Inventory

In the first half of 2025, SC Codeworks’ freight activity data revealed the disruptive impact of tariffs on shipping patterns, marking a period of unpredictability for businesses involved in international trade. As shippers anticipated impending cost increases from tariffs, they adopted new strategies that emphasized consolidation of inventories and a subsequent slowdown in import activities. […]

The truckload market appears to be increasingly stable through a period when it normally isn’t. While the immediate future appears uneventful, the holiday shipping season is anything but certain.

Inventory and procurement teams have earned their salaries over the past five years. Are they entering an extended period of stability, or is this only a rare moment of reprieve.

Many industries are enjoying high profits from historic inflation. The furniture industry isn’t one of them. Thank the supply chain crisis.

Retailers have had to get creative to deal with too much inventory, but from moving inventory into stores to better inventory management, there are steps that can be taken.

Freight Club leverages the volume of all clients in order to get enterprise rates from its network of more than 30 well-known carriers.

Plans to order more inventory have fallen to a record low, according to Morgan Stanley. There’s far too much stuff and not enough demand.

Retailers are grappling with a “sonic boom of inventory” — and they have no idea what this year’s Christmas shopping season will look like.

Truckers will need to be patient as retailers burn through their buffer stock.

Slower transit times may be what shippers need as inventory levels and costs surge to all-time highs.

National Tree CEO: Don’t wait till Black Friday to shop for holidays

More container ships are stuck at anchor off California than ever before. The gridlock is about to get even worse.

U.S. inventory-to-sales ratio still historically low as key import source — China — faces growing delta variant risk.

Find Out What Logisticians Do, and Other Facts About Their Profession

Retailers at increasing risk of not getting goods from Asia on shelves as ocean transport system hits limit.

The headlines are touting Target’s store fulfillment numbers, but Home Depot’s right behind, fulfilling 55% of online orders from stores. This is particularly advantageous for Home Depot, which sells goods that are more often heavier and bulkier than its retail counterparts.

The best-in-class retailers navigated well, and managed to grow inventory considerably in the first months of the year.

Consumers reversion to services has not come at the detriment of durable goods spending. Over the past four weeks, the mix of durable goods-to-services spending has remained stable.

In addition to improving margins and boosting brand image, cutting ties with retailers simplifies Under Armour’s supply chain at a time when its needed most.

Add Nike (NYSE: NKE) to the growing list of retailers being severely hampered by port congestion and supply chain bottlenecks. The congestion at West Coast ports in particular strained Nike’s supply chain and negatively impacted revenue, which declined 11% yoy in the quarter ending Feb. 28.

This week, President Biden announced we will have enough vaccinations for every American by the end of May. For the American people, this is fantastic news. For apparel retailers, it’s euphoric news that complicates an already extremely uncertain environment. In this edition of Point of Sale, we’ll take a look at apparel inventory management through the lens of Nordstrom’s recent woes.

We’ve long touted retail inventory restocking as a primary growth driver for the freight bull run, but apparel brands aren’t aligning with this thesis. Rather than reverting back to habitual overordering and year-end discounting, retailers are sticking with the conservative ordering tactics that helped them win the holiday season.

With 2020 in the rearview, there are promising signs that point towards industry growth if one crucial thing takes place: tight inventory levels need to be replenished.

Retail analyst Andrew Cox makes five predictions for retail supply chains in 2021. First and foremost: An inventory correction.

The U.S. is experiencing an import surge.

Carriers with exposure to essential retail are benefiting from increased freight demand as retailers of grocery, household and home improvement goods struggle to keep inventories on their shelves.

Digging into some of the most recent LMI components.

Supply chain investments are helping retailers meet the inventory challenges of a growing market, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported today in its 2019 retail sales forecast.

Higher rates to elevate inventory-carrying costs.

The United States is in the midst of a building boom for industrial space as the logistics market struggles to accommodate surging e-commerce demand.

The U.S. – China trade war continues to disrupt freight movements into the new year.

Six times per year, professors from Arizona State University, Colorado State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and the University of Nevada, Reno collaborate with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) to collate data from professionals in the logistics industry, “identifying trends and developments in the logistics industry over time,” according to the Logistics Manager’s Index (LMI).