Drapers Supply Chain Summit 2024 took place at the Soho Hotel in London this month. The summit brought together global brands such as: Abercrombie & Fitch, All Saints, Burberry, Harrods, Lacoste, Manolo Blahnik, Marks & Spencer, Perry Ellis, TJX and more along with industry vendors, suppliers and technology partners. The community, which included Columbus Consulting, focused on key challenges and opportunities in the supply chain space.
Major themes from the sessions included:
- Corporate responsibility
- Traceability
- Geopolitical and economic conditions
- Need for supply chain cost reductions
- AI expectations and use cases
- Data accuracy issues
- Why Excel is still a primary system
With regard to brand missions, attendees felt that, while everyone acknowledges the need for corporate responsibility on some level, few are able to take meaningful and scalable action. The primary causes of hindrance are funding, alignment and the ability to execute on the promise. One such area identified is sustainability. Retailers are supportive of the concept of being eco-friendly, but the reality of reuse, repurpose and resell requires people, processes and systems that don’t exist in any significant way. The brands were very animated during the traceability conversations which revealed how EU/US customs are being held at POE (port of entry), creating more needs around Map & Trace solutions.
In addition to profit concerns from inflation, increased logistical challenges and nervousness around the geopolitical setting, retailers are also facing huge increases in product returns. Returns, while part of the customer experience, are costly and need to be streamlined across the organization for consistency and process efficiencies. The use of AI can be part of the solution, ensuring more accurate fits and higher shopper satisfaction/loyalty. Artificial Intelligence was a repetitive topic throughout the summit but retailers acknowledged that they are hindered by their own data quality. AI-enabled solutions are weakened with bad data, yet investments in data cleansing, management and governance have yet to keep pace with the needs. This situation is further complicated by the lack of sophisticated/modern systems and platforms. Many retailers are still relying on Excel spreadsheets to input and process data. The future, however, lies in optimizing AI/cognitive capabilities beyond such legacy practices.
According to Columbus Consulting’s David Herridge who attended the event, “Retailers are all facing the same market, economic and consumer challenges, with supply chain issues being among them. With so much change and evolution in the industry, it is hard for brands to keep pace and address all of their opportunities at once. The key is to go back to the basics and reinforce the standards and practices around talent, process/communication and core systems/platforms. Without a solid base, adopting new technologies will only exaggerate underlying issues. At Columbus Consulting, we recommend an immediate focus on data, data accuracy, hierarchy, attributes, inputs, and accessibility. Our team of retail practitioners understand the industry and are helping clients build their long-term roadmaps by taking immediate steps with health checks, systems audits and prioritized planning. The key is, regardless of where your brand is on the maturity curve, to just start.”