Retail Supply Chain Management Challenges & Opportunities -I

The retail supply chain tends to change every year as provided by the supply chain management executive. The results show that the retail supply chain managements for the past 2-3 years and that for the upcoming 2-3 years will see a great number of challenges, capabilities and priorities. The senior executives bring together the leading public retailer’s and examine the supply chain management as a critical component to the success of the retail organization. The chief executives are concerned about the economic recovery that is speeding up, and are pursuing strategies to undergo the economic challenges while grabbing the opportunities to increase efficiency.

Retail-Supply Chain Management (R-SCM) is critical to retail success. The supply chain ultimately determines end consumer cost, and has a significant impact on shareholder value. One retailer shows retailer’s stock prices fell an average of 9% on the day a supply chain problem was disclosed, with an additional 9% drop recorded over 90 days. 

A research done by us, based on the retailers of every revenue size and geographical areas, shows that the retailers had turned up to the supply chain professionals in order to experience further growth. The supply chain professionals take up the challenge as the essential role in the organization’s success. The data collected is a combination of Companies’ views expressed in their annual report and other disclosures and practical observations being carried out in the retail domain. The research goal is to be able to recognize the essential role that the supply chain management plays in the success of the retail organization in the coming 2-3 years. Our result will show the current capabilities, immediate challenges, and supply chain priorities for retail centric organizations. The research result will be presented in this blog under various sub-headings.

The retail domain faced plenty of challenges in the past years which were because of the increasing competition and the customer’s choice in low spending. The retail chain executives are finding it difficult to cope up with the high levels of service and low costs as the businesses face more global pressure.

The purpose of this study was to explore the critical role SCM plays in the retail industry and study the changing landscape of R-SCM. The study addresses three key research questions:

·  What are the current SC capabilities of retail companies? We will talk about the SCM factors companies think they are managing well.

·  What SC challenges are of greatest concern to the retail industry in next year or two? We will talk about the SCM factors companies think they need to manage immediately.

·  What capabilities must retailers develop and leverage to achieve SC excellence? We will talk about the SCM factors where company has already started making or thinking about investing.

The findings of the quantitative and the qualitative data shows that the supply chain management can overcome the lesser customer spending and can help retailers to lower costs. The trends and practices followed by the retail supply chain shows how to position the supply chain for the upcoming years. We believe that the findings from this research will provide a new insight into R-SCM.