Resiliency, visibility key themes for retailers in ’22 and beyond

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DETAILS: Jon Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy for the National Retail Federation, reviews the retail logistics issues of 2022 and lays out what to expect in ’23. Gold and chat host and FreightWaves’ Grace Sharkey also consider the top trends among e-commerce participants and what advice he would give to retailers struggling to predict their inventory needs.

“There’s going to be a continued focus, as there has been, on things like the U.S.-China trade relationship and U.S.-China relations in general, and what does that mean for retailers and sourcing in the region?”

“Resiliency really is the key point that everyone is focusing on: understanding all the ongoing challenges that we face and the ongoing uncertainty. … We still have COVID issues in China. You still have lockdowns that are occurring, that are impacting the workforce there. But there are so many other issues that are impacting the retail supply chain beyond that. Now, you look at things like … forced labor [and] ensuring you have a clean supply chain, all the way to where the raw materials come from and trying to get that kind of visibility, which has not been easy to do when you don’t have control beyond tier three of your suppliers.”

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“The big part, not just for retailers but for everybody in the supply chain, is to know your supply chain. Understand every segment along the way and try to get that visibility.”

“I think the question is, how do you count an e-commerce sale these days … when you have curbside pickup and buy online and pick up in store, does that count as an e-commerce sale or does that count as an in-store sale? … Each retailer might count that differently, and there’s no standardization of how those sales are counted.”

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