1. CONSTANT COMMUNICATION
Daily or real-time communications replaced more structured and planned touchpoints, both internally and externally with suppliers. Phone or virtual meetings often replaced or supported written communications to ensure clarity of messaging.
2. SHARING AND TRANSPARENCY
Real-time sharing with suppliers, data, category insight and full visibility to the supply chain was critical to ensuring rapid adaptability on all fronts
3. WORKING TOGETHER FOR WIN-WIN OUTCOMES
Retailers and suppliers had to partner where the need was the greatest: supply chain. Working together translated to retailers and suppliers across industries, helping one another get the right products onto shelves.
4. FOCUS ON PROBLEM-SOLVING AND COMPROMISE
Retailers and suppliers put aside their own agendas and reached compromises to make joint decisions and execute under pressure with tight timelines. The imperative was finding solutions as quickly as possible.
5. EMPATHY TO UNDERSTAND BUSINESS PARTNER NEEDS
As a result of the pandemic, retailers and suppliers were required to listen and understand each other’s needs and capabilities. This brought each side of the partnership closer as they sought to work together to get consumers the products they needed to survive and so that their businesses could survive.
Source: Advantage Group Supplier and Retailer COVID-19 Surveys Feb – June 2020, China, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Portugal, UK, and Advantage Voices on the Ground Globally April – June 2020.
