The average number of products in the babycare category across the six major retailers is 73 per store, with more than one in five of these on promotion. In terms of availability, promoted lines were not far behind normal lines, with an average of 14% and 18% respectively at risk during peak shopping periods.
Asda offers the widest choice of products in this category, with about a fifth of these on promotion. But while availability of normal lines was average for the sector, a third of promoted lines were at risk of becoming out of stock.
Sainsbury’s product offering is almost as large as Asda’s, but availability was better: 12% of normal lines and 14% of promoted lines were at risk of becoming out of stock during busy shopping hours.
Somerfield has a smaller range of products in this category than its competitors, with 18% on promotion. Of these, though, a hefty 35% were at risk - the highest for the sector, although availability of normal lines was average, with 15% likely to go out of stock during peak shopping times.
Tesco has promotions running on more than a third of its 66 products, with availability on these lines better than the average for the sector. But normal lines fared worse with the highest number for the sector - almost one in four - likely to go out of stock.
While Morrisons offers shoppers less product choice (51 SKUs), with only one in nine of these on promotion, it offers much more in terms of availability. In fact, Stockwatch found no promoted lines at risk of being out of stock and the number of normal lines at risk below the sector average.
Morrisons’ transitional Safeway stores also fared well compared with the sector average for this category. Despite offering a larger range than at the Morrisons fascia and with more lines on promotion than at Morrisons (19%), product availability in Safeway stores was still one of the best for both promoted and normal lines, at 12% and 9% respectively.