Manufacturing and Supply Chain Expert Lisa Anderson, MBA, CSCP, CLTD, President of LMA Consulting Group Inc., talks about how the supply chain got out of alignment, stemming from the pandemic. In essence, everything is in the wrong place. Read the full article to learn more.
The supply chain disruption hitting companies around the world is causing retailers to sharply reduce store sales and the deep discounts that have become commonplace as we enter the holiday shopping season and edge closer to Black Friday.
Supply-chain experts are encouraging customers to get their holiday shopping done early this year to purchase in-demand items and avoid the peak seasonal Christmas crowd. The logistics nightmare threatens a plethora of other Christmas and Thanksgiving-related goods, from holiday turkeys to artificial Christmas trees, according to news accounts.
And that’s just one sweep of the business sector being impacted by supply chain issues.
Reduced inventory is discouraging stores from offering their typical holiday sales. Though the holiday shopping season traditionally heralds an abundance of discounts, sales may be few and far between this year as the supply chain crisis contributes to emptying store shelves.
Traffic jams at ports and severe labor shortages in the transportation industry are preventing retailers from getting products in time. The ports are backlogged with tons and tons of containers waiting to be shipped, experts say.
As a result, retailers often have fewer products in their inventories and face delays in products that should have arrived in time for the holidays. That is giving stores less incentive to offer deep discounts on items.