Inventory Accuracy at a Crossroads: How Automation and AMRs Are Rebuilding Retail Trust

Retail’s Growing Trust Problem

Inventory inaccuracy is one of retail’s most expensive and least visible problems. According to new research from IHL Group, the global industry loses approximately $1.73 trillion each year to inventory distortion, which includes both out-of-stocks and overstocks. Beyond the staggering dollar figure lies a growing trust issue between retailers and the brands that fill their shelves.

Two-thirds of large U.S. retailers say inventory inaccuracies lead to daily or weekly challenges in their brand relationships. For the biggest players with annual revenue above $5 billion, the strain is even greater. Nearly nine in ten report that poor inventory visibility has become a serious obstacle to collaboration with suppliers.

Greg Buzek, president of IHL Group, summarized the issue bluntly in the report: “Retail doesn’t just have an operations problem when it comes to inventory; it has a trust problem.”

That lack of trust ripples through every corner of the store. When consumers encounter empty shelves, discontinued promotions, or incorrect pricing, they lose confidence in the retailer. When brands cannot confirm accurate on-shelf execution, they lose confidence in their retail partners. The entire value chain suffers.

The Rise of Shelf Intelligence

Traditional approaches to inventory management such as manual counts, handheld scanners, and periodic audits can no longer keep up with the pace and complexity of modern retail. As stores add more SKUs, local promotions, and region-specific assortments, accuracy requires something more advanced than human observation.

That is where shelf intelligence technology enters the picture. Using a combination of sensors, image capture, and artificial intelligence, these systems provide retailers with a continuous, real-time view of product availability and planogram compliance.

According to IHL Group, this type of technology now ranks among the top investment priorities for retailers, second only to personalization. Retailers that adopt hybrid visibility solutions that combine mobile imaging, fixed cameras, and robotics are 64 percent more likely to be early adopters of innovation and 136 percent more likely to be profitability leaders within their sectors.

The ability to see what is on the shelf at any given moment has shifted from a convenience to a competitive necessity.

How AMRs Are Changing the Game

Autonomous Mobile Robots, or AMRs, have emerged as one of the most effective tools for improving shelf visibility. These robots move through store aisles, scanning shelves and collecting precise data on stock levels, misplaced items, and pricing errors. Because they operate continuously, they provide a more accurate and dynamic picture than periodic manual checks.

For large-format stores where maintaining visibility across tens of thousands of SKUs is nearly impossible by hand, AMRs are becoming essential. The IHL Group report found that 72 percent of retailers are ready to deploy in-store robots, and 60 percent plan to do so by the end of 2027. Two in three would prefer to use a robotics-as-a-service model rather than own or maintain the equipment themselves.

The appeal is straightforward. AMRs reduce labor hours tied to repetitive scanning tasks, minimize human error, and deliver shelf data that can be instantly analyzed or fed into replenishment systems. They also create a clear, objective record of what is actually happening in the store, closing the gap between reported and real-world conditions.

Beyond Efficiency: Rebuilding Brand Relationships

The impact of automation reaches far beyond operational savings. Retailers with higher inventory accuracy also report stronger relationships with their suppliers. With a shared, reliable source of truth about on-shelf conditions, brand partners can make smarter decisions about promotions, packaging, and replenishment.

Retailers that invest in shelf intelligence technologies see measurable improvement in collaboration and sales performance. In the IHL data, companies with high visibility reported growth rates roughly double those of competitors that had not yet invested.

This transformation also empowers store teams. Associates who no longer spend hours counting inventory or correcting planogram errors can focus more on customer service and merchandising, turning routine work into value-creating activity.

The Road to Implementation

Despite the promise, many retailers still face practical challenges when deploying shelf intelligence and robotics systems. The technology has matured quickly, but integration with legacy systems remains a hurdle. Data captured by AMRs or fixed cameras must sync seamlessly with inventory management and order systems to realize full value.

Another barrier is organizational alignment. The IHL research found that fewer than one in four retailers have achieved more than 80 percent accuracy in core shelf metrics such as availability, compliance, and promotion execution. Often the issue is not the technology itself but the lack of a structured process for acting on the insights it provides.

Retailers that succeed tend to follow a few best practices:

1. Start with a pilot. Identify high-traffic categories where visibility gaps have the greatest sales impact, and test the technology in those areas first.
2. Integrate insights across teams. Treat data as a shared asset. Store operations, merchandising, and supply chain teams should all use the same metrics and alerts.
3. Measure impact continuously. Establish clear benchmarks for out-of-stocks, planogram compliance, and labor efficiency before and after deployment.

These steps ensure that technology investments are not isolated experiments but drivers of measurable performance improvement.

A Smarter, More Trustworthy Future

Inventory accuracy might sound like a backroom challenge, but its effects are front and center. Every empty shelf, every misplaced product, and every failed promotion erodes consumer trust and brand equity.

The IHL Group’s findings suggest that the industry is finally confronting the problem with the urgency it deserves. As automation, artificial intelligence, and AMRs become standard components of the modern store, retailers are learning that technology is not just about efficiency—it is about credibility.

Retailers that move decisively toward shelf intelligence will redefine what accuracy means in the physical store. Those that hesitate risk being left behind, not only in operational precision but in the trust of their shoppers and partners as well.

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