In short

• This article gives a summary of the Optiply Inventory Intelligence benchmark based on 44 million+ purchase decisions and 12 e-commerce industries.
• You get insights into product availability, lost sales from stockouts, dead stock, inventory performance and replenishment automation.
• Product availability varies heavily from 87% to 96% between the top performers in the market and the bottom 25%.
• Nearly a quarter of all inventory value (24.4%) is tied up in dead stock.
• The top-performing companies trust AI and automation to make the right purchasing decisions.
• Company-specific performance can be checked in Optiply’s Inventory Intelligence index.

Curious to discover how your business stacks up against the market and important purchasing KPIs? We’ve bundled performance of 1.300+ e-commerce businesses and compare how they compare to the benchmark based on their supply chain complexity. The Inventory Intelligence Index is out now. 

What the Inventory Intelligence Index covers

We’ve analysed 44+ million order lines across six performance areas:

1. Product availability
2. Lost sales from stockouts
3. Dead stock and cash lock-up
4. Level of inventory automation 
5. What separates top-performing operations from the rest
6. What changes when replenishment is automated

An overview of the most important inventory benchmark insights 

Want to know what the inventory benchmark is for this year? We’ve summarized some key insights and the learnings below. But check how you compare to the new benchmark in the Inventory Intelligence Index yourself. 

Service level benchmarks 2026

Quick recap: a service level is the percentage of customer demand fulfilled directly from stock. A service level of 90.7% sounds solid. But it means roughly 1 in 11 customer orders cannot be fulfilled from stock. For a company processing 1,000 orders a month, that's 90+ missed sales every 30 days.

The gap between top and bottom performers is significant, but depends on the supply chain complexity. The top companies with a long supply chain and more than 200 suppliers achieve a service level of 95.4%, while the bottom quartile achieves 87.5%. 

Companies with long supply chains actually achieve the highest service levels. The data suggests longer lead times force more disciplined forecasting and safety stock planning. Short chain companies show more reactive purchasing behaviour and lower overall availability.

Lost sales: The cost of stockouts is larger than most realise

Next to service level insights, we’ve analysed the estimated revenue lost per month due to products being out of stock when customer demand exists. The outcome? A typical e-commerce company with less than 90% product availability loses eight times more turnover due to stockouts than the best-performing e-commerce companies. 

The range is wide. The median is €85.8k in lost turnover on a yearly basis. But the bottom 25% loses over €172.7K. The difference usually comes down to how purchasing decisions are made. One thing is clear, unavailable products are costing businesses more than they often realize.

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Dead stock: capital sitting still

A typical operation has nearly a quarter of its inventory value tied up in stock that isn't actively selling. For a business carrying €500,000 in inventory, that's €122,000 in capital doing nothing. Which consumes warehouse space and cash. 

The irony is that many of the same companies experiencing stockouts are simultaneously over-stocked on slow-moving products, out of stock on the right things, buried in the wrong ones. This is the predictable result of purchasing based on fixed rules and averages rather than real demand signals.

Level of demand planning automation

Why spend time manually analysing historical data, generating short-term forecasts, and last-minute re-ordering for promotions and peak seasons when all of it can run automatically? 

The best-performing purchasing teams order the right quantities from the best suppliers automatically, even during peak seasons and marketing campaigns. 

But most operations aren't there yet. The data shows exactly where the gaps are. We’ve checked how reliably the purchasing process places orders on time and in the correct quantity. Which are the two most direct signals of whether replenishment is running automatically and accurately, or still depending on manual decisions.

The companies in the top quartile have already automated the routine work of demand planning: historical data analysis, short-term forecasting, and re-ordering for promotions and peak seasons. Their buyers focus on supplier negotiations, assortment decisions, and strategic planning.

What separates top performing e-commerce companies?

Companies in the top quartile aren't just better at one metric, they're better across all of them simultaneously. The biggest differentiating factor? It’s whether purchasing responds to real demand signals or runs on fixed rules and gut feel.

Top-performing operations respond to real demand signals, actual sales velocity, supplier lead time variability, seasonal patterns. They catch supplier delivery issues before they cause a stockout. And they don't over-order on slow movers because their replenishment is focused on what actually sells.

That shift, from fixed rules and gut feelings to automated, data-driven replenishment, is what moves a company from the median to the top quartile across every metric at once. Discover some practical examples of how peers are actually moving from spreadsheets to automated replenishment.

What changes when replenishment is automated

The results of our analysis are clear. There’s still a lot of room for improvement. The top performers do something different. They don’t trust manual purchase processes, because those processes have a ceiling. 

A buyer managing hundreds of SKUs across dozens of suppliers can track averages, but will struggle with variability. Spreadsheets and manual workflows won't help them adjust reorder points based on lead time shifts, demand spikes, or when a supplier runs late.

Based on an additional analysis of 500+ demand planner job postings, 59% of the tasks in a demand planner's role can be automated today. That frees up the team for the work that actually requires human judgment such as supplier negotiations, assortment decisions, strategic planning.

Want to see the full breakdown of which tasks are automatable and where your operation stands? Check it out in our Inventory Intelligence Index.

What’s the state of your inventory intelligence?

These benchmarks are based on real transaction data drawn from 44M+ order lines across 12 e-commerce industries. The interactive Inventory Intelligence Index lets you see exactly where your operation sits: by supply chain type, SKU count, and suppliers.

Discover where you stand in the Inventory Intelligence Index

Want to go deeper? Request a 15-minute demo and we'll deliver a custom analysis so you know exactly where your inventory gaps are, and what changes when AI runs replenishment based on real-time data.

Frequently asked questions

We know this is a lot to process, probably. So for those still wondering what the insights truly mean, we’ve gathered the most asked questions we got so far. 

What is inventory intelligence?

Inventory intelligence is the ability to make purchasing decisions based on real data rather than fixed rules or gut feel. It covers how well an operation tracks and responds to product availability, lost sales from stockouts, dead stock, and the level of automation in the replenishment process. 

What is a good service level for an e-commerce company?

A good service level depends on the supply chain complexity. But based on our insights, the top performing businesses always have a service level of 95% or more. A service level below 85% puts you in the bottom quartile, where more than 1 in 6 orders goes unfulfilled. Companies with longer lead times tend to maintain higher service levels because they plan further ahead.

What is dead stock and how do you measure it?

Dead stock is also called excess and obsolete inventory. It’s the share of your total inventory value tied up in products that aren't actively selling. For a business carrying €500,000 in inventory, the difference between median and top-quartile performance is roughly €52,000 in capital freed up and put back to work.

What purchasing tasks can be automated today?

Based on analysis of 500+ demand planner job postings, 59% of the tasks in a demand planner's role can be fully automated. That includes analysing historical data, generating short-term forecasts, and placing replenishment orders for promotions and peak seasons. 

What are the most important supply chain and purchasing KPIs for e-commerce?

The most important supply chain KPIs for e-commerce fall into four categories:

• Service level: the percentage of customer demand that you fulfill directly from stock. Top performers exceed 95%, while the bottom 25% hover around 87.5%.
• Dead stock ratio: the portion of your inventory value tied up in products that aren’t actively selling. A healthy percentage is below 15%; the market average is nearly a quarter.
• Lost sales due to stockouts: the revenue you lose each month because a product is out of stock when demand is high. For a typical e-commerce business, this quickly adds up to €85,800 per year.
• On-time & in-full deliveries: how often your suppliers deliver on time and in the correct quantities.

These KPIs all hinge on the same factor: how well your replenishment process responds to real demand signals. Once replenishment is automated, all four KPIs move in the right direction simultaneously.