A pragmatic guide into creating a data science product with limited data and high business constraints

Problem statement

We have all felt that Sunday morning frustration when we cannot find our favourite cereal or soda on the shelf of our local store. Indeed, shelf stock-outs are a major pain point for retail stores: it’s not only a lost opportunity of sales, but also a drop in customer satisfaction, who will be more likely to change their store.

Two phenomena mainly cause a shelf to run out of stock :

• The store doesn’t actually have the given product i.e. even the store warehouse is empty of the product. This can either be caused by under-estimated customer demand or logistical problems. …