Transparency in supply chains and marketing optimization are new priorities

The supply chain issues started in late 2021 and have continued into the new year. Most companies still face problems of product availability and delayed shipping, along with the potential of over and understocking shelves.

It is highly important for businesses to ensure their consumers know when to expect their products to be available, or they risk losing loyal customers. There are many ways to achieve it, for example, weekly product email updates, a good delivery information system, or a quarterly executive announcement on supply chain status.

Supply chain issues will remain through 2022.

Some industries, like marketing and advertising, have been hit harder than most as many companies cut back on ad spending to offset lost revenue caused by supply chain trouble, according to ecommercetimes.com. Instead of cutting ad expenses completely, there are smart ways to adjust to the situation.

First of all, companies can consider shifting advertising and marketing focus toward the stock that is available instead of items that are not. Ad budgets can be spent more wisely without companies losing money.

Consumer demand is as high as never before, so supply chain issues can be crucial for brands and retailers. They do need to be strategic about their inventory and flexible with consumer demands.

Another approach is to build a dynamic digital advertising program that is flexible as inventory changes. Many companies see fluctuations in inventory caused by supply chain issues.

In fact, only certain categories are heavily impacted. In many cases, they are just specific SKUs.

By integrating their inventory directly with their digital advertising campaigns, companies can quickly shift spending on the fly. This lets them move ad dollars to those products that are in stock and ready to ship. As stock comes back in, the system can automatically revert to pushing those products. This approach with dynamic systems ensures that ad dollars are used in the most efficient manner.

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One of the biggest conclusions from the past few years is that predicting the ups and downs of supply chains is nearly impossible. Outside forces that can cause disruption will always exist.

So companies also need to rethink how they are communicating supply chain information to their stakeholders.

The supply chain was built to be a very efficient, well-organized system over the last 30 years. The problem is that in two quick years, it has experienced massive disruptions that have run it off course. It will take a while for things to get back on track, even well into 2022.

All companies do not face the same supply chain issues, or any predicaments at all. Like many aspects of the pandemic, the effects are not universally distributed.

Some companies have invested heavily in building their own supply chain, which has been more immune to things like price increases on container shipping. Others may be able to source more materials domestically, avoiding some of the issues at the ports.

Some businesses are unable to provide transparency in supply chains because they rely on dozens of different systems that fail to work cohesively together. On average, companies use four different systems just to manage their product information, experts say.

But sometimes, it happens that misinformation among consumers sparks imaginary supply chain issues. Failing to provide shoppers with up-to-date, consistent product information can have a significantly negative impact on sales and consumer trust.

Today’s complex commerce ecosystem makes managing product data across supply chains extremely difficult. Companies source product data from thousands of different suppliers. Then, they must reformat the data to meet requirements for various marketing and selling channels.

With hundreds of thousands of consumer touchpoints spread out across online marketplaces, social media platforms, DTC sites, physical stores, and more, ensuring product data is accurate in every location is nearly impossible.

Communicating supply chain information to consumers comes down to how well a company can manage its product information value chains. These are the pathways in which product information flows across supply chains as it moves from suppliers to retailers to shopping channels to buyers. It eventually loops back to suppliers in the form of feedback or returns.

That should be done with a product-to-consumer management strategy, where companies use a centralized view and streamline the flow of product information.

The key features of this approach include large-scale sourcing of product information from an infinite number of sources, real-time product data syndication to many marketing and selling channels, and continuous monitoring and updating of all data touchpoints.

Customer loyalty is in a fragile state now. It is time for supply chains to become more transparent.