{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,23]],"date-time":"2026-03-23T11:51:39Z","timestamp":1774266699459,"version":"3.50.1"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"group-title":"SSRN","reference-count":0,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Problem Definition: Grocery retailers increasingly fulfil online orders from existing stores rather than from dark stores (dedicated warehouses\/fulfilment centers). Theory and practice debate whether this omnichannel strategy reduces or exacerbates food waste. There is a lack of empirical evidence on the impact on waste of introducing fulfillment to brick-and-mortar stores. Our study provides the first causal estimate of this impact and traces the operational levers behind it.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Methodology\/results:Exploiting the staggered roll-out of store-basd online fulfilment at a European grocer, we apply difference-indifferences estimators to a 48-month panel of 27 stores, and six fresh categories. The conceptual framework decomposes the waste ratio (waste-to-sales) into inventory planning (inventory-to-sales) and inventory execution (waste-to-inventory) components. Introducing online fulfilment increases the waste ratio by 0.5 percentage points-about 15 percent relative to stores that are do not serve online customers. This rise is mostly explained by higher inventory-to-sales levels driven by a 25 percent jump in demand variability; inventory execution does not deteriorate significantly.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Managerial Implications:Fulfilling online orders from brick-and-mortar stores can backfire on waste unless retailers mitigate added demand variability via prioritizing tailored inventory management strategies and selecting stores that may mitigate demand variability and maximize overall sales. Our findings reconcile conflicting predictions in the literature by demonstrating that pooling benefits can be overwhelmed by variability-driven stock increases when service-level targets remain unchanged.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.6387301","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,23]],"date-time":"2026-03-23T10:55:13Z","timestamp":1774263313000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Impact of Store-Based online Fulfilment on Grocery Retail Food Waste: An Empirical Analysis"],"prefix":"10.2139","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7857-3405","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Pedro","family":"Amorim","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Nicole","family":"DeHoratius","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Fredrik","family":"Eng-Larsson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Sara","family":"Martins","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"78","container-title":[],"original-title":[],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,23]],"date-time":"2026-03-23T10:55:13Z","timestamp":1774263313000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ssrn.com\/abstract=6387301"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2139\/ssrn.6387301","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}