Sustaining Voices Podcast: What Should a Post-Pandemic Supply Chain Look LIke?
b'The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a period of unprecedented upheaval for the retail industry, which has fielded a battery of hits due to shuttered storefronts, retreated foot traffic, shrinking discretionary incomes and mounting economic uncertainty. Brands and retailers have to contend with collapsing revenues, rent payments and mountains of unsold merchandise. Does something need to change?\\n\\nIn this episode of the Sustaining Voices podcast, Sourcing Journal reporter Jasmin Malik Chua speaks with Gregory Schlegel, founder of the Supply Chain Risk Management Consortium, and Nikki Baird vice president of retail innovation at Aptos, about how the retail supply chain can adapt to a post-pandemic landscape that will look markedly different from the one that came before.\\n\\nInventory and pricy real estate have long been two of retail\\u2019s biggest albatrosses, but they haven\\u2019t changed because there\\u2019s been little motivation to change them. COVID-19, however, is presenting them through a fresh lens. \\u201cThose are the places where the pain is the greatest right now,\\u201d Baird said. \\u201cThere\\u2019s a lot of, \\u2018Well, we\\u2019ve always done it that way\\u2019 in the apparel supply chain, but the pandemic has really exposed the weaknesses in the way we\\u2019ve always done it.\\u201d\\n\\nBrands and retailers, for one, can no longer muddle along with the limited visibility they\\u2019ve always had, Schlegel said. \\u201cThe retail supply chain is in need of massive investments in people, flexibility, visibility and automation to survive, thrive and become more resilient,\\u201d he said. \\u201cAs retail and apparel move through COVID-19, [they can\\u2019t bring] these historical supply-chain inefficiencies along with them.\\u201d\\n\\nBefore the pandemic, fashion businesses were experimenting with inventory-less stores that trafficked in experiences and branding rather than saleable merchandise. The pandemic may accelerate such innovations, including those borne out of necessity, such as buy online, pick up in store and enhanced ecommerce platforms punched up by video-enhanced bells and whistles and personalized assistance. Many of these changes are likely to have staying power, and as the borders of online and offline begin to blur, consumers will increasingly look to stores\\u2014even physical ones, whenever they reopen\\u2014to be more than repositories of merchandise.\\n\\n\\u201cThere\\u2019s no future for stores, whether they have inventory or not, without that aspect of entertainment or expertise or some kind of guidance or interaction,\\u201d Baird said.\\n\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'