Abstract
This special issue showcases state-of-the-art research at the intersection of analytics and retail operations. As the retail landscape becomes increasingly complex – driven by omnichannel strategies, evolving customer expectations, and a surge in data availability – analytics has emerged as a critical enabler of operational efficiency, customer experience, responsiveness, and sustainability and ethics. Collectively, these contributions demonstrate how advanced analytics can support retailers in navigating uncertainty, personalizing services, and scaling up innovation across formats and channels. The articles featured in this issue address a diverse set of decision domains, including warehousing, inventory and assortment planning, and distribution and last-mile delivery. Methodologically, they span descriptive, prescriptive, and hybrid approaches, leveraging tools such as machine learning, stochastic modeling, and dynamic optimization. By grounding models in real-world data and focusing on practical implementation, the issue provides actionable insights for both scholars and practitioners. It also highlights emerging opportunities for future research on behavioral integration, human-machine collaboration, and the ethical dimensions of retail analytics. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.

Abstract
In online grocery retail, out-of-stocks can cause order fulfillment failures. Store-based fulfillment models have heightened this challenge. Here, online customers often receive orders not fulfilled as expected, with products being substituted, partially fulfilled, or reimbursed. When order fulfillment fails, the customer may change future ordering behavior by delaying the next order or by spending less in the online channel. Using data from the online operation of a leading omnichannel grocery retailer, we evaluate the magnitude of impact on the next order when the prior one is not fulfilled as expected. We also explore the role of retailer efforts in mitigating this impact. We find that failures significantly delay the time to the next order by 7.22% on average, with delays becoming more pronounced for non-perishable products. Spending reductions are especially evident when promoted items fail to ship. Mitigation efforts, substitutions in particular, often exacerbate delays and compound the dissatisfaction. Although substitutions help recover lost sales, they negatively impact future customer behavior. This suggests that selective stockout prevention, coupled with improved substitution practices, should be prioritized to optimize economic and customer outcomes.

Abstract
[No abstract available]