How L'Oréal Turned Out-of-Stock Data into Recovered Sales

Overview

L’Oréal is the world’s largest beauty company, with a presence in every major retail channel. Barbara Kline has been with L’Oréal for nearly three decades and today leads retail execution across the U.S., ensuring the company’s brands look their best in Walmart and Target stores. Her team is responsible for merchandising, planogram compliance, pricing accuracy, and inventory flow — making sure every shelf represents the brand at its best.

The Challenge

In Walmart, one of L’Oréal’s largest retail partners, field reps cannot directly correct inventory counts. When products were out of stock, the issue often lingered until sales dropped and customer experience suffered.
Traditional methods relied on third-party photos with little reporting structure, leaving teams without a clear way to track trends or push store managers to act.
Barbara needed a solution that would:

• Provide real-time visibility into out-of-stocks
• Track week-over-week trends with photo evidence
• Enable store-level conversations backed by hard data

As she explained:
“Out of stocks and shrink are a huge issue for us at Walmart. We needed a way to prove the problem and push for action.”

The Solution

L’Oréal adopted Vision Group’s Store360 platform, starting with skincare and later expanding into hair care.

1. Field reps now capture photos directly in Store360.
2. The system translates those images into trend reports on out-of-stocks.
3. Store managers receive clear, visual evidence along with sales impact data.
4. Vision Group collaborated with L’Oréal to build custom reporting interfaces tailored to their needs.

Barbara emphasized the value of the partnership:

“It wasn’t just a tool handed over to us. Vision Group partnered with us to build the reporting and refine it until it worked for our team in the store.”

Results

• Faster replenishment:
  Store managers are correcting counts more quickly, getting shelves restocked.
• Sales impact:
  Categories that struggled with stock outs are seeing sales recover as inventory improves.
• Stronger retailer relationships:
  Photos and data give L’Oréal reps credibility with Walmart managers.
• Rep adoption:
  Store reps report higher confidence and success in conversations with managers.

One field specialist shared:
“Having conversations and making order recommendations to management is so much easier. The store is now asking me directly what they should order.”
Barbara added:
“Inventory levels are going back up, sales are going back up on these out-of-stock items, and it’s really moving the needle.”

Why Vision Group

For L’Oréal, Vision Group is more than a vendor.
“I don’t see them as a company we hire. They are a true partner and an extension of L’Oréal.”
Vision Group’s combination of thought leadership, technical expertise, and retailer credibility makes them the go-to partner for planogramming and in-store execution.