27 Mar 2024
COVID-19, Retail, Supply Chain

Crisis Response: Dealing with Here and Now with Your Workforce

Organizations have been battling store closures, panic buying and much more due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Managing employees’ safety and health, stock levels, supply chain disruption, store recovery, and customer service during this crisis has become a herculean task. Many organizations have had to close their doors either by choice or by regulations. This will have both an immediate and longer-term impact.

COVID-19, Supply Chain

Category Management in the New Normal – POV from Blue Yonder

COVID-19 has certainly changed the way we work, shop and interact. The impacts are even greater as a strained supply chain becomes stretched to capacity to meet the demands and needs of customers looking for critical essentials. Never has there been a time when the supply chain has been strained to this degree. As I reflect on these unprecedented times, I wanted to provide a point of view on the direction of category management now and in the future.

Store Shopper
COVID-19, Retail, Supply Chain

What Retailers Need to Consider to Come Out Ahead from Times of Uncertainty

During times of distress, nothing brings comfort like returning to basics and simplicity. As the impacts of the COVID-19 continue to evolve, consumers are faced with unprecedented disruptions to these basics while retailers are scrambling to understand impacts on their supply chain. The one constant, though, in all the chaos: retailers remain focused on servicing customers and keeping their employees working.

empty outdoor mall
COVID-19, Retail, Supply Chain

How COVID-19 Will Impact Softline Retailers

Softline retailers have been battling store closures and traffic declines in malls for several years. They have made moves to shift toward experiential retailers. They have deployed omni-channel capabilities like buy online pickup in store (BOPIS) and buy online return in store (BORIS) to drive traffic and deliver a seamless experience for customers. Ultimately, softline retailers were just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel… until COVID-19 coronavirus arrived.

truck-cargo
COVID-19, Supply Chain

How COVID-19 is Shifting Supply Chains

From the outside, it does seem like things are beyond control. Food/grocery retailers are seeing unprecedented demand for many items, most notably paper, and sanitizing products, canned goods, and products with a longer shelf life. But what are we seeing? If we step back and look at it from the inside, i.e., the overall supply chain, things begin to make more sense. After all, are people using more toilet paper, or eating three times as much food than they normally do? It’s not about the shortage, it’s about how quickly retailers can stock shelves when masses of people clear them out far quicker than average.

COVID-19, Supply Chain

Importance of a Risk-Aware Supply Chain

A recent McKinsey & Company “COVID-19: Briefing Note”1 highlighted end-to-end supply chain actions to consider in the response to COVID-19 (slide 24). It only served to underscore Blue Yonder’s mission in supporting our supply chain customers and helping them ensure that supplies and products get to the people who need them, on time.