For any company selling products, supply chain management is more than just moving the said products from point A to point B – this is something we’re all familiar with. The second layer of added understanding comes when you think about building a competitively stable strategy that ensures efficiency, agility, and sustainability. There’s a host of brilliant brands employing the best and the most tailored supply chain strategies to fit their business models, customer demands, and industry challenges. Today, we’re going to explore some real-world examples of brands implementing different types of supply chain strategies. We’ll look at retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Patagonia and their meticulous process of perfecting their supply chain strategies that allowed them to optimize costs, meet fluctuating demands, and lead sustainability efforts. Understanding these strategies can help you determine the right approach for their operations.
Types of Supply Chain Strategies
1. Lean Supply Chain: Reduce Waste and Decrease Costs
A lean supply chain is nothing but the simplest and most efficient manner to manage the flow of products to the customer, focusing on reducing excess inventory, eliminating waste, and improving operational efficiency. Lean supply chain management prioritizes cost control, streamlined processes, and optimized logistics.
Example: Walmart
There are approximately 10,600 Walmart stores in the world. It’s the largest retailer in the world handling a vast variety of products – from groceries to home accessories. With earnings going to $681 billion in 2024, a company as large as Walmart has to have a lean supply chain. The company has mastered lean supply chain management by leveraging advanced inventory tracking, cross-docking, and supplier collaboration. Their multichannel order management ensures stores and E-commerce platforms are well-stocked without excessive inventory buildup.
Key Practices:
- Vendor-managed inventory (VMI), where the company upholds relationships with vendors to the utmost importance and always ensures quality products are delivered at the right time. They also keep steady supplier relationships.
- Inventory optimization, order fulfillment, and fast delivery, with numerous customizations for customers to get their products delivered the way they want and when they want.
- 100% powered by renewable energy, waste reduction, and ethical sourcing to keep the highest sustainability standards in a world of close monitoring.
- Just-in-time (JIT) stocking, and data-driven replenishment.
Why It Works:
This strategy allows Walmart to keep prices low while maintaining product availability.
2. Agile Supply Chain: Quickly Adapts to Market Changes
An agile supply chain is designed for industries with volatile demand, frequent product launches, or fast-changing consumer trends. Agile supply chain management requires the company processes to prioritize flexibility and responsiveness, and be able to change quickly when the demand arises.
Example: Amazon
Amazon’s supply chain is the gold standard for agility. Their use of AI-driven demand forecasting, automated fulfillment centers, and multichannel order management allows them to rapidly scale up or down based on customer demand.
Key Practices:
- Customer obsession, which is structurally summed up in Jeff Bezos’s letter to the shareholders
| It’s everyone’s job to know and have empathy and passion for the customer. Make sure everyone knows it’s their job. … Know the details of the customer experience and what causes friction for customers. |
- Customer metrics shape the supply chain to a huge extent, turning expectations into real numbers into agile responses from the supply chain – all enabled by real-time data and monitoring.
- Amazon runs on highly independent, small teams which they call “two-pizza teams” – teams that can be fed with 2 pizzas or what we popularly know as the Joey (get the reference?)
- Real-time inventory visibility, smart warehouses, and last-mile delivery innovations.
Why It Works:
It enables fast, same-day deliveries and reduces stockouts, ensuring a seamless shopping experience centered around and constantly learning from customers.
3. Sustainable Supply Chain: Eco-Friendly and Ethical
A sustainable supply chain integrates environmental and social responsibility into business operations, reducing carbon footprints and promoting ethical sourcing. The goal of sustainable supply chain management is to reduce harm to the environment while keeping compliant with environmental measures and staying profitable in a highly competitive market.
Example: Patagonia
Patagonia has a very well-known Supply Chain Environmental Impact Program which is dedicated to reducing environmental impact from manufacturing their products and managing materials. The brand is renowned for its commitment to sustainability. It ensures transparency by tracking materials from sourcing to production, reducing waste, and promoting circular economy practices.
Key Practices:
- Ethical sourcing and waste reduction, where Patagonia ensures that they deliver high-quality products with minimal environmental impact.
- Closed-loop supply chain, and carbon footprint reduction initiatives.
- Energy conservation and water harvesting programs along with solar-powered factories.
- We don’t even have to mention this, but Patagonia produces products that don’t die easily, with durability for years and years to come. You can pass on your Patagonia jacket to your grandson someday, it’s that durable and thus, environment-friendly.
Why It Works:
Customers value brands that prioritize sustainability, creating long-term loyalty and brand differentiation.
4. Technology-driven Supply Chain: Automation and In-depth Analytics
Most supply chains mentioned above can’t succeed well without some technological assistance, whether it is for real-time monitoring or for waste reduction. However, a technology-driven supply chain focuses on using specialized tools and systems that integrate automation, AI, and data-driven decision-making to enhance operational efficiency and optimize inventory management. This approach is particularly useful for E-commerce brands managing large product assortments and multiple sales channels.
Example: GlobalBees
GlobalBees, a leading e-commerce aggregator, leverages Increff’s multichannel order management system to make its supply chain operations super smooth and efficient.
Key Practices:
- Demand forecasting and automation to predict demand to the granular level and ensure the right inventory levels are placed in the right channels (whether store or warehouse or Timbuktu!) using multichannel order management.
- Real-time visibility to track each product using QR-based codes leaving no room for error – this also helps in minimizing stock mismatches and overstocking conundrums.
- Complete smart warehousing for 15+ warehouses and stock distribution ensuring products are stored and dispatched from the best locations while reducing lead times.
- Efficient order fulfillment and maintained logistics that help in the rapid scaling of the brand.
Why It Works:
By integrating AI, automation, and multichannel order management, GlobalBees ensures faster fulfillment, reduced excess inventory, and improved profitability—making it a powerhouse for scaling e-commerce brands efficiently.
What’s Next?
No matter which supply chain strategy your business adopts, having the right tools is crucial. Increff offers intelligent solutions that optimize inventory, streamline logistics, and enable multichannel order management for businesses of all sizes.
- For Lean Supply Chains: Increff’s inventory optimization tools prevent overstocking and reduce holding costs.
- For Agile Supply Chains: Real-time analytics and demand forecasting help businesses adapt quickly to shifting market trends.
- For Sustainable Supply Chains: Increff’s supply chain visibility tools help brands track product lifecycles, ensuring ethical and efficient sourcing.
Choosing the right supply chain strategy can be a game-changer for businesses looking to optimize operations and gain a competitive edge. Putting the right minds is essential in picking the supply chain strategy that works for your business, and combining it with a multichannel order management tool can ensure laser-focused inventory control and order fulfillment. Increff provides the technology and expertise to help companies refine their supply chain approach and achieve operational excellence.
Want to know more? Talk to our experts who’ll take you through which path is right for you and how you can get there!
