Retailers’ vacation stock planning has been fraught with disagreeable supply-chain surprises for 2 straight years. This yr’s reward: Issues are again to regular.
In 2021, delivery delays meant retailers didn’t have sufficient stuff on their cabinets to fulfill demand. And final yr, scarred by these experiences, retailers made the error of over-ordering merchandise—sending their cabinets overflowing and forcing them to promote items at margin-eroding reductions. A basket of shops within the S&P 500 noticed working margins fall to 4.4% within the fourth quarter of 2022, down from 5.6% a yr earlier.
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