Supply chain in consumer products and retail

In the past few years, supply chains have seen massive disruption amid a slew of worldwide economic, geopolitical, and health challenges. While the global economy may now be recovering, many supply chain issues persist.

In this Capgemini Research Institute report, Illuminating the path: Building resilient and efficient supply chains in the consumer products and retail industry, we intend to provide insights on the leading supply chain themes prevalent globally in the consumer products & retail industry.

Some of the issues that continue to affect supply chains include geopolitical tensions, a lack of end-to-end visibility, stricter regulations on carbon emissions, and new legislation. The consumer products & retail industry in particular also has to deal with unique challenges related to last-mile delivery and consumer demand and spending.

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In response to these issues, consumer products & retail organizations are re-examining their supply chain strategies to drive profitable growth while balancing cost efficiencies with resilience and sustainability. Of the 300 organizations surveyed during our research, 82% believe their supply chain will need to change significantly to meet today’s challenges.

One aspect of this change is diversification and regionalization, with 79% of organizations reporting that they are actively diversifying their supplier base. Offshore procurement is expected to decline by 7% in dollar value over the next two years as nearshoring grows in popularity. Another is a renewed focus on cost efficiency, as companies once again make optimizing costs a priority.

In this report, we look into these major themes as we analyze the consumer products & retail supply chain today. We briefly look into the holiday-readiness of the industry for the 2023 holiday season. We also explore how sustainability is playing out in the consumer products & retail supply chain as well as the important role of digitalization for realizing cost and revenue objectives. Finally, we provide recommendations on how organizations can balance the drive for cost efficiency with supply chain resilience as they aim to build resilient and efficient supply chains.