Half of the businesses supplying retailers are failing to meet supplier terms and conditions, leading to financial penalties and lost business.
What do the survey results show?
Advanced Supply Chain (ASC) and Sapio Research surveyed senior key decision makers with responsibility for pre-retail logistics and compliance. Data shows 51% of manufacturers and brands supplying products to retailers have incurred financial penalties for non-compliance with supplier manuals. A third (34%) had incurred penalties in the past 12 months, with an average penalty of £1,658. 10% saw penalties top £5,000.
Suppliers are struggling with three big pre-retail compliance challenges including delivery deadlines (67%), quality issues such as damaged products and packaging (60%) and labelling problems (45%).
Performance in these key areas impacts retailer success and clearly defined supplier standards are a necessity. Retailers need stock inventory to be delivered to them on time, in the right format and perfect quality to ensure that products can be processed quickly for sale. Mistakes, excessive handling and delays are costly, risking missed sales opportunities and negatively impacting brand reputations.
The survey shows that 9-in-10 suppliers are looking for solutions to improve pre-retail logistics, with the view to eliminating errors, reducing lead times and improving retailer satisfaction.
Ben Balfour, Managing Director of Advanced Supply Chain, said: “Around half of the suppliers we surveyed want to grow the number of retailers they work with, and realise that streamlining pre-retail logistics is crucial to this. Specialist services, such ASC’s Retail Ready, are designed to automate and digitalise processes during pre-retail logistics to save time, improve quality control, strengthen compliance with supplier manuals and boost speed to market.
“Pre-retail logistics is an opportunity for suppliers to increase efficiencies and sustainability. Eliminating errors and enhancing retailer compliance can minimise wastage and can support optimisation of fleet scheduling to reduce vehicle dwell times and unnecessary mileage.”
ASC has created a guide for streamlining pre-retail logistics, which covers five steps for delivering retailer satisfaction, cost savings and eliminating waste. Click here to download the guide and to find out more about ASC’s value-added service Retail Ready.
About the research
Sapio Research surveyed 200 senior key decision makers with responsibility for pre-retail logistics and compliance. Interviews were conducted online in April 2024 and carried out among key decision makers working for businesses with an annual turnover of £10million+ across the UK.
