Supply Chain Collaboration

Supply chain collaboration practices will provide the framework and the foundation for the retail extended collaborative practices across the marketplace including partners, service providers and consumers. This is how important these collaboration practices and framework are to retailers in the marketplace. The challenge for retailers is to recognize these capabilities for the critical nature that they represent in today’s retail marketplace and then to take the appropriate actions to embrace and integrate these capabilities as a critical aspect of their shopping and purchasing framework. This is where the partnerships and the culture of collaboration come into play and requires the retailers to recognize these trends and take actions to incorporate and remake their offerings in a way that incorporates collaboration with partners and most importantly with consumers to allow them to sense and respond to the demands of the marketplace.




Most retailers continue to focus on integrating and adding eCommerce type goods and services to their offerings and then integrating these goods and services into the brick and mortar outlets. This was a very valid action to allow these retailers to attempt to catch up to the the consumer in their demands. This practice highlights the fact though that the retailers are still following trends in the market and acquiring companies that have developed the service or offerings after the trend is identified. From this perspective these retailers have not changed their culture or their practices that have been ingrained in the culture over many years - wait for the trend to be proven and then move to incorporate or acquire the trend. The recent trend from retailers now, to acquire the goods or services, has shortened the delivery lead time, however there is still a longer lead time from initial trend to the retailer responding and delivering the goods or services.




These retailers that do not change their practices and culture to one of extended collaboration and add to this a culture of experimentation are doomed to repeat the same cycle of slow failure that many of the large legacy retailers are currently experiencing. These retailers must change their culture to encourage and drive collaboration as a means to support experimentation in both goods and services. The supply chain has experience in this type of market upheaval and can provide support and guidance, along with new services that will support the market demands, if only retailers embrace more open collaborative practices.




Retailers must shift their focus from internalized measures to external collaboration and experimentation in goods and services. These retailers will never catch up by chasing trends and acquiring companies that are supporting these trends and they will also never gain enough time by cutting costs, Retailers must go back to their roots of experimentation and invention rather than following the leader. This is exactly why Amazon has been able to disrupt one market after another, Amazon is the master of experimentation in the retail market and have shown over and over again that they are willing to experiment and fail in the marketplace in order to move forward.