The past 18 months, for many retailers, have been an exercise in attempting to build a plane while flying it. The retail landscape is fraught with supply chain disruption and changes in consumer buying behavior that directly impact the profitability of traditional business models. It’s a stressful time for many retailers that have had […]
The complicated web of global supply chain disruption that began with the onset of the pandemic has only worsened this year, and retailers are now looking grimly toward a holiday season likely to disappoint consumers and shareholders alike. The shipping bottlenecks and production capacity issues that drove up costs and exacerbated delays for retailers […]
Home Depot achieved record sales in 2020 with the help of a 12-foot-tall skeleton prop, and the product’s success is continuing through this Halloween season. The skeleton is currently a viral sensation driving massive amounts of interest on TikTok, with consumers flocking to third-party sites like eBay to snag the Halloween decoration for triple […]
Forty-one percent of surveyed retailers identified an inability to adjust or respond to fluctuations in demand as an obstacle in 2021, according to RIS’ Annual Supply Chain Technology Study. The study benchmarks the state of the retail supply chain in 2021, identifies the technologies retailers view as being keys to success in the near-term, […]
A recent Gartner survey shows CFOs are turning their focus from value protection to value creation, prioritizing revenue and margin growth over cost, efficiency, and risk management. The survey of over 450 business leaders revealed that CFOs have shifted their strategic outlook to a more aggressive stance, citing increased investments in digital capabilities and […]
Global supply chain delays are pushing US retailers and manufacturers to look toward US-based suppliers rather than relying on overseas partners in China, according to Associated Press. Retailers and manufacturers are grappling with rising prices, overwhelmed ports, and a shortage of shipping containers in what Paul Wiseman of AP called “a perfect storm of […]
Retailers have seen the pandemic fundamentally change how consumers shop. Now, it’s time to reconfigure the standard retail business model to cut costs, optimize inventory, and secure customer loyalty through online sell channels. For brick and mortar retailers, online sales can be a significant detriment to profit margins. An array of new dynamics gnaw […]
Retail demand is bouncing back in a big way after sagging throughout the pandemic. The problem? Securing the shipping capacity to deliver product. Things are looking up for retailers. After several slow sales quarters during the height of the worldwide COVID-19 lockdown, consumer demand is on the rise. Retail sales spiked 47.1 percent in […]
Increasingly erratic weather events, greater numbers of severe natural disasters per year, buckling infrastructure: these are a few of the supply chain disruptions retailers have already begun to see as a result of climate change. According to researchers from Penn State and Northern Arizona University, there is another climate change-induced challenge on the horizon […]
It’s a common, maddening story: a retailer anticipating higher demand for a product increases its order to a supplier. The supplier is thrilled to win the additional business, but their raw material vendor ends up missing a shipment deadline by a week, delaying production. While this one-week delay in production might seem minuscule, it forces […]
