📖 Grocery retailer

The promotion that was a success — and an empty shelf

A great offer, a bare shelf by Tuesday. How a team planned the next one differently.

Illustrative scenario — a composite of situations teams commonly face, not a description of a specific customer.

The situation

The campaign was a hit. By Tuesday the featured product was gone from half the stores, customers were disappointed, and the team spent the rest of the week apologising. Marketing had planned the offer; supply only heard about it when the orders started to look odd.

The turning point

For the next campaign, the team planned the offer where supply could see it. The expected extra demand for each store was estimated before the offer went live, and purchasing worked from those numbers from the start.

What changed

Three shifts

01
Plan the offer with demand in view
The team chose products, stores and depth of discount and saw the expected extra sales.
02
Stock arrives before the offer
Expected demand flowed into purchasing, so deliveries matched the plan.
03
Learn from the result
After the campaign, plan and reality were compared and the learning carried into the next one.

The resultThe next campaign ran with full shelves from day one — and without a pile of leftovers afterwards.