted a collection of ketchup-stained clothes.
3. Dior has joined forces with New York bodegas to serve up a range of bagels across its stores.
4. Pokémon collaborated with Balmain for a luxury capsule collection.

Keep reading for the answer.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• How Rails, a contemporary clothing brand, is banking on its custom fabrics and a global expansion strategy for success
• A roundup of retail’s C-suite switch-ups in August
• Shoppers turn to Walmart for groceries as the company navigates inflation, inventory hurdles