Retail supply chains are being rebuilt for mobility in 2026

Last spring, when tariffs were announced, manufacturers rushed to nearshoring, either to better
understand what it would entail or to execute plans already in motion. 

In fact, a Forbes survey found that only 7% of manufacturers were not discussing reshoring at the time. The frenzy around this approach has subsided, but companies are still trying to figure out how to navigate an economy that includes ever-changing domestic policies, unpredictable global relations, and unstable demand signals. The environment may be reminiscent in some ways of the chaotic days at the beginning of the pandemic, but the lessons learned from 2020 are coming back into play. Only this time, we are collectively approaching the disruption with more discipline and a laser focus on flexibility.
 

Now we know that disruption happens, and no amount of preparation can fully account for it. For years, supply chains were built around planning in the form of forecasting demand, optimizing cost, and locking in efficiency. But that model assumes a level of stability that no longer exists.
 

Today, the companies that will win aren’t the ones with the best plans. They’re the ones that can move the fastest when those plans are inevitably challenged. As a result, mobility is the next generation advantage.
 

Responsiveness is the new preparation
Supply chain resilience used to mean a lot of redundancy. Brands that had extra inventory, backup suppliers, and detailed SOPs could expect to weather the worst disruptions. In the early 2000s, Dell built its famously-reliable supply chain around this model, using supplier redundancy and component buffers to maintain consistent fulfillment.

In today’s environment, this model doesn’t hold up as well. In fact, one big box retailer used a similar approach in the midst of the pandemic, building up inventory to protect against supply disruptions. Unfortunately, the strategy was less effective than in the past, largely because consumer demand was rapidly shifting. It was left with excess stock, forcing markdowns and ultimately a 3% drop in stock value.
 

The best strategy in today’s market is to ensure you can sense disruption, make trade-offs, and re-route execution as quickly as possible. That’s because today’s disruptions are not one-dimensional. They are layered, with things like labor, weather, and geopolitics colliding at the same time.
 

Scenario planning still matters, but only when it is tied to early warning signals and decision autonomy at the right levels, so teams can act fast. For example, if carrier capacity begins to tighten, the response shouldn’t require escalation or debate. The playbook should already define acceptable actions like shifting modes, activating alternate carriers, rerouting to different facilities, or adjusting customer promise dates. The goal is to eliminate policy discussions in the middle of a disruption.
 

Planning isn’t about perfection anymore, it’s about being ready to move decisively in the first 24 to 72 hours.

The tradeoff
As essential as flexibility has become, it is not without cost. For example, multi-sourcing may reduce single points of failure, but it introduces differences in specifications, lead times, and pack configurations that create variability that has to be managed day to day. Even small inconsistencies can cause issues. 

A second supplier using different carton quantities or labeling can disrupt warehouse receiving or create compliance problems if processes are not tightly standardized. More suppliers also mean more onboarding, more coordination, and more exception handling.
 

At the network level, companies are moving toward more regionalized supply chains, through China-plus-one strategies in Asia or stronger Mexico-linked networks in North America. These shifts increase resilience, but they also introduce more nodes and more handoffs across the network.
 

Mobility creates options, but every option adds complexity that has to be actively managed. The next step has to be building the operational discipline to manage that complexity, by reducing variability and standardizing how partners connect and operate across the network. Without that foundation, flexibility quickly turns into friction, slowing down the very response it was meant to enable.
 

Speed requires visibility
In a more dynamic supply chain, speed depends on seeing issues early and acting before they escalate. Assessing supplier risk directly is often difficult, but operational signals provide an early window into potential problems. Changes in on-time, in-full performance, increasing lead time variability, rising expedite frequency, quality issues, and growing exception volume are often the first indicators that something is off and it’s time to act.
 

Real visibility doesn’t happen until you have clean, reconciled data across partners, from orders and advance ship notices to shipment status and invoicing. When that foundation is in place, AI can play a meaningful role by identifying patterns earlier, prioritizing the exceptions that matter, and reducing the manual coordination work that slows response times. Unstructured inputs like PDFs, emails, and portal-based orders have to be automated into standardized system transactions, or they create bottlenecks at exactly the wrong moment.
 

Most organizations have a strong understanding of their internal risks, but far fewer can execute quickly across partners when conditions change. That’s why an always-on operating layer is the next evolution. When you standardize how partners are onboarded and connected, continuously monitor execution against expectations, and route exceptions to resolution quickly, you keep your network moving, even when conditions don’t.
 

The shift is the point
Just a year ago, nearshoring was the dominant response to uncertainty. Today, it’s one of many options in a much more dynamic playbook. The rules are changing too quickly for any single strategy to make sense for long. Instead of committing to one path, we have to build supply chains capable of adapting as quickly as the conditions do. As supply chains become more connected, more responsive, and more intelligently coordinated, they are not just becoming faster. They are being built to withstand whatever comes next.

Mike Svatek is chief product officer of SPS Commerce.