RE: COVER STORY


Keeping track


In the wake of well-documented scandals and increasing drives towards sustainability Retail Environment explores how an advent of new – hotly in demand – supply chain technologies are helping retailers secure both reputation and profit


Despite some retailers now seeking to rein in their supply chains and source products locally, decades of spiralling globalisation and reduced trade barriers has widened international trade and broadened the scale of most supply chains. Although the challenges are greater for some, the sheer size and complexity of these chains makes monitoring for all retailers a monumental and daunting task. Staying flexible to seasonable demands, juggling different and new suppliers, managing complex inventory requirements and logistics operations, changing partners all while watching their environmental footprints and keeping costs down are just some of the pressure retailers are facing. Fortunately, waves of new technology are helping to alleviate much of this pressure making operations more streamlined, transparent, cost-efficient and sustainable. Most interestingly, but not surprisingly, “noticeable increases” in sales of this type of technology have been acknowledged by providers following this year’s food and textile controversies. Although the concept of supply chain management has been around for about 30 years, the last few years has


seen retailers doing “extremely well” when it comes to measuring and monitoring, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Achieving end-to-end visibility of its supply chain is now seen as a pivotal part in a company’s growth plans, it observes.


28 RETAIL ENVIRONMENT | JUNE 2013


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