As retailers, brand owners and suppliers head down the holiday homestretch, retail sales are being impacted by logistics challenges as never before.

Delays and higher costs have been the watchword, involving all aspects — air freight, ports, ground transportation and deliveries – of moving goods to distribution centers, stores and consumers’ homes.

Bottlenecks
Some licensees early in the extended holiday season were experiencing up to 60-day delays on some shipments from China, with expected October deliveries arriving earlier this month. And then there were UPS, Federal Express and other shippers and delivery companies keeping closer tabs than ever and refusing, in many cases, to extend many customers’ deliveries beyond the contracted amount. And amid all the bottlenecks, ecommerce sales have continued to soar, further straining an already tight supply chain.

Missed Pickups
“I have had inventory sit [in retail distribution centers] for 30 days before it hits the retail floor” of mid-tier and mass retailers, says one apparel licensee. “More than any time in history of our doing business with these retailers, we are having missed pickups at  distribution centers. I’m not sure whether it’s that retailers are so busy selling essential products such as hand sanitizer, face masks and cleaning products, or trucking companies can’t keep up with demands. But there is definitely some money being left on the table.”

Among recent developments:

• The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – critical junctures in the U.S. supply chain — reported having the busiest fall for processing shipments in their histories, exacerbated by pandemic-related social distancing and limits on the number of dock workers. China accounts for about half the imports coming into the Port of Los Angeles.
  “It has calmed down a little bit recently but all those goods had to get somewhere, so maybe it’s only natural that you are looking at 6-8 weeks of trucking issues,” says NECA Chairman and Founder Joel Weinshanker. “And the delivery services are able to charge more because they are trying to get everyone to order earlier.”
• For the first time, G-III Apparel Group, a licensee of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, among other brands, is drop-shipping to consumer homes for some of its department store customers. G-III has hired staff and is “searching for the appropriate real estate” to fill drop ship orders for retailers, G-III CEO Morris Goldfarb told analysts on Tuesday. “We are doing it on a spot-by-spot basis,” Goldfarb said. “We are not structured for drop shipping, but we will be. We’re putting systems in place to accommodate drop shipping to the direct consumer and taking some of that responsibility away from our department store partners, and as well as in Amazon to some degree” to help free up space at their distribution centers and stores.
• Not surprisingly, shipping and delivery delays topped many consumers’ lists of concerns during the holiday season, according to a survey by DigitalCommerce360. Many experienced significant delays at the outset of the pandemic. Those problems seemingly receded for a while, but now they’ve returned to top of mind. Forty-seven percent of consumers have experienced shipping delays in the past few weeks and 39% are wishing for faster delivery times.