Baseball icon Yogi Berra is often credited with saying, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” This is particularly true for the warehouse operations at the core of e-commerce, omnichannel and store fulfillment. The longstanding acceptance that change is a constant has taken on a new meaning in retail, and across the consumer goods, fashion and food sectors in recent years.
The pandemic dramatically accelerated e-commerce adoption, even in the grocery sector once considered immune to the online shopping boom. This was followed by an overt decrease in e-commerce activity as shoppers returned to stores, then a return to stasis — one in which most consumers are omnichannel buyers and online sales growth continues to accelerate, but at a fairly regular pace. Now, distribution and warehouse professionals face another challenging period, as consumer behaviors change faster than ever before.
According to , some buying behaviors are “diverging in paradoxical directions.” Sajal Kohli, a senior partner at the firm, notes that “shoppers who splurge in some categories may seek value in others, which means companies must develop a detailed and nuanced understanding of trends and segments.” There are, of course, more overt examples that supply chain professionals and fulfillment leaders must keep in mind to adapt to the changing needs of the retail brands they serve.
Marketing campaigns, including those with influencers, can create exploding demand f.