Retail logistics

This article discusses the challenges faced by retailers in logistics and supply chain management and provides possible solutions to tackle them. The case study of B&Q Company is used to explain the issues and solutions. The challenges include operational inefficiency, trend responsiveness, quality and regulatory compliance, and talent management. The solutions include expanding and exploring direct and unique global sourcing, building and developing a more effective supply chain, maintaining a positive working environment, and adopting RFID technology.

Running head: Retail logistics
Retail logistics
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................................4
Three key challenges in retail logistics and supply chain management.......................................................4
Task 2..........................................................................................................................................................6
Possible solutions to tackle these challenges...............................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9

Retail logistics
Introduction
Supply chain management is an essential and significant part of the business. No company can
grow its business operations in the market without maintaining a dynamic supply chain and
logistics management. B&Q Company has been selected in the task. B&Q is a multinational DIY
and home improvement organization. Here is the discussion about the retail and supply chain
management issues that directly affect the image of the firm adversely. Along with this, the
paper explains that how the retailers reduce and tackle these supply chain and logistics
management issues. A strong and dynamic supply chain management system is used by the B&Q
to supply the products and services to the customers. More detail of the task has been stated
below.
B&Q plc is a British multinational DIY and home improvement retailing corporation,
headquartered in Eastleigh United Kingdom. It is wholly owned subsidiary of Kingfisher Plc.
There are approx 25,000 employees employed in the firm. Block and Quayle is the retail chain
renders more than 40,000 products across 300 stores and online. The firm has outlets in Ireland.
The firm is increasing and expanding its business activities and operations globally day by day.
In this way, the company has been able to make a good image in the marketplace (Christopher,
2016).
It shall be noted that supply chain management plays a significant role in each and every
organization. Thus, supply chain management is also used by B&Q Company to maximize
profitability in the market (Fernie and Sparks, 2014). Supply chain management is the
management of the flow of goods, and services that includes movement and storage of raw
materials, work in progress and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption
(Mangan, Lalwani and Lalwani, 2016). Boosting and enhancing customer service is one of the
significant benefits of the supply chain management that helps to generate more revenue and
returns. Along with this, it improves financial position of the firm and reduces operating cost of
the firm (Hugos, 2018).
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Retail logistics
Task 1
Three key challenges in retail logistics and supply chain management
In today’s modern world, there are enormous challenges and issues faced by the retailers while
conducting business activities and operating globally. Retailers are faced unprecedented
challenges and issues in the organization (Rushton, Croucher and Baker, 2014). The logistics and
supply chain management issues and challenges that retailer face has been detailed below.
Operational inefficiency, managing complexity and rapid change: Some of the major issues
in supply chain management include operational inefficiency, rapid change and managing
complexity that affect the growth and success of the firm. Rapid change and managing
complexity is probable the most significant and complex issue for a retailer to do, yet it is
essential if they want to maintain an effective and efficient operation (Stadtler, 2015). Lack of
collaboration, coordination, communication and consistency across the world are hampered and
hindered by the silos of information and facts. All these factors influence the sustainability and
profitability of the firm as well as retailers. Due to lack of operation efficiency, B&Q Company
has not been able to beat the competitors in the global market (Carter and Liane Easton, 2011). It
also affects the revenue and returns of retailers widely. It shall be noted that retailers are not able
to maintain a sufficient profit margin due to rapid change in technology and strategy. In this way,
all these factors have direct impact on the goodwill of the organization. Moreover, the retailers
are not able to maintain proper communication with customers. As a result, retailers are unable
to provide right and suitable products and services to the customers around the world.
Operational inefficiency issue is emerging in logistics and supply chain management that could
influence the progress of the firm. Further, customers want full transparency into where their
delivery is at all times. But due to lack of packaging and social network, the retailers are not able
to fulfill the expectations of the consumers (Water and Rinsler, 2014).
Trend responsiveness: The consumers are demanding higher quality of the products and
services at cheaper prices in the marketplace. They want social responsible products and services
at appropriate prices globally. It is observed that shopper and retailers are focused on the
convenience and driving the demand to attract more consumers widely (Fernie, Fernie and
Moore, 2015). Therefore, the consumers want that retailer provide unique and effective products
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to them at suitable prices across all channels. Along with this, there is a significant
miscommunication between consumer’s demands and retailers products. In addition, the
company is unable to use Just- in-time technique to provide sufficient quality of the products and
services to the customers. Additionally, trends in the market are constantly changed hence the
organization is failed to fulfill the demand and requirements of the customers effectively
(Ramanathan, Bentley and Pang, 2014).
Quality and regulatory compliance: Quality and regulatory compliance is not good and
effective for retailers globally. The consumers expect high quality of products and services of
whether they are branded, exclusive and or private (Marklund and Berling, 2017). At the same
time, compliances are increasing in consumer and government’s bodies that influence the quality
of product and service. Furthermore, corporate social responsibility is not a good option for the
retailer. Along with this, environment, labor and product quality directly impact on the image of
the brand and bottom line. In addition, one of the highest costs contributing to the cutting
transportation cost issue is fuel prices which have a direct impact on the goodwill of the
organization. High fuel prices increase transportation costs that could affect the productivity and
performance of the retailers in the international market. Moreover, the emerging of retail omni
channels is driving a need for comprehensive and flexible system and technology. This creates
various issues in the organization for retailers. In addition, retailers are not able to design the
logistics and supply chain management for new and innovative product delivery channels. Along
with this, five separate software system has been introduced by the company which does not
provide support to the end to end customers in the market (Ganji, Shah and Coutroubis, 2017).
Talent management is one of the leading issues facing by retailers in today’s competitive world.
As supply chain management is becoming more complex and it affects the growth and targets of
the retailers globally. Hiring and retaining high performers and employees continues to become a
major challenge in front of retailers which reduces profitability of the firm (Varley, 2014). The
retailers are unable to maintain reciprocal relationship with partners and customers due to lack of
communication. In addition, they are failed to understand and evaluate the current opportunities
and performance of the workers as it creates miscommunication between retailers and partners.
All these issues are dealt by retailers in logistics and supply chain management. The company
needs to make unique and dynamic strategies to reduce and eliminate these retail logistics and
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Retail logistics
supply chain management issues and challenges at the marketplace (Zimmerman and Blythe,
2013).
Task 2
Possible solutions to tackle these challenges
To expand and survive in this new age of multichannel delivery, retailers should improve
infrastructure, systems and processes and provide higher inventory visibility in order to serve
better customers in the global market. While most of the retailers recognize the significance of
these core factors of a solid channel strategy, large number of retailers are struggling and fighting
with integration system of the firm. The brands and retailers need to understand and ensure that
their merchandising, design, suppliers and logistics are more integrated and effective. They will
need to select stable sourcing regions to maintain high degree of control, visibility and agility
into the end to end supply chain management (Dyckhoff, Lackes and Reese, 2013). The possible
solutions to handle issues related to the retail logistics and supply chain management have been
detailed below.
Expanding and exploring direct and unique global sourcing will lead to dynamic margin
improvement initiatives in the marketplace. It will help to reduce and eliminate the supply chain
and logistics issues within the organization. Along with this, retailers should seek to mitigate and
ease the pricing pressures by rendering more choices and features to the customers. In addition,
they should add more assortments in the production process to eliminate these issues and
challenges. It shall be noted that retailers should also renegotiate and set the suppliers agreement
and they should rethink about their distribution channels and networks to tackle the supply chain
issues. It will help to gain competitive benefits in the global market. Predictability and greater
visibility can be a one of the significant improvements is ongoing in margin improvements and
correction. It is noted that retailers should also adapt new and advanced technologies and
procedures to support their initiatives and actions globally (Sarkis, Zhu and Lai, 2011).
Apart from this, building and developing a more effective supply chain includes optimizing
resources, product cycle times, and reducing inventory that could help to reduce negative image
of supply chain management. It shall be stated that greater and open communication and
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Retail logistics
collaboration should be maintained by the retailers among the external as well as internal
stakeholders. Moreover, the retailers should have ability to make effective and unique decisions
related to the product and service. Integrated strategic sources shall be used by the retailers to
manage and streamline their supply chains in the firm (Monczka et al, 2015). Collaboration and
communication with operational areas help the retailers to act quickly to meet the long term
delivery dates in the organization. Apart from this, unique compliance and agreement shall be
used by the retailers while selling the products and services to the customers worldwide. They
should provide proper training and development coaching to the workers to reduce the supply
chain and logistics issues in the workplace. For providing knowledge and experience, training
and development sessions must be held by the top management and managers within the
organization. The retailers should understand and evaluate the health and safety protocols to
protect the rights of the consumers. On the other hand, evaluating and controlling shall be done
by the retailers to empower workers and motivate them for doing work effectively. They should
examine and evaluate the purchasing practices to analyze the violations and provide supply chain
and logistics with real time findings. In this way, the B&Q has been able to make a strong and
unique image in the minds of the customers (Seuring, 2013).
Retailers should create an effective and unique supply chain management to optimize the
resources and technology at the workplace. Along with this, retailers should develop and
enhance a long term strategy to ensure that they are recognizing and analyzing the logistics and
supply chain issues and barriers within the organization. Investment shall be done by the retailers
in people, systems, procedures and infrastructure to beat the competitors. It also helps in
decreasing the supply chain management issues. Retailers should ensure that their efforts and
actions are integrated and aligned with their extended supply chain partners.
In addition, the retailers should maintain a positive working environment at the workplace to
handle logistics and supply chain issues and to maintain a favorable culture within the
organization (Waters and Rinsler, 2014). Furthermore, it shall be noted that consumers should
engage with consumers to understand their needs, requirements and wants for making effective
purchasing decisions. Dynamic communication and collaboration is one of the effective tools
and methods carry the business activities and operations smoothly and successfully. Moreover,
planning and risk assessment shall be done by retailers and top management to analyze and
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Retail logistics
predict the risks and challenges in logistics and supply chain (Govindan, Soleimani and Kannan,
2015).
Along with this, RFID (radio frequency identification) technology that are enabling accurate and
correct real time inventory visibility shall be adopted by the retailers in B&Q Company.
Furthermore, dynamic channels and networks should be provided to consumers in order to retain
more and more clients in the marketplace (Tako and Robinson, 2012).
Conclusion
On the above mentioned study, it can be concluded that logistics and supply chain management
is an integral part of the every business and company that helps to increase outcomes and returns
within the organization. B&Q is one of the leading multinational DIY Company in the world.
The company operates its business worldwide. The organization faced various hurdles and issues
due to ineffective logistics and supply chain management. Now it is recommended that retailers
should develop and build a higher level approach and strategy which can deliver quality and
experiences in order to fulfill and satisfy demanding consumers in today’s competitive world. In
this way, retailers can manage and overcome the issues and challenges related to the supply
chain management.
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Retail logistics
References
Carter, C.R. and Liane Easton, P., 2011. Sustainable supply chain management: evolution and
future directions. International journal of physical distribution & logistics management, 41(1),
pp.46-62.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Dyckhoff, H., Lackes, R. and Reese, J. eds., 2013. Supply chain management and reverse
logistics. Springer Science & Business Media.
Fernie, J. and Sparks, L., 2014. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new
challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.
Fernie, J., Fernie, S. and Moore, C., 2015. Principles of retailing. Routledge.
Ganji, E.N., Shah, S. and Coutroubis, A., 2017. Bridging new product development with
sustainable supply chain management practices. International Journal of Economics and
Management Systems, 2.
Govindan, K., Soleimani, H. and Kannan, D., 2015. Reverse logistics and closed-loop supply
chain: A comprehensive review to explore the future. European Journal of Operational
Research, 240(3), pp.603-626.
Hugos, M.H., 2018. Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
Mangan, J., Lalwani, C. and Lalwani, C.L., 2016. Global logistics and supply chain
management. John Wiley & Sons.
Marklund, J. and Berling, P., 2017. Green inventory management. In Sustainable Supply
Chains (pp. 189-218). Springer, Cham.
Monczka, R.M., Handfield, R.B., Giunipero, L.C. and Patterson, J.L., 2015. Purchasing and
supply chain management. Cengage Learning.
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Ramanathan, U., Bentley, Y. and Pang, G., 2014. The role of collaboration in the UK green
supply chains: an exploratory study of the perspectives of suppliers, logistics and
retailers. Journal of Cleaner Production, 70, pp.231-241.
Rushton, A., Croucher, P. and Baker, P., 2014. The handbook of logistics and distribution
management: Understanding the supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers.
Sarkis, J., Zhu, Q. and Lai, K.H., 2011. An organizational theoretic review of green supply chain
management literature. International Journal of Production Economics, 130(1), pp.1-15.
Seuring, S., 2013. A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain
management. Decision support systems, 54(4), pp.1513-1520.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and
advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Tako, A.A. and Robinson, S., 2012. The application of discrete event simulation and system
dynamics in the logistics and supply chain context. Decision support systems, 52(4), pp.802-815.
Varley, R., 2014. Retail product management: buying and merchandising. Routledge.
Waters, D. and Rinsler, S., 2014. Global logistics: New directions in supply chain management.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Zimmerman, A. and Blythe, J., 2013. Business to business marketing management: A global
perspective. Routledge.
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