Many people have experienced the irritation of showing up at a retailer to purchase an item, only to realize it has been sold out already. If the supply of goods is unreliable, no matter if you shop at a discount store or a local butcher, customers may drift to other stores. For this reason, endless aisle retail is an essential approach.
Since retailers have many different options for products, their customers can get exactly what they need whenever they visit a store or shop online. If you give them a straightforward service, they might not consider other companies and can become more loyal to your brand.
There are times in online shopping when we find a small collection of goods available or discover that some products are never there, which can make us change stores.
In today’s retail landscape, store space is limited, but customer expectations are limitless. Shoppers want variety, convenience, and the ability to get the exact product they want, whether it’s physically on the shelf or not. That’s where the endless aisle comes in.
By bridging the gap between in-store and online products, the endless aisle lets retailers offer products from their suppliers, even if they’re not physically stocked in the store.
“Upon visiting a store and finding a product they want is out of stock, 17% of U.S. online adults say they would use their mobile devices to make an immediate purchase at a competitor’s website; 37% say they will buy that item from an online retailer when they get home, and 35% say they will just go to a different store to buy it.” - Forrester Research
As retailers, losing your customer base can be mitigated by offering a unified shopping experience online and in-store. An omnichannel approach to retail has quickly become integral to remaining in today’s competitive climate, especially as larger retailers have openly embraced omnichannel experiences.
To keep up with the experiences these larger stores have started to present to their customers, an endless aisle model for your customers can help them find what they need through your e-commerce pages or brick-and-mortar locations.
Endless aisles in retail are designed to expand the range of products available to customers by allowing you to offer more than what is physically stocked in-store. The endless aisle refers to providing access to a broader selection of products that may not be in your inventory but can be ordered directly from suppliers or via special orders. This model enhances customer satisfaction by enabling them to purchase items that would typically be unavailable on-site.
Large retailers have taken notice of the vast potential of endless aisles present, using them to expand offerings beyond what they could normally carry in stores. Walmart Canada, for example, added 175 new third-party grocery sellers through their Walmart Canada grocery options back in 2021. This has allowed them to offer more niche options to their customers — and they’ve achieved major growth since implementation; grocery orders from their marketplace grew 6x from 2020, with increased average order sizes.
Adopting an endless aisle retail model allows retailers to expand their product offerings without overwhelming inventory, providing a wider selection to customers. This can be achieved through in-store kiosks or, more commonly, via a web store, offering convenience and the opportunity to meet customers’ specific needs.
A kiosk is used to display your organization’s entire catalog, which includes everything from products that might be in inventory but not on shelves, to products offered by your suppliers that you can put on special order. It relies on customer independence and self-discovery — much like a customer would have if they searched for their products online.
An example of how kiosks work for customers can be seen in the video from Walmart below.
The effectiveness of in-store kiosks comes from customers ordering items that Walmart might not necessarily have on hand. Due to their logistics ability, they’re able to get any specialty product their wide range of suppliers might have within 48 hours for pickup. This combination mixes their online shopping experience with their in-store experience to create a unified whole for their customers.
Dropshipping is the most well-known approach to an endless aisle model and the easiest to set up. It allows you to present all of your products online, including products you can put up for special order — all on your retail web store. Not only are you offering your products for sale, but you can also offer everything your suppliers and distributors have available, magnifying the chances your customers find what they’re looking for from you.
With an online endless aisle model, your customers have everything they need at their fingertips. They can choose whether to pick up directly from your store or have purchases shipped directly to their door from your suppliers (under your branding).
Endless aisle retail connects your physical store with a much larger digital catalog, giving shoppers access to every product in your extended inventory, even if it isn’t on the shelf. The model relies on endless aisle technology, which links your POS, eCommerce platform, ERP, and supplier systems so that product data, pricing, and stock levels stay synchronized in real time.
Here’s how the process typically works in modern retail environments:
A great example of endless aisles in action is Home Depot, where customers can use in-store kiosks to order items not available in the store and have them shipped to their homes.
Similarly, Best Buy uses tablets and in-store apps to allow customers to view and purchase items that may not be available on the shop floor, providing the convenience of direct home delivery.
By adopting the endless aisle model, retailers can offer customers a wider selection of products, increase sales opportunities, and create a more seamless and enjoyable shopping experience, whether online or in-store.
Adopting the endless aisle retail model offers significant advantages to retailers looking to stay competitive and meet modern consumer expectations. Here are some key endless aisles benefits that can positively impact your business:
Let’s say you own a mid-sized electronics store and decide to implement an endless aisle to compete with some of the larger retailers. You decide to let your team handle this manually. Quickly, you become overwhelmed for three reasons:
To avoid these situations, companies with successful endless aisle models integrate their POS systems with their suppliers, ERPs, and inventory management systems to automate the vast majority of work required for a true omnichannel approach.
To implement endless aisles, businesses need seamless integrations between in-store systems, online inventory, and supplier inventory. By far, the biggest challenge retailers face with endless aisles is the communication between them and their suppliers.
By adding endless aisles to your store, you’re adding another layer of logistical complexity. With them, companies have to start sending orders outside of a traditional schedule to meet consumer demand. This can quickly overwhelm any organization as inventory levels need to be tracked far more regularly, and order management processes need to be overhauled from the ground up to be more agile.
To make matters more complicated, endless aisles require a wide range of suppliers to get the most value. Adding new purchasing channels can be difficult for retail organizations, especially for piecemeal orders, due to the increase in backend complexity.
Traditional methods of order management and inventory keeping don’t work to make an effective endless aisle, as the labor required is too great. To simplify these issues, organizations must turn to order automation and connections between their POS systems and their suppliers.
An integrated POS can connect with order and inventory management systems, allowing your customers to order directly from your suppliers through you, and let you have accurate inventory counts. This simplifies the amount of work implementing an endless aisle system can be for your company, and provides better customer experiences.
Manual methods simply can’t scale, especially when product catalogs expand and customer expectations for real-time availability and fast fulfillment increase.
This is where integration and automation become essential.
Integration Platforms as a Service (iPaaS) like MuleSoft, Zapier, and Dell Boomi help retailers connect disparate systems like POS, ERP, and online storefronts, without the need for custom code. These platforms act as middleware, facilitating smooth communication between your business applications and ensuring data flows consistently and in real time.
Endless aisle execution requires clear visibility into both in-store and supplier inventory. Tools that centralize order management across channels are vital for preventing oversells, stockouts, and delays. The ability to sync data between warehouses, storefronts, and vendor systems ensures accurate availability and quicker delivery windows.
Keeping your inventory, active sales, supplier inventories, and in-store systems doesn’t have to be a lot of work. Integrations and automation can save the day and make setting up your endless aisle easy. By integrating your POS system with your vendors, you can place orders directly using one system, eliminating the need to swivel between multiple portals to order.
OrderEase connects your POS to your inventory management systems, ensuring an accurate inventory count (barring spoilage/damage/theft), and you can present it directly to your customers. OrderEase automates customer orders and sends your vendors clear shipping instructions, reducing manual steps and ensuring smooth fulfillment.
Endless aisles aren’t just a trend—they’re essential for staying competitive in modern retail, who want to stay competitive in an increasingly digital world. By offering a broader selection of products without the limitations of physical space, retailers can improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, and retain loyal shoppers.
While the implementation of endless aisle retail does come with its challenges, such as logistical complexity and integration, the benefits far outweigh these hurdles. With the right technology, such as endless aisle technology and automated systems like OrderEase, retailers can streamline operations, enhance the shopping experience, and position themselves as leaders in omnichannel retailing.
Embracing the endless aisle model today will not only help you meet current consumer expectations but also provide a foundation for long-term growth and success in an ever-evolving retail landscape.
Book a demo with OrderEase today.
Endless aisle technology expands product availability by allowing customers to browse and purchase items that are out of stock in-store. This enhances the retail experience by giving customers more options without the limitations of physical inventory. It also reduces the likelihood of losing sales to competitors, as customers can easily place orders for unavailable products. With real-time access to inventory, customers are assured they can always find the products they want, improving overall satisfaction and loyalty.
Endless aisle examples include Home Depot, which uses in-store kiosks to allow customers to order products not available on the shelves and have them shipped directly to their homes. Best Buy also utilizes this model, offering customers access to a broader range of electronics through in-store tablets and online ordering, ensuring the customer can get what they need even if it’s not physically in-store. These examples showcase how retailers are using endless aisle retail to enhance their product offerings and improve customer convenience.
Endless aisle omnichannel strategies are crucial because they bridge the gap between physical and online shopping. This model ensures customers can access a broader range of products, whether they are shopping in-store, online, or via a mobile app. By offering endless aisles, retailers can meet consumer demand without overstocking or bloating their physical inventory. It creates a unified shopping experience, where customers can shop seamlessly across multiple channels, leading to improved customer retention and higher sales conversions.