Retailers will be only too aware of the multitude of factors putting their supply chains under scrutiny and at risk on a global scale.

Leaders were forced to deal with Brexit-related red tape before riding out a global pandemic that turned supply chains on their heads and disrupted the flow of goods across borders.

Now the cost-of-living crisis and ongoing political volatility have caused inflation in goods and energy. Containers for shipping goods across borders are up in price and the cost of running transportation has accelerated, meaning doing international business is more expensive than it once was.

If the past few years have taught retailers anything it is that flexibility in the supply chain is crucial and there is no such thing as business as usual – so preparing for constant disruption is wise.

Against this backdrop, many businesses have reassessed how to get goods from A to B. They are also rethinking which countries and territories to source from and where to sell their goods. Fortnum & Mason, for example, made the decision to stop shipping goods to many countries in the European Union in 2022 due to rising costs and administration caused by the UK’s exit from the Union.

The climate emergency is also putting pressure on retail supply chains. The threat of potential new legislation relating to carbon emissions means many organisations are looking at how they operate with a lower environmental footprint – and that has put a focus on the methods used to transport goods and ways to ship more efficiently.

Grocery retailer Lidl, for example, made a commitment in November 2022 to stop using air freight to source fresh fruit and vegetables for its Swedish and Dutch stores, which is aimed at reducing the carbon emissions associated with the transport of fresh produce. There are no plans to do this for the UK market yet, but it shows progressive thinking within the wider organisation.

The UK's Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting policy, which was introduced in 2018, requires organisations to share energy use and carbon emissions information in their annual reports. This has meant retailers now need to find ways to make incremental improvements across their operations.

Within first mile, retailers such as Currys, Tesco and Amazon are working on ways to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels in what the latter has called “a challenging area to decarbonise”.

And at the last mile, several of the major carriers are electrifying their fleets while retailers are developing new partnerships with greener delivery or low-carbon start-ups to get goods to people’s homes.

Changing consumer behaviour is also having a major impact. Indeed, Scott Jennings, chief strategist at supply chain software specialist Informatica, highlights that “consumer preferences have changed forever, which will continue to send shockwaves up and down the supply chain. One day it’s out-of-stocks, the next month a glut of inventory is on the books.”

He adds: “To get ahead of these supply chain shocks and manage unforeseen black swan events, complete supply chain visibility with trusted data has become a modern mandate.” 

Amid this turbulent backdrop, there are retailers and brands smoothing out the kinks in their supply chains and enjoying either sales growth or improved operational efficiency or, for some of the best, both in equal measure.

There are signs of a bounceback in supply chain operations too. Next chief executive Lord Wolfson commented in January 2023 that the medium-term outlook for supply chains was more positive than the short-term, explaining at the time that increasing global factory capacities and finding new sourcing markets have helped reduce costs – although the company has not specified which new markets in particular.

Some businesses have been set up for success for some time. Zara owner and Spain-based Inditex sources more than half of its products from “proximity” markets – Morocco, Portugal, Spain and some in Turkey – meaning distribution is less affected than those with more geographically spread supply chains when global trading friction occurs.

In the case of global retailers Decathlon, Kingfisher and several others, there has been a pivot towards an online marketplace model that decentralises their supply chains and opens these businesses up to working with a broader range of suppliers at a limited cost.

Indeed, despite the fragility of supply chains worldwide, there are clear examples of retailers and brands that are protecting their margins and driving efficiency through well-thought-out supply chain investment and modelling.

Enter the 15 Retail Changemakers.

Aldi

• Investing in new distribution centre as it expands its store network
• Rolling out click and collect to aid fulfilment
• Focused on reducing food and energy wastage in its supply chain

Aldi’s business model is based on driving down costs and creating efficiencies throughout the supply chain.

From a technology perspective, huge advancements are in the pipeline – with the grocery chain receiving approval in 2021 for a 1.3 million sq ft site in Leicestershire that will include a semi-automated distribution centre and office space just 20 miles from the company’s head office. Aldi expects to open its 1,000th store in the UK in 2023, too, so needs the supply chain capacity to support a growing bricks-and-mortar business.

Aldi is renowned for its low-tech strategy, but when it does invest in this space it does so with speed, efficiency and cost-cutting in mind. In many cases – including ecommerce, which it only entered in January 2016 – Aldi refrains from investing in tech for as long as possible, but that means it will usually pick the right systems for the business and learn from others’ work in the space.

Aldi is in growth mode and is looking to recruit 6,000 store staff – and it is investing in its people, with warehouse staff given a 20% pay rise in February 2023. Basic pay for 7,000 workers in this area of the business now sits at £13.18 an hour.

After its initial £35m investment into ecommerce, the supermarket chain has slowly ramped up its offering online, with a focus on click and collect rather than home delivery to keep costs to a minimum and to leverage its store estate.

At the time of writing more than 200 of Aldi’s 990 UK supermarkets offer click and collect and – while in June it axed the service at 12 of its stores such as Reading and Crawley due to a lack of customer demand – the service will remain. The retailer relies on a strategic partnership with AO Logistics to deliver bulkier ‘SpecialBuys’, which ensures this part of its operations stays at a fixed cost. That tie-up has been in place since September 2019.

Aldi UK also acquired PSI Global Logistics – which provides software for strategic planning, controlling and optimisation of logistics networks – back in 2015. This acquisition gave the retailer the key data analytics and management tools to oversee its supply network, transport processes and logistics centres across the UK and Ireland.

In September 2022 the discounter overtook Morrisons to become the fourth biggest supermarket in the UK in terms of market share, according to Kantar. And from a sustainability perspective, Aldi started trialling the use of an all-electric refrigerated trailer in its UK fleet in April 2022. In August 2022 the discounter started piloting HGVs that run on compressed natural gas, which it said will reduce its carbon footprint and save operating costs.

Since February Aldi has been working with food waste prevention app Too Good to Go to help reduce the amount of end-of-life food it throws away. At the end of each day, bags of items nearing their sell-by date are packaged up for a third of their normal price and consumers can reserve these through the app. It gives Aldi a chance to drive extra revenue from would-be waste.

Predicted total sales for FY2022/23 at Aldi are £101.5bn, but the infrastructure investment being undertaken, and ongoing onboarding of new customers, is expected to help the retailer reach a five-year CAGR of 4.4% that will result in sales of £135bn by 2027/28.

Decathlon

• Reaping rewards of warehouse automation
• Marketplace launch has expanded its range to thousands of SKUs
• Creating a more circular supply chain is key with moves into rental and resale

Technological supply chain development has been a key theme in recent times at Decathlon, with the sports equipment retailer relocating to a larger UK distribution site at Rushden Lakes, Northamptonshire, in 2019. It proved well timed, with the additional capacity coming just as the pandemic created a surge in demand for the retailer’s goods.

During 2020 the company invested £473,000 in its mechanisation and infrastructure to help meet that growing demand. Decathlon started rolling out automated picking and sorting bots from robotics firm Exotec to its Canadian operations in December 2021, following deployment in Europe the year before. The idea is to better serve stores, accelerate ecommerce and build a more responsive and efficient supply chain.

It is expected that over time these solutions will roll out to further European Decathlon territories.

Elsewhere in Europe, showing Decathlon’s willingness to embrace technology where it sees a significant benefit to do so, the retailer partnered with robotics company Geek+ in January 2022 to bring hundreds of autonomous mobile robots to three DCs in France, Poland and Italy.

Alongside the investment in its own supply chain, Decathlon launched an online marketplace in June 2021 to open up new categories and hundreds of thousands of new SKUs to customers.

This is an increasingly common move among UK retailers, with Superdrug, Mountain Warehouse and Boots among those following suit in 2022. This allows businesses to increase product range while outsourcing stock management, pricing, content, storage, fulfilment and returns to third parties, saving time and money.

As part of its sustainability commitment, Decathlon has a longstanding commitment for air freight to account for just 1% of its transportation needs. Another eco-related move by the business in the UK is to ramp up its rental product range, with 46 stores now running dedicated rental services.

The implications of moving into rental include the need for a more circular supply chain model, which is supported by a centralised hub that keeps rental stock separate from the core retail product ranges. This strategy falls into the business’ wider Second Life programme, whereby it is offering a range of repair services, pre-loved products for sale and customer education initiatives to help raise awareness of more circular consumption habits that can help reduce the impact consumers and businesses have on the planet.

Estimated total sales of £12.4bn for 2022/23 are expected to grow by a 4.7% CAGR rate to £16.7bn in 2027/28, justifying the remodelling and infrastructure investments Decathlon has made in the past four years.

Ikea

• Adapting its stores to double up as distribution centres
• Utilising autonomous drones in international markets to drive productivity
• Making major investments in green technology such as EV charging

Ikea UK is currently investing in making its out-of-town big-box stores double up as ecommerce distribution centres, as it looks to speed up its online retailing operations and scale that part of the business.

The furniture retailer is set to invest €3bn (£2.6bn) in 2023 to adapt its big-box stores to double as online distribution centres, which the business believes will give it the ability to provide customers with faster and cheaper deliveries.

Ikea currently delivers items purchased online within four to 30 days – for in-store orders, same-day deliveries can be arranged depending on the item, while London customers can pay £39 for same-day delivery via TaskRabbit. Importantly for Ikea, which is a retailer with a vocal environmental opinion, shipping from store to customers’ homes means lower emissions than when shipping from several logistics centres.

Automation in existing out-of-town warehouses is a major point of investment for the company too, which utilises autonomous drones in its supply chain to manage stock inventory and prevent staff from manually confirming each pallet of goods stored.

The drones are not currently operational in the UK, but they are used in several European territories such as Switzerland, where they were launched in March 2021, as well as Belgium and Italy.

In terms of supplier relationships, Ikea favours fostering long-term tie-ups that it believes help drive down its supply chain costs. All suppliers must live up to Ikea’s ‘IWAY’ code of conduct to ensure they meet mandated sustainable and socially responsible ways of working.

There is much change afoot at Ikea, with senior management acknowledging the traditional way of dictating how customers shop with modernising business needs. That has resulted in smaller, in-community stores opening in the UK and a refresh of multiple behind-the-scenes systems.

For instance, it is rolling out an employee scheduling system, which means it will be able to match staffing levels to trading patterns. This is part of a move to update internal tech systems with software as a service from some of the largest suppliers around such as Oracle, IBM and BlueYonder (previously JDA).

Ikea is making investments in greener strategies to back up its eco statements. In April 2023, it announced plans to invest £4.5m in one of the biggest electric vehicle infrastructure projects for last-mile fleets in the UK, aiming for 200 charging points for electric delivery vehicles across the country to support greener deliveries. Ikea has set the target of 100% zero-emission deliveries by 2025. 

Ikea is also working to reduce its supply chain carbon emissions through a partnership with Maersk. Since September 2020, Ikea has worked with Maersk to shift transportation from truck to rail between Barcelona port and Tarragona terminal, which is said to be cutting the retailer’s greenhouse gasses from its long-haul transports in Spain by around 700 tonnes per year.

This solution has since been replicated in Italy with Ikea switching approximately 2,000 containers from truck to rail for the transport flow from the APM terminals in Vado to the Ikea distribution centre in Piacenza. Ikea has said the tie-up is a “needed, ambitious step to reach our goal” of becoming climate positive by 2030 and reducing emissions from every transport.

Ikea’s 2022/23 sales reached £35.6bn, but with an expected CAGR 3.2% over the next five years, the business should hit £43bn by 2027/28.

Kingfisher

• Stores are now central to the B&Q and Screwfix owner’s strategy
• Notable investment in delivery, with Screwfix Sprint proposition delivering items in 47 minutes
• 2022 marketplace launch paving the way for increased inventory with minimal costs

B&Q and Screwfix owner Kingfisher is arguably the UK retailer that has made the most dramatic supply chain shift since the onset of the pandemic. Approximately 20% of B&Q stores are now used for online order picking – pre Covid-19, the retailer relied solely on distribution centres for ecommerce fulfilment.

Colleague-facing apps for in-store picking were built in the UK, with that technology now used across Kingfisher’s international retail banners. Shops are now viewed as central to B&Q’s ecommerce strategy, helping optimise and speed up online delivery and improve customer convenience.

Rapid fulfilment has been at the heart of stablemate Screwfix’s proposition for years now, with an average delivery time of 47 minutes, and the other retail chains in the group such as B&Q in the UK and Castroma in France are now catching up.

Another example of a shift in Kingfisher’s digital retailing model, beginning in March 2022, was the launch of a B&Q online marketplace that added tens of thousands more products to its inventory and created more direct-to-consumer brand relationships via its platform.

Like Decathlon, the move is viewed by Kingfisher as a way of growing its inventory without the need to significantly increase its supply chain costs. The move also provides flexibility and agility in the event of further supply chain disruption or sourcing issues with traditional product lines.

B&Q wants to grow its online range to 1 million products and as of March 2023 there were approximately 400 carefully selected third-party sellers on its Diy.com platform, with products across 18 home improvement categories. The move has enabled B&Q to offer over 340,000 additional home improvement SKUs, compared with its previous pre-marketplace offer of around 40,000.

In November 2022, Kingfisher announced a partnership with Google Cloud that then chief digital and technology officer JJ Van Oosten said would boost its engineering excellence and underpin its technology strategy across multiple parts of the business, including back-end and customer-facing platforms.

Among other benefits, the Google tie-up is expected to enhance forecasting capability and help Kingfisher build a real-time ordering system that will improve stock accuracy across its stable of retailers.

It was also announced in November 2022 that Kingfisher will adopt order-management system provider Fluent Commerce’s technology to support its online businesses and improve inventory visibility across its organisation. A trial of the tech is currently under way at B&Q and it is expected to help build a consistent view of inventory.

ESG is intertwined in its supply chain investments. In July 2022, the group said a transition to 100% renewable electricity, significant investment in energy-efficiency measures and using alternative fuels within its delivery fleet had already significantly reduced carbon emissions. This comes as it works towards eco targets approved by climate action group the Science Based Targets initiative.

Sales of £13.1bn in 2022/23 are expected to reach £14.8bn in 2027/28 based on a five-year CAGR rate of 2.1%.

Marks & Spencer

• Now owns its food logistics sourcing following Gist acquisition
• ‘Autobagger’ machines having a marked impact at its distribution centre
• Seeking out sustainable solutions to transform supply chain

In a novel move, M&S purchased its food logistics provider Gist in July 2022 to take control of its end-to-end food supply chain. Gist operated eight primary and 10 secondary distribution centres for the retailer, providing most M&S Food logistics services. M&S made an initial cash offer of £145m and a further £110m plus interest to be payable on certain conditions including the ability to retain the brand’s freehold properties.

M&S chief executive Stuart Machin’s comments at the time of the deal indicated it was a prudent step economically. “M&S has been tied to a higher-cost legacy contract, limiting both our incentive to invest and our growth,” he said.

Elsewhere, M&S is building automation into its infrastructure with the latest equipment to support the back end of its food business. Much of this work, which includes modernising forecasting processes, is tied up under the retailer’s Vangarde programme, which aims to reduce waste and enhance the customer experience through improved processes.

M&S has restructured most aspects of its business in the past five years, much of which is under the ‘Never the same again’ transformation programme. Managing stock flow across the clothing and home division has been a key priority, with reducing the size of and automating the UK DC network part of that.

Like many multichannel retailers, M&S is also ramping up its pick-from-store capabilities, using the store network for product flow rather than product holding. This includes returns, a growing area of focus for all fashion retailers, which M&S wants to be able to incorporate back into store inventory as soon as possible rather than always heading back to a central returns warehouse.

At its Castle Donington distribution centre, M&S is also using ‘autobagger’ machines, which can each pack 2,000 items per hour, and IT mapping. The latter tool enables staff to pick 15% more product without needing to walk any further, according to the retailer.

M&S refreshed its long-running Plan A strategy in October 2021, including the return of its ’Look Behind the Label’ campaign which shines a light on its planet-positive work and highlights stories behind responsibly sourced products. It established a new Look Behind the Label online hub to hold this information, but it also appears in email messaging to customers.

In February it introduced a bring-your-own-bag policy for click-and-collect customers, to reduce the need for plastic bags in its stores and smooth operations at the pick-up points. Meanwhile, last June it launched a start-up accelerator to find sustainable solutions it can implement – showing it is looking to be greener across all areas of its business operations.

Total sales at M&S are expected to hit £11.9bn in 2022/23 and rise at a five-year CAGR rate of 3.1% to reach £14.4bn in 2027/28.

Next

• Total Platform gives the retailer an edge in the market, supporting other brands’ infrastructure and online presence
• Major investments to increase warehouse capacity underway
• Focused on shifting sourcing, with Turkey a key market focus

As the UK’s largest clothing retailer by sales, investment in technology and supply chain optimisation are behind Next’s rise to power in recent years.

Like Amazon, Next’s supply chain expertise can be gauged by others’ willingness to piggyback on it. Through its Total Platform, which launched in April 2020 and comprises IT systems, warehousing and general logistics, Next is increasingly providing the infrastructure to other retailers’ ecommerce and fulfilment operations, meaning they don’t have to build their own.

Gap and Reiss joined the platform in 2022, and Joules – which was acquired out of administration on December 1 last year via a joint venture between Next and the company’s founder Tom Joules – will be fully set up on the Total Platform by October 2023.

In March 2023, Next also bought Cath Kidston out of administration and will be supporting its relaunch later in 2023 using its continually evolving tech and fulfilment capabilities.

Warehouse investment totalled £117m in the 2021/22 financial year, following a £124m investment the year before, as part of a long-term programme to increase capacity. Next has eight UK warehouses, seven UK depots and two international hubs that provide fulfilment to customers’ homes or retail stores.

Indeed, a new 780,000 sq ft online facility is becoming operational in 2023, as Next continues to ramp up its distribution power. The site in South Elmsall will introduce automation in a phased programme of development over the next two years to ultimately provide an estimated increase in boxed capacity of 50%, with marginal labour cost per unit expected to be around 40% down on the present level.

Next’s chief executive Lord Wolfson recognised early, compared with other multichannel retailers, that working with its competitors in fashion can have multiple benefits. Many retailers are adopting the marketplace model that Next effectively established for itself in 2014 with the launch of its Label proposition.

As part of that strategy, Next selects various fashion brands to sell through its website, while allowing these companies to deliver to the customer directly.

From a sourcing perspective, product development improvement in Turkey is a current focus – with Next having identified the country as best placed to respond to emerging trends. The Next Sourcing division operates as a standalone business that competes with the retailer’s other 500 third-party suppliers, but gives the wider organisation an element of sourcing control via the factories it owns.

In mid 2021 Next was part of a pioneering group trialling a new supply chain platform created by the UK Fashion & Textile Association. In partnership with Tech Data, IBM and the Future Fashion Factory, the aim was to drive transparency in the supply chain – thanks to the use of blockchain and other tech. More recently, Next joined the US Cotton Trust Protocol as part of a journey to source all cotton from responsible sources by 2025.

Next is forecast to hit £5bn in sales for FY 2022/23 and tracking on a five-year CAGR rate of 3% that should see total sales reach £5.8bn by 2027/28.

Ocado

• Ocado Solutions arm is at centre of supply chain innovation with imminent roll-out of ‘Re-Imagined’ technologies
• Investing in power of robotics to achieve operational gains
• Micro-fulfilment on the cards with plans to establish 14 mini CFCs

Ocado is not simply a retailer, it is a technology company too. It runs a grocery business supported by a joint venture with M&S Food, while its Ocado Solutions business comprises tech and warehouse infrastructure that is adopted by international supermarket chains.

The Ocado Solutions arm International Solutions saw revenue more than double in FY2022 compared with the previous 12 months as the number of live sites using the tech trebled.

Ocado said it had strengthened its balance sheet after a June equity raise of £578m, meaning it had £1.3bn gross liquidity by the end of the 2022 financial year. In the next four to six years the group expects to be “cash-flow positive”, with cash flows from its existing tech deployments and fulfilment centres financing future investments.

So much tech investment sits behind Ocado’s work. It is designing ’Re:Imagined’ technologies that are set to be ready for roll-out to partners by the end of FY23 – these are expected to reduce capex and operating costs for Ocado and its partners. Re:Imagined is the next iteration of picking and sorting bots, and grid systems for storing and organising products in the warehouse, all fuelled by advancements in AI and machine learning capability.

Ocado said the tech might be able to apply outside the grocery sector, potentially broadening its partner base and bringing new revenue opportunities based on its supply chain capability.

The Ocado Smart Platform is a key USP for the organisation that gives it a unique end-to-end operating system and highly automated customer fulfilment centres (CFCs). That model is then white labelled for and used by other companies, including Kroger in North America, Casino in Europe and Coles in Australia.

Ocado applies proprietary technology, software and algorithms to create a platform that provides the front-end user interface through to the warehouse operations and the routing systems that optimises delivery routes. This structure is used to run its own ecommerce business, but also that of others.

In its own business, Ocado runs five large customer fulfilment centres (CFC) in the UK that include this technology and it is consistently upgrading the tech as it adds new sites. So much so that the original site in Hatfield is closing this summer as it moves to what it has described as a “next-generation infrastructure solution” relying on more robotics power that will allow it to pick more than 200 units per labour hour.

There are also plans to have around 14 mini CFCs that are built closer to the communities they serve, as Ocado looks to reach more customers and drive operational efficiency. They are scaled-down versions of the larger premises and will help the business fulfil grocery items at an even greater speed.

With £2.5bn in sales in 2022/23 and a forecast CAGR rate of 3.1% over the next five years set to take that figure to £3bn in 2027/28, it is a supply chain supporting a big business.

Analysts have always questioned Ocado’s ability to drive profitability though. And with the company reporting a pre-tax loss of £500m for its 2022/23 financial year, it is putting much faith in its Solutions arm getting it back into profit in the long term.

The Very Group

• New automated distribution centre generating impressive results
• Brand partnerships a focus to increase product assortment
• Prioirity to offset carbon emissions from its inbound logistics

The story of The Very Group’s supply chain strategy in the past decade has been one of consolidation, optimisation and increasing automation.

From a total of nine warehouses and seven customer contact centres in 2009, the company had consolidated its operations into four and two sites respectively by 2017.

In the years since it has closed three fulfilment centres in favour of developing a new 850,000 sq ft automated distribution centre at East Midlands Gateway called Skygate, which opened in March 2021 and now supports the business’ same-day delivery and midnight cut-off for next-day delivery due to its enhanced order-processing and robotics-supported capabilities.

The new network has built-in flexibility, and The Very Group has found that investment in the space means it can extend its product ranges and stockholding capabilities when operating during peak periods. As an example, the group continues to break its own records for daily orders processed each year.

Some 16,000 items were processed on November 22, 2022, the busiest day of Very's peak period that year, according to the business. The fastest order during Christmas 2022 was reportedly processed and despatched in 10 minutes and 30 seconds, breaking the 2021 record of 16 minutes.

In October 2021 a new partnership model was developed with Adidas, which involves the brand fulfilling some orders to Very.co.uk customers and in turn allows the online retailer to increase its product assortment. The Very Group has said that there are plans to ”scale up this stockless fulfilment model” and retailers and brands such as Quiz, Lacoste, Kickers, Berghaus, Speedo and Ann Summers are on board with it.

Elsewhere, working in partnership with supply chain management firm Damco, The Very Group has created a portal showing real-time stock movement and availability that can be accessed by all stakeholders – booking agents, shipping lines, forwarders, the distribution centre, trading and finance. Such transparency in the back end clearly helps aid communication and drives efficiencies in its operations that can be used to enhance the experience it offers customers.

The Very Group has taken an off-setting approach to sustainability. Through a partnership with shipping company Kuehne+Nagel it offsets all carbon emissions from its inbound logistics. Beginning with sea freight, The Very Group said it had offset 1,300 tonnes of CO2 within a few months. Essentially, emissions that can't be reduced to zero are compensated by investing in nature-based projects aligned with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Estimated sales of £2.1bn in FY2022/23 are expected to grow on a five-year CAGR rate of 2.9% to hit £2.5bn by 2027/28.

Lessons from the world leaders

Evidently the Retail Changemakers have their own ways of running their supply chains with different focus areas based on their business and customer needs.

Yet there are commonalities for the wider industry to follow. In a similar way to how these organisations have gone about their supply chain transformation in recent years, we have mapped out the important areas to focus on.

Retailers must:

Automate where they can: From Amazon to The Very Group, and many in between, leading retailers have embedded automation into their warehouses to speed up product pick time, which allows them to support growing customer demand for rapid fulfilment.

Take control of distribution: There will always be third-party partnerships in supply chains – that will increase as the marketplace model develops in the industry and this is no bad thing. However, notably, many of the Changemakers have taken ownership of specific parts of the distribution, including M&S. Ownership brings an element of control in an ongoing disruptive space.

Be agile with inventory: The past few years of Brexit- and pandemic-induced supply chain pain has meant many retailers have learnt the hard way that inventory is crucial to maintain strong business flow. Having the option, as many of the changemakers do, to pivot to other brands’ inventory or add new ranges via a marketplace model is a modern retail winning formula for B&Q, Decathlon and others.

Take environmental concerns seriously: While there are worries in certain business quarters that adopting a green agenda will be a costly affair, many of the changemakers, including Ikea, are among the retailers at the forefront of finding supply chain efficiencies that can help the planet while also bringing cost benefits or new revenue streams to their organisations.

Maximise stores for supply chain success: As we’ve seen from the examples Ikea’s stores that double up as fulfilment centres and Inditex turning its stores into microfulfilment centres at night, bricks and mortar have an integral role to play in retail supply chains of the future. With warehouse space increasingly limited, retailers and brands should make their stores work harder for them.  

Use data to your advantage: Data has long been the holy grail for retailers but, against the current trading landscape, having access to key data – to support everything from managing and tracking inventory to customer forecasting – is more crucial than ever. Lululemon’s use of RFID to leverage data to aid its fulfilment and Nike’s investment in predictive analytics technology show that data is the differentiator between retail’s winners and losers.

Build agile and sustainable supply chains: Inventory management to ensure shelf availability across all channels was the lynchpin of retailers’ supply chains over the past few years. From a service provider perspective, the models on how to collaborate and enable retailers to hold inventory in an agile fashion – with visibility across locations and modes – is evolving fast.

Maersk's Hainz says most manufacturers have committed to net-zero targets, while it is growing fast in the retail space. What is important, though, is that the Scope 3 level of carbon emissions is so much larger for retailers than for other industries and therefore requires a stronger collaborative approach within the full supply chain ecosystem to make a significant reduction happen. Both visibility and clarity around measurements, as well as the choice of a global partner, such as Maersk, with a consistent agenda, can be a game-changer in making progress realistic.