Supply chain flaws were front and center as the world economy grappled with the sudden changes wrought by COVID-19. Consumers suddenly adopted new shopping behaviors, in some cases for the long term: increased online shopping, decreased brand and retailer loyalty and a heightened focus on value and essentials over brand and luxury. Years of optimizing supply chains for price and labor rather than resiliency, proximity and tariffs quickly led to out-of-stocks, product shortages and countless fulfillment challenges.
In this new paradigm, all players in the retail and marketplace ecosystem should rethink their business models and re-assess their supply chains. Retailers can leverage this inflection point as an opportunity to refocus on their core businesses, streamline and automate tax management and redesign their supply chains to be more flexible, scalable and risk-tolerant.
