For today’s retailers, every delivery window is a test of reliability. Availability is now a measure of competitiveness: the businesses that master it are winning customers; the ones that fail are losing them.

Course for Change, Maersk’s recent research into supply chain resilience, revealed that, on average, retail companies lost 3.6% of their annual revenue to supply chain disruption in their most recent fiscal year.

Most retailers recognise that a key challenge in building a resilient supply chain is achieving the right balance between agility and cost efficiency – ensuring goods are in the right place, at the right time, at a commercially justified cost. But our survey of supply chain, logistics and operations leaders in the retail sector shows that many are struggling to do this well.

Although a third cite efficiency gains from optimised logistics in their top three resilience successes from the past two years, 26% experience setbacks. This shows that logistics is a high-impact lever: those capable of synchronising availability, speed and cost-efficiency will gain a measurable edge, while those who mismanage it risk turning logistics into a source of vulnerability.

The fine balance in supply chain resilience

Failure to maintain the delicate balance required for optimised logistics is a sector-wide challenge. But it does not have to be this way.

Analysis of the ‘resilience frontrunners’ in our research – retail companies that lost less than 1% of their revenue to supply chain disruption in the past fiscal year – shows that these businesses are more effective at leveraging the capabilities of their logistics service providers (LSPs) to help balance availability, speed and cost.

• 61% of frontrunners use LSPs to enhance warehousing capabilities, compared with just 33% of the least resilient businesses (the ‘followers’).
• 57% of frontrunners work with LSPs on supply chain design, compared with only 38% of followers.

By drawing on these capabilities, resilience frontrunners are optimising and streamlining their operations – cutting lead times, improving visibility and maintaining service levels under pressure. In our research, they’re more than twice as likely as followers to have achieved revenue growth linked to supply chain improvements. They’re also outperforming followers on supply chain costs and efficiency gains.

This is significant. “Historically, supply chains have been seen as efficiency operations – they were a cost to be driven harder,” says Matt Swindells, chief operations and supply chain officer at Australian retailer Coles Group. “But in the modern retail environment, they’re actually growth enablers: they make it possible for retailers to meet customers’ increasing expectations.”

Retail sector supply chains: from vulnerability to strength

So how can retailers weave resilience into every operation?

1. Turn logistics into a strategic advantage

The turbulence of recent years has shown retailers that they need to elevate logistics from an operational necessity to a core strategic capability – one that directly influences profitability and customer satisfaction.

The work of global LSPs such as Maersk shows how strategic engagement can turn the supply chain into a growth enabler. Via stand-alone or integrated networks across ocean, inland transport, warehousing and last-mile delivery, retailers can:

• Ensure satisfied customers through improved reliability and speed to market
• Reduce loss of sales or discounting by optimising inventory
• Take share during peak from competitors who are suffering
• Pinpoint process or cost inefficiencies
• Improve decision-making during disruptions
• Absorb the inevitable shocks of this volatile environment.

Resilience frontrunners recognise this advantage: 91% are already investing in long-term partnerships and trust-building to strengthen collaboration during crises, compared with just 57% of followers.

2. Embed cross-functional agility

Some retailers often operate in silos – merchandisers and logistics teams, for example, work with different objectives in mind so tend to work independently. But many are recognising the need for stronger alignment. A combined 77% say that collaboration, management, communication, and cross-functional leadership skills will be critical for resilience over the next two years. Yet nearly three in 10 admit they still lack the cross-functional decision-making processes needed to balance agility with stability.

Less resilient companies ranked collaboration and cross-functional decision-making among their most-needed skills. Frontrunners, meanwhile, placed these near the bottom, suggesting they may already feel more confident about their cross-functional capabilities.

When crisis strikes, these competencies prove their worth. In March 2025, when cyclone Alfred hit Brisbane, Australia, Coles Group had already built the data and team foundations to act quickly. “It’s dynamic: The data tells us where a particular change might be needed, and the end-to-end operation enables us to execute that decision faster than anyone else,” Swindells explains.

3. Build predictive resilience through shared data

The Holy Grail for all retailers is visibility. Open information sharing – from real-time inventory visibility to predictive analytics – turns logistics relationships into sources of foresight, not just efficiency.

Nine in 10 frontrunners exchange real-time insights into supply chain events, risks and performance metrics, maintain open and frequent communications channels for rapid problem-solving during disruptions, and share best practices for risk management and resilience strategies. They are far ahead of followers on each of these measures.

Deepak Menon, general manager of international supply chain and transformation at Anko Sourcing, the supply chain business of Kmart, explains how this works in practice. The company’s relationship with its LSP, Maersk, is built on shared access to data analytics, but each side uses its own expertise. “It gives us a great deal of flexibility,” says Menon. “Based on its analysis of peaks and troughs, Maersk can decide, for instance, how to position ships and how to get our goods to the port and to our warehouses. But to optimise fulfilment we can talk to them about which products to pack where in the containers – with our fastest-selling goods at the front. It’s all about having a relationship that gives us greater control over our supply chain.”

Tools such as Maersk’s Supply Chain Resilience Model help customers assess and strengthen the resilience of their supply chains by identifying risks, evaluating different scenarios and improving decision-making. The model uses multiple data sources and predictive analytics to provide greater visibility and enable more proactive, flexible responses to disruption.

4. LSPs as enablers

Clearly, LSPs have an important role to play in enabling retailers to maintain agility, speed and cost-efficiency. Solutions such as Maersk’s Supply Chain Management combines technology, human expertise and global coverage, providing retailers with a strong backbone from which to grow and improve decision-making, when it comes to inevitable disruptions.

Many retail companies are already collaborating with their LSPs on forecasting, capacity and order management to strengthen their agility. But there is a striking gap: frontrunners in our research are 44 percentage points more likely than followers to collaborate in this way. How can followers catch up?

What to do next for supply chain resilience

To optimise logistics for resilience, retailers should focus on four priorities:

• Deepen supplier partnerships – move beyond transactional procurement and invest in shared forecasting, capacity planning and data sharing.
• Engage LSPs strategically – like frontrunners, use LSPs for predictive risk modelling, diversification and compliance support.
• Embed collaboration into culture – build cross-functional decision making and skills into relationship management.
• Measure collaboration impact – track both costs and resilience outcomes, such as speed to market, customer satisfaction and reduced disruption losses.

Retail frontrunners have moved beyond transactional logistics to strategic collaboration: they are combining trust, data and shared accountability to anticipate disruption. Retailers that follow will turn logistics from a vulnerability into a competitive advantage.

Be ready for intelligent supply chain resilience to go all the way! Explore the full Course for Change report and learn more about Maersk Supply Chain Resilience Model, or for more logistics trends and insights, read and download The Logistics Trend Map.

About FT Longitude

FT Longitude is a specialist thought leadership agency, owned by the Financial Times, working with a wide range of the world’s most prestigious B2B brands across Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific. FT Longitude’s 80+ clients are concentrated in the professional services, financial services, and technology sectors, but also stretch into energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and other industries. Headquartered in London, the company was founded in 2011 and was selected as one of Chief Marketer 200, Top Marketing Agencies of 2020, an Inc. 5000 Europe in 2018, an FT 1000 company in 2017, and a 2016 Leap 100 high growth UK company by City A.M. and Mishcon de Reya. It is led by founders Rob Mitchell (CEO), James Watson (COO) and Gareth Lofthouse (Chief Revenue Officer). For more information: visit longitude.ft.com.