What’s a retailer to do when customers expect faster delivery times and smooth omnichannel experiences, but supply chains remain under pressure from rising costs, labour shortages and post-Brexit friction? Worse, disruptions have become the norm — and even efficient operations can struggle when disruptions hit. The retailers pulling ahead are the ones treating their supply chains as central to the business as marketing and sales. This often comes down to following 10 key strategies covering data visibility, relationship building, operational improvements and planning.
Why Do Resilient Retail Supply Chains Matter?
A retail supply chain determines whether products actually reach customers and when. When it works well, stock arrives on time and orders reach customers on schedule. When it doesn’t, problems compound quickly. Stockouts put a dent in sales and credibility, while excess inventory eats up working capital.
Inventory policies and supplier decisions can be optimised, but supply chains are also susceptible to factors outside a retailer’s control. External disruptions, from geopolitical instability to sudden demand shifts, can knock even efficient operations off course. That’s where resilience comes in: the ability to absorb shocks and recover quickly rather than putting out fires after the fact. Resilient supply chains are built to anticipate and adapt to disruptions, not just survive them.
Resilience also supports long-term growth. A supply chain built to adapt — with modular systems, flexible supplier contracts and technology that scales — lets retailers enter new markets and handle seasonal peaks without major operational rebuilds. Adding new product lines becomes far less disruptive when processes and partnerships are already designed for variety. And in an industry where margins tend to be thin, that kind of flexibility becomes a genuine competitive advantage.
Key Challenges for UK Retailers
UK retailers face pressure from multiple angles. Cross-border trade with the EU now involves customs declarations and security checks, and rules of origin documentation adds yet more paperwork. Many retailers report longer delivery timelines and more administrative work when sourcing from or selling to European markets. Between 2017 and 2024, UK exports to the EU fell by 23%, from 106.4 million tonnes to 82.4 million tonnes, while imports declined by just 5% in the same period.
Inflation also remains a top concern. In a February 2025 report, the British Retail Consortium said it expected operating costs in the UK retail sector to increase by £7 billion per annum. Higher operational costs, such as transport fuel and warehouse wages, squeeze margins and curb the ability to handle price increases without passing them on to customers.
Meanwhile, UK logistics and warehousing sectors face recruitment challenges, particularly for skilled roles such as HGV drivers and data analysts. Post-Brexit restrictions on EU worker migration have only intensified competition for talent. In a 2024 survey, 27% of UK supply chain professionals cited the lack of skilled workers as a concern.
Retailers also need to adapt to shifting consumer demands. Click-and-collect, which turns stores into fulfilment centres, has become standard for UK shoppers and requires inventory coordination between channels. Omnichannel returns add another layer: customers expect to return items wherever it suits them, not necessarily where they bought them. All this depends on real-time stock visibility, which legacy systems built for single-channel retail often can’t provide.
Most retailers recognise the potential of AI and automation to help tackle supply chain challenges like these, but implementation remains a pain point. Fragmented legacy systems and data quality issues slow adoption. A lack of in-house expertise compounds the problem.
10 Strategies for Retailers to Improve their Supply Chains
The 10 supply chain improvement strategies that follow span four areas: data visibility, strengthening relationships, operational improvements and planning. Not every strategy will apply to every retailer. Some are foundational, such as supplier diversification. Others, like getting the most out of supply chain technologies, might build on capabilities you don’t yet have. But approached together, they can help shift a supply chain from reactive to resilient.
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Improve supply chain visibility
Visibility means knowing where inventory is and when it will arrive, not just to your store or warehouse but throughout the entire supply network. Without it, decisions often rely on outdated information, which can lead to stockouts or excess stock sitting in warehouses.
Real-time tracking technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, let retailers monitor goods from supplier to shelf. Data feeds into dashboards and alerting systems, so teams can be notified and respond as soon as something is amiss. For cross-border shipments, this matters even more. A delay at customs can ripple through the whole chain if it isn’t flagged early.
Better visibility also makes collaboration easier. When retailers and their suppliers work from the same data, coordination improves and finger-pointing becomes far less common.
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Enhance communication through the supply chain
Information silos create delays. When procurement and logistics teams work from separate systems, important details can slip through the cracks. A supplier might change a delivery date, but the update never makes it to the warehouse. Unfortunately, the first sign of trouble is often an unhappy customer.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems centralise an organisation’s data in a single platform. Procurement, warehouse and logistics teams work from the same information, and updates happen in real time. Some UK retailers have gone further, building systems where warehouse staff and suppliers communicate directly rather than relaying messages through procurement or chasing updates over email.
Automated alerts add another layer of improvement. Instead of manually checking whether a shipment is on track, the system flags a delay or a missing supplier confirmation before it leads to bigger problems.
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Diversify suppliers for better resilience
Dependence on a single supplier, or a concentrated group in one region, creates vulnerability. When that supplier experiences disruption, there’s no backup to absorb the volume, and sourcing a new supplier on short notice is rarely quick or inexpensive. Balancing risk across multiple suppliers dulls the impact of any single failure.
UK supply chain companies have increasingly turned to local and near-shore suppliers. In a 2024 survey, 69% of UK supply chain professionals said they planned to source all or most of their suppliers closer to home. It’s easy to understand why: shorter lead times and less exposure to cross-border complications. Closer proximity also simplifies quality control and facilitates tighter relationships with key partners.
Diversification requires trade-offs, however. Managing more suppliers complicates procurement, and smaller order volumes can weaken negotiating leverage. Supplier management tools offer help by tracking performance, lead times and capacity across vendors — so if one supplier falters, you already know where to redirect.
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Develop contingency plans for disruptions
Supply chain disruptions are inevitable. The question is whether an organisation is prepared to respond. Contingency planning identifies the most likely and most damaging scenarios, then develops detailed roadmaps for how to handle them.
Effective plans specify which alternative suppliers to activate and how to reroute logistics when a key distribution centre goes offline. They also delineate clear roles, such as who makes decisions, who contacts suppliers and who communicates with customers, so there’s no confusion when a disruption hits.
Technology makes contingency planning more practical. For example, digital twin simulations let teams model scenarios and test response strategies prior to an actual disruption. Predictive analytics can flag early warnings by monitoring weather patterns, supplier financial health and global political shifts.
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Improve forecasting accuracy
Forecasting shapes inventory decisions, supplier orders and staffing levels. When forecasts are wrong, retailers either hold too much stock (tying up capital and warehouse space) or too little (losing sales and disappointing customers).
AI and machine learning tools have changed the possibilities of demand forecasting. They can analyse historical sales data alongside external factors, such as weather patterns and macroeconomic data, as well as less obvious signals like social media trends. Some systems forecast demand at the SKU level, accounting for variations by location and even time of day.
Better forecasting isn’t just about technology, though. Clean data also matters, as does collaboration between merchandising and supply chain teams. Models also need continuous refinement based on actual performance.
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Strengthen carrier relationships
It’s tempting to treat carriers as interchangeable. For many retailers, whoever offers the best rate gets the business. But that approach has limits. Building strong relationships with logistics providers brings benefits that transactional arrangements can’t. When delivery slots get tight during peak periods, for instance, retailers with strong carrier relationships often get priority while everyone else waits.
Consistent, open communication from both sides sets expectations. Sharing demand forecasts with carriers allows them to plan capacity and flag constraints before they become problems. Performance feedback, both positive and negative, builds trust and creates an atmosphere of continuous improvement.
Connecting retailer and carrier systems via ERP integration can be used to automate booking and tracking, so staff aren't re-keying information into two systems. Performance dashboards help both parties track service levels against agreed-upon standards. For multi-channel retailers, flexible carrier arrangements matter even more — shipping from stores or offering same-day delivery relies on having logistics partners willing to adapt.
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Maximise warehouse efficiency
Warehouses sit at the heart of retail supply chains. Inefficient layouts or picking processes can throw off delivery times and costs. A warehouse management system (WMS) can help by organising where stock should live, how pickers should move through the building, what's ready for dispatch. Connect a WMS to an ERP system and stock levels are more likely to remain accurate and up to date across stores, warehouses, and online channels.
An efficient warehouse layout cuts down on wasted movement, and tighter inventory controls keep stock discrepancies from compounding. RFID tagging speeds up stock counts and cuts errors that manual scanning can miss. For higher-volume operations, automation goes further. Voice-picking systems, automated storage and retrieval, and robotics for repetitive tasks like palletising all help do more with fewer people.
Even without major capital outlay or technology upgrades, there’s room to improve. Watch how pickers move through the warehouse and look for wasted steps. Store fast-moving products closer to packing areas Cut the number of times an item gets handled before it ships. Small changes add up.
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Align marketing with the supply chain
Promotional campaigns can be a boon for business but catch supply chains off guard. A big marketing push that drives demand beyond what inventory can support leads to stockouts and wasted advertising spend. And customers who can’t buy what they came for may not come back.
The fix is to bring supply chain teams into campaign planning early. They need time to build stock and additional capacity before demand spikes. Marketing also needs visibility into inventory status so they can pull back on messaging or shift targeting if stock runs low. This shared data also informs pricing strategies. Dynamic pricing, where prices adjust based on demand or stock levels, only works if the underlying systems provide accurate, real-time information.
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Optimise reverse logistics
Reverse logistics covers receiving returned goods, inspecting them and either restocking or disposing of them — a process that is not cheap. Many retailers find that processing a return takes considerably longer than fulfilling the original order. And yet, returns are a reality of retail, especially in e-commerce. According to a 2024 report, 71% of UK online shoppers return items, with clothing the most returned category (27%) followed by shoes (15%) and bags and accessories (14%). How well a retailer handles returns plays a big role in both profitability and customer satisfaction.
Automated inspection systems can manage returns faster than manual processes and connecting those systems with inventory systems gets saleable items back into stock sooner. Analytics help pinpoint why products are coming back — sizing issues, quality defects, misleading descriptions — so problems can be fixed at the source.
Better reverse logistics also has sustainability benefits. When returns are processed quickly and sorted properly, more items make it back into circulation — resold, repaired or recycled — instead of defaulting to landfill because dealing with them took too long. And with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations increasing disposal costs, there’s more incentive to keep products in circulation longer.
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Leverage software and supply chain technology
Without the right systems in place, many of the above strategies fall short. With them, it’s possible to improve supply chains by automating routine work, generating data for better forecasting and giving teams a shared view of inventory and operations.
Cloud-based ERP systems, for example, connect supply chain operations with finance, procurement and customer data on a single platform. They’ve become more popular than on-premises alternatives thanks to quicker deployment and lower upfront costs. Beyond ERP systems, specialised tools handle specific functions such as AI-powered demand forecasting, real-time inventory management, warehouse automation and transport management systems. Whatever your goals, it’s important to choose technology that connects well with current systems and can grow with the organisation. Otherwise, you’ll end up re-keying data between platforms, defeating the purpose of investing in a unified system.
Buying the right software is only half the job. Implementation matters as much as vendor selection, and a smooth, thoughtful rollout can help retailers get more out of their systems. Get stakeholder commitment and alignment on business goals before beginning. Data quality also needs attention before go-live, and training can’t be an afterthought. Phased rollouts, starting with pilots before a wider rollout, help reduce risk and give the organisation runway to adjust.
Strengthen Supply Chain Visibility with NetSuite
The strategies above share a common thread. They all depend on accurate, accessible data that flows between departments. Visibility, forecasting, supplier coordination, and running efficient operations are all harder than they need to be when inventory data lives in one system, procurement in another and finance in a third.
NetSuite ERP for Retail brings inventory, procurement, order management and financials into a single cloud-based solution. Supply chain teams get real-time dashboards showing stock levels and order status. Automated workflows handle routine handoffs, and built-in analytics flag problems early to avoid issues further down the chain. As the business grows, the platform scales with it — supporting the kind of supply chain that can handle whatever comes next.
Building a better retail supply chain starts with recognising what the name implies. It’s a chain, and weakness in any link affects everything downstream. Visibility matters, as does forecasting, supplier relationships and efficient warehousing and technology use.
Improving Retail Supply Chain FAQs
How can retailers reduce logistics costs?
Retailers can reduce logistics costs by optimising warehouse layouts, consolidating shipments, negotiating better carrier rates and investing in automation. Route optimisation software can reduce fuel costs and improve delivery efficiency. Building stronger carrier relationships may also help retailers access better rates or priority capacity during peak periods.
What are 3PL and 4PL logistics?
Third-party logistics (3PL) providers handle specific logistics functions, such as warehousing, transport or fulfilment, on behalf of retailers. Fourth-party logistics (4PL) providers take a broader role by managing the entire supply chain and coordinating multiple 3PLs and other service providers. 4PLs typically act as strategic partners rather than transactional vendors.
How can supply chains be improved?
Supply chain improvement starts with gaining visibility into current operations, then addressing the most significant pain points. Common strategies include improving demand forecasting capabilities, diversifying suppliers, automating warehouse processes, strengthening communication across partners, and investing in integrated technology platforms that connect siloed functions.
