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Field Study: Global Supply Chains — Part 1
Investigating the current state and future of global e-commerce supply chains
This post is part of a five-part Field Study by Alpaca exploring the current state of global e-commerce supply chains and the opportunities we see ahead. Use these quick links to read the entire series: Part 1: Global Supply Chains, Part 2: Delivery, Part 3: Cross-Boarder, Part 4: Returns, Part 5: Conclusion.
If I told you that this Field Study was completed over a year ago in May 2021, would you believe that the key takeaways are truer today than they were then?
As I wrote about at the beginning of the year, #supplychainissues are at an all-time high and we are seeing first-hand how fragile our logistics networks are. 11% of goods globally are PHYSICALLY waiting on container ships at port — meaning they are not unloading, nor loading, nor… moving. This stat continues to blow my mind.
Setting the Stage
In 2020 and 2021, as a result of quarantine, factories as well as retailers cut capacity. Shipping companies assumed there would be a shipping downturn, so they waylaid ships to side line productive capacity. Instead, Chinese shipping lines were re-routed everywhere, full of PPE to places that didn’t have lots of goods to ship back (to LatAm, Africa, etc.). So shipping containers sat…
