From liability to profitability: The resilient retail supply chain

Some of the biggest retailers learned a valuable lesson in 2022 when they overstocked shelves anticipating a post-pandemic recovery that never quite lived up to expectations. Many were also hit by the impact of inflation on consumer spending. The result was warehouses loaded full of discounted inventory, while fast-moving items went out of stock, leading to lost sales and unhappy customers.

Today, retailers still struggle to manage proper inventory levels at the cost of canceled orders and hefty price cuts. Across the U.S, the average days on hand for retailers has increased by 12% since 2021.

Global market instability means that supply chain disruption will continue to make forecasting and planning a tough challenge for companies of all sizes. Surges in fuel prices have dramatically increased transportation and logistics costs. Tariffs and rising raw material prices have forced retailers to choose between raising prices (and risk losing customers) or absorbing costs (and hurting margins). 

Without robust planning tools, your ability to manage both inventory and cash flow, while delivering the experiences customers expect, can be severely hindered, putting your business at risk.

Flaws in the forecasting plan

Numerous unpredictable factors can disrupt the smooth movement of goods resulting in far-reaching consequences that impact not only the bottom line but also customer loyalty and brand reputation. As a supply chain leader, your challenges include: 

Demand forecasting errors: If you underestimate demand for a trending product, you face stockouts, lost sales, and frustrated customers. To succeed, you need to be able to adjust stock levels, distribution strategy, and pricing to capitalize on the demand, without disappointing customers. 

Logistics and shipping delays: Empty shelves and customer frustration can also result from disruptive events like labor strikes or extreme weather delays. Best-selling items can be left out of reach for customers, forcing them to shop elsewhere and eroding trust in your brand.

Rising costs, tariffs, and volatility: Customers can also be turned off by price hikes caused by increases to the cost of fuel and raw materials. When excess stock is left sitting in distribution centers — whether through pulling forward inventory to get ahead of tariffs or because of slow-moving stock — it locks up cash flow and can incur huge storage costs. 

In today's unpredictable landscape, traditional retail and supply chain planning methods are no longer enough. 

Data drives decisions — but how reliable is your data?

Retail and supply chain leaders need real-time visibility, AI-driven forecasting, and a connected approach to decision-making to stay ahead of whatever comes your way. 

Data is the backbone of strong decision-making, whether it’s in setting stock levels, determining pricing strategies, planning promotions, or managing distribution. But data is often fragmented across spreadsheets and disconnected point solutions, making it difficult to gain a clear, reliable view of operations. 

This data fragmentation often leads to:

• Time wasted debating the accuracy of data across teams 

• Inaccurate risk modeling that results in unreliable decisions

• Missed opportunities through slow response to market trends 

These inefficiencies can directly impact margins and profitability, leaving you struggling to stay competitive in a quickly evolving market.

The role of connected data in supply chains 

Without access to reliable, unified data, strategic supply chain decisions often feel like a leap of faith. To empower smarter decision-making, you need a comprehensive view across your entire organization. This view should seamlessly connect data from:

• Finance, merchandise, supply chain, and distribution centers 

• Seasonal and core plans

• Pricing and promotional strategies 

• Stock replenishment across your network of distribution centers

By bringing together all these data sources into a single, connected planning platform, you move beyond guesswork and can respond with confidence to market shifts. 

Anaplan: Strength in numbers — ALL the numbers

Anaplan brings all your data together into one unified platform. By integrating hundreds of data feeds from both inside and outside your organization, our platform provides a 360-degree view that transforms the way you react to the shifting sands of supply chains. Capabilities include:

✅Real-time supply chain visibility and scenario planning which allow you to anticipate delays, adjust distribution strategies, reroute shipments, and optimize fulfilment locations. This minimizes disruptions and ensures products reach customers on time.

✅AI-driven demand forecasting which enables you to analyze real-time market trends, adjust forecasts dynamically, and optimize inventory allocation, ensuring the right products are in the right place at the right time.

✅Cost scenario modeling which empowers you to evaluate pricing strategies, optimize procurement decisions, and balance inventory levels to maintain profitability, even in times of price volatility.

With Anaplan, you can forecast at any level of granularity across products, locations, and channels, ensuring tailored strategies across every touchpoint in the supply chain. From here you can conduct year-over-year trend analysis and adjust for market fluctuations. You can also understand not just your gap against the plan but the “why” behind missed targets, empowering you to make data-driven corrective actions.

And we're constantly working on new ways to improve these features. 

Not all platforms are created equal

We continue to invest heavily in Anaplan Data Orchestrator. This data management product brings in external data to drive additional insights, without the headache of data silos. Data Orchestrator helps speed up data ingestion, detect anomalies, and proactively flag bad data, while also democratizing access and management of critical insights across your team. 

AI takes retail and supply chain planning to the next level

We've considered carefully how AI can add real value to our customers. By incorporating generative AI, you can ask Anaplan natural language questions which allo not only analysts but also business users to interact directly with the data, accessing insights instantly without the need to dive into complex datasets. 

Anaplan CoPlanner for Demand Planning provides fast, precise, and trusted insights so you can make supply chain decisions at the speed of demand.

Connect the dots to turn liability into profits

To thrive in a fast-paced retail market, it's not about having a perfect plan — it’s about having everyone aligned around the same plan. This is where the Anaplan platform delivers real value, empowering retail and supply chain leaders with the agility, intelligence, and collaboration needed to optimize inventory, mitigate risks, and drive profitability.