Lidia SANCHEZ-RUIZ, Beatriz BLANCO, Asta KYGUOLIENĖ ISSN 1392-1142 (Print), ISSN 2335-8750 (Online) ORGANIZACIJŲ VADYBA: SISTEMINIAI TYRIMAI 2018.79 https://doi.org/10.1515/mosr-2018-0007 Lidia SANCHEZ-RUIZ – PhD, assistant professor at Business and Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Cantabria, Spain. Address: Facultad CCEE y Empresariales, Av. Los Castros s/n, 39005, Santander, Cantabria, Spain. Phone: +34942201061. E-mail: sanchezrl@unican.es Beatriz BLANCO – PhD, associate professor at Business and Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Cantabria, Spain. Address: Facultad CCEE y Empresariales, Av. Los Castros s/n, 39005, Santander, Cantabria, Spain. Phone: +34942201897. E-mail: blancob@unican.es Asta KYGUOLIENĖ – PhD, associate professor at Marketing Department, Faculty of Economics and Manage- ment, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. Address: K. Donelaičio str. 58, LT-44248, Kaunas, Lithuania. Phone: +370 37 327856. E-mail: asta.kyguoliene@vdu.lt © 2018 Lidia SANCHEZ-RUIZ, Beatriz BLANCO, Asta KYGUOLIENĖ published by Sciendo. Tis work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. Introduction According to Efcient Consumer Re- sponse (2003), stockout is a situation, when a product is not found in the de- sired form, favour or size, not found in saleable condition, or not shelved in the expected location. Stockouts in the retail sector have been widely analysed by both researchers and practitioners. Tough it is not a new topic, research is still relevant due to stockout rate has been stable for almost forty years and it continues to be a key problem for many retailers. In fact, it is estimated that the European Grocery Industry losses due to stockouts reach 400 billion euros every year (Efcient Customer Response, 2003), worldwide benchmark average is 3,9 percent sales loss in retail (Corsten, Gruen, 2003). High level of stockouts, which have caused millionaire losses to retail compa- nies induce to take stockouts as a very im- portant issue that should be investigated. First, it is necessary to begin by analysing the concept and its main characteristics. Knowing the concept, appropriate meas- ures can be adjusted, and new research A Theoretical Overview of the Stockout Problem in Retail: from Causes to Consequences Due to the relevance of stockouts in the retail sector together with their signifcantly negative efect both on retail and the whole supply chain, this paper ofers a theoretical review of the stockout defnition, rates, its main causes and consequences. Keywords: stock out, out of stock, stockout rates, stockout causes, stockout consequences. Atsižvelgiant į prekių trūkumo lentynose svarbą mažmeninėje prekyboje ir reikšmingą neigiamą poveikį tiek mažmeninei prekybai, tiek visai tiekimo grandinei, šiame straipsnyje pateikiama prekių trūkumo lentynose sampratos, apimties, pagrindinių priežasčių bei pasekmių teorinė apžvalga. Raktiniai žodžiai: prekių trūkumas lentynose, prekių trūkumo lentynose apimtis, prekių trūkumo lentynose priežastys, prekių trūkumo lentynose pasekmės.