Even with the start of a new year, many of the same challenges retailers have been experiencing the past two years remain unchanged, especially supply chain disruptions. According to a report from McKinsey & Company85% of global supply chains have experienced reduced operations and 6% have closed entirely during the pandemic. This has given retailers a lot of angst leading up to and throughout the 2021 holiday peak season.
In an effort to make supply chains more agile, retailers have had to quickly pivot, which has led to out-of-box innovation and an accelerated move to digitize the supply chain. While change is hard, this change is a welcome one. As 2022 kicks off, experts predict “businesses that will succeed are ones with agile supply chains that can respond quickly to drastic changes in the global ecosystem” (source).
The right partner can build resiliency into the supply chain
Strong collaboration with ecommerce partners like Rithum is a major advantage. Rithum’s vast network of suppliers, retailers, brands and distributors builds in a fail safe when stock availability becomes an issue or bottlenecks in the supply chain start to impact the customer experience.
Access to distributed inventory via drop ship enables quick and low risk expansion of product assortment to meet high demand. With a digital supply chain built on the capabilities of drop shipping, retailers can tap into a network of suppliers eliminating the burden on owned distribution centers.
Retailers gain flexibility with drop shipping and are able to respond more readily to demand. It also helps to minimize the risks and cost associated with purchasing and moving stock unnecessarily, particularly during periods of uncertainty and heightened demand.
An ecommerce network allows for staging inventory closer to customers, wherever they may be. It offers the ability to expand placement for popular items during peak times while maintaining the longtail in fewer locations to reduce cost.
The Rithum platform also provides critical inventory visibility and performance metrics enabling brands and retailers to gain a centralized view across all of their brand partners to improve fulfillment rates, decrease the number of cancelled orders and ensure fast, on-time delivery.
Diversifying the supply chain through a network of partners helps to make it more agile and adaptable. With a digital network, resilience is built in giving brands and retailers the ability to better manage their supply chain.
Ready to make your supply chain more agile? Contact us.