There’s an ecosystem that makes the world run regarding the consumer and corporate worlds, and you can get a thorough understanding of how it works through supply chain statistics.

When you look at it from a global view, the supply chain comes with many different facets to make it work.

Covid-19 caused years of issues as the supply chain market was turned upside down across every corner of the world.

For example, 38.8% of small businesses in the United States experienced delays in their supply chain due to the pandemic.

To provide some insight into the impact this can cause, 90% of merchandise worldwide is shipped by sea.

Supply chain issues in recent years have caused delays that lasted from weeks to months.

The supply chain market as a whole is a lot more convoluted than most people understand.

In this article, you’ll get a comprehensive look at statistics in the supply chain industry and how they’ve changed over time.

Post Contents

0.1 Key Statistics

1 Supply Chain Statistics in 2024: What is the Supply Chain Market?
2 An Overview of Supply Chain Statistics
3 The Bottom Line

Key Statistics

69% of organizations don’t have full visibility of their entire supply chain
The supply chain market is expected to see a CAGR of 11.2% from 2020 through 2027
The value of the global supply chain market is roughly $15.85 billion
41% of supply chain professionals feel data analysis to be a top priority
Only 12% of retailers worldwide mentioned heavy disruption in their supply chain thanks to the events of the pandemic

Supply Chain Statistics in 2024: What is the Supply Chain Market?

To help summarize the supply chain market, it consists of a network of companies all over the world that work together in one way or another.

The entire process is generally involved in the production and delivery of products and services.

You’ll find that there are many different components to the supply chain market, some of which include warehouses, producers, vendors, transportation companies, and more.

On top of that, the market is responsible for numerous functions such as product development, operations, finance, and customer service, to name a few.

Supply chains are important from a local, national, and global perspective.

It’s a vital market that connects people and businesses from all over the world.

With effective supply chain management, businesses and customers can experience lower costs and faster production of goods and services.

Nowadays, we’re in an interesting time where supply chain statistics will look quite different before and after the pandemic came about.

An Overview of Supply Chain Statistics

You can get caught up on the current state of the supply chain market by reviewing pre-covid statistics and the most current data that’s available.

Before Covid-19, the global supply chain was in relatively good shape.

As soon as Covid came around, the whole industry came to a halt, which affected every nation on the planet.

The following statistics will be broken down into pre-covid and post-covid categories.

Pre-Covid Stats

A few years back, around 70% of professionals in the supply chain industry thought that the market would be a key component of improved customer service down the road.

From a business perspective, 57% of organizations felt that supply chain management gave them a leading edge to push their business objectives forward.

Spending in the supply chain market also saw a noticeable increase in 2018, and there were a few core factors that played into this.

Factors that Increased Supply Chain Spending	% They Accounted For
Cutting costs	25%
SCM automation	25%
Market expansion	23.7%
Data and analytics	6.6%
Customer service	4%
Adding new talent	4%
eCommerce	2.6%
Direct-to-consumer sales	2.6%
Mobile enabled consumers	1.3%

Priorities during this era were pretty clear.

In 2018, the main priorities for supply chain companies included improvements in service quality, investment in data analytics, and performance management.

Customer service was a big focus during this time as 30% of industry professionals felt a quick response to customer mandates is a main priority for business.

Post-Covid Statistics

Once 2020 came around, the state of the supply chain market changed overnight.

The pandemic caused massive disruption all across the world.

Everyone involved in the supply chain felt these effects, from businesses and employees all the way down to the consumers.

However, it wasn’t all bad for every business or industry.

32% of retailers all over the world reported little disruption due to covid.

Roughly 12% of global retailers mentioned a heavy disruption in their supply chain.

56% of organizations renegotiated contracts with those in the supply chain.

Even with renegotiating, 64% of retailers were forced to focus on eCommerce to stay afloat and still connect with their customer base.

In the midst of the pandemic, 28% of businesses did their best to find alternative options to source their supply chain needs.

28% also dealt with extreme shortages, with many products being out of stock for extended periods of time.

Even with the disruptions in the supply chain market, it’s still expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.2% between 2020 and 2027.

(FinancesOnline)

1. Growth of the Supply Chain Market

If you look at growth predictions for 2022 to 2032, the supply chain management sector of the market is on track to grow at a CAGR of 10.9%.

It’ll also see its market value increase to over $41 billion by 2032.

There are a few key factors that play into the growth of this sector in the market.

Some of these catalysts include:

Technological advancements
Increase in supply and demand
The use of supply chain services
Investments
And more

Another sector of the supply chain market, the Transportation Management System (TMS), will see a growth in CAGR of 11.7% between 2021 and 2028.

This sector’s market value is expected to increase from $120.7 billion to roughly $261.89 billion by the time 2028 rolls around.

It’s also interesting to note that the Global Logistics Automation market has the highest CAGR out of any sector in the supply chain industry.

By 2028, this sector could see its CAGR increase to 12.4%, which would take its market size from $50.9 billion to $82.3 billion.

(AlliedMarketResearch/Zippia)

2. Changes in Supply Chain Visibility

Keeping an eye on every aspect of the supply chain industry can be relatively difficult for any business.

Due to this, you’ll find a wide variety of statistics regarding visibility in the market and how they’ve changed before and after the Covid pandemic.

A majority of businesses across the world don’t have full visibility of their supply chain, and this generally leads to a number of issues.

While some issues with visibility are ongoing, some others have a direct correlation to the effects of the pandemic.

However, most of the following statistics will focus on supply chain issues before the pandemic.

It’s reported that only 22% of organizations have a proactive supply chain network.

Data taken from businesses all over the world show that supply chain visibility differs quite a bit, and you can get more information on percentages in the list below.

62% of companies have limited visibility
15% only have visibility on the production level
Only 6% report full visibility of their supply chain
17% have worked on extending their supply chain visibility

Organizations use a variety of KPIs to monitor the supply chain market from different angles.

The list below details what these KPIs are, including how important they are to supply chain visibility.

Daily performance = 40%
Cost reduction = 35%
Production service rate = 29%
Inventory turn = 28%
Production time = 27%

There are many other KPIs, but many industry professionals deem these to be some of the most important.

It’s no secret that many nuances play into what might disrupt or negatively affect the supply chain industry.

Statistics can show us some of the top disruptors in the industry.

These can affect supply chain visibility and every individual, employee, and business in the supply chain market.

Major disruptors in the U.S. supply chain industry include:

IT outages = 68%
Adverse weather = 62%
Loss of talent = 51%
Cyber attacks = 50%
Fires = 44%

You have to consider that the supply chain market is global, and goods and services have to travel many miles to reach the customer in many cases.

This is why weather and fires are such a concern, as adverse weather can instantly put a stop to a cog in the supply chain.

(FinancesOnline)

3. Unique Facts About Industry Trends and Predictions

There are so many layers to the supply chain market that it’d be nearly impossible to cover every statistic.

Although this is true, there are many details that stand out as they affect the market as a whole.

Shockingly, 63% of organizations don’t use any technology to keep track of their supply chain performance.

This alone could be a key factor in disruptions, as tracking everything manually can be a nightmare.

Roughly half of all manufacturing supply chains became capable of direct-to-consumer shipments and home delivery by the end of 2020.

Moreover, businesses that operate with an optimal supply chain experience numerous benefits.

Some of these include:

Less than 50% of inventory holdings
Cash-to-cash cycles are 3x faster
Supply chain costs lower by 15%

When it comes to B2C e-commerce companies, it’s known that delivery costs are some of the biggest financial challenges they face.

This is approved by 24.7% of supply chain professionals, as they see many e-commerce companies hemorrhaging money through delivery costs alone.

Although delivery costs are one of the biggest challenges in the B2C e-commerce supply chain, it’s far from the only one.

Other B2C e-commerce supply chain hurdles include the following:

Managing inventory = 7.8%
Keeping pace with consumer demands = 6.5%
Streamlining online sales = 6.5%
Managing delivery options = 6.5%
Working with logistics partners = 2.6%
Coordinating suppliers = 1.3%

This is merely one industry, and you can see the number of challenges they find when it comes to managing the supply chain.

Considering shipping and transportation are a large part of the supply chain market, it’s important to take a look at particular statistics in this area as well.

(Invespcro)

4. Shipping and Transportation Statistics

Global transportation of goods isn’t an easy feat, no matter how you look at it.

TMS was heavily affected when the pandemic started, but it’s still moving forward in a strong direction.

Current and future statistics remain healthy for TMS, even after dealing with the height of Covid for a few years.

12% of the global GDP goes to transportation and logistics activities.

Although transportation incurs quite a bit of cost, it also churns a substantial amount of profit.

74% of supply chain companies use roughly five different transportation methods, which range from large trucks to air freight carriers.

It might come as a shock that only 35% of shipping companies make use of TMS for their SCM strategies.

Even with discrepancies and unforeseen events in the supply chain market, the market share for TMS is projected to reach $4.8 billion before 2025.

Although industries like this will always experience ups and downs, experts are working to find ways to improve resilience in transportation in logistics.

There are many different plans in place to make such improvements, but there are a few that currently take priority among industry professionals.

Methods for improving resilience in transportation and logistics include:

Dual sourcing raw materials = 53%
Increase inventory of critical products = 47%
Nearshoring and expanding supplier base = 40%
Regionalize supply chains = 38%
Reduce the number of SKUs in product portfolios = 30%

There are many more ideas I could add to this list, but these are currently taking priority regarding logistics in the supply chain industry.

Another aspect of the industry that affects every other angle pertains to inventory management.

Even with the help of technology, inventory is something where mistakes happen all the time.

It also doesn’t take much for a mistake in inventory management to cause a ripple effect and cause disruptions down the supply chain pipeline.

5. Stats on Inventory Management

Managing inventory can look a lot different depending on the size of the company.

It can be relatively easy to manage inventory in a small business, but the same can’t be said for larger corporations.

It can be easy for numbers to slip through the cracks, and the slightest miscommunication can cause confusion for everyone across the board.

Then there’s the category of organizations that don’t track their inventory at all.

It’s known that roughly 43% of small businesses don’t track any of their inventory, and 21% mention they don’t hold any inventory.

With small business owners who do track inventory, 24% of them use software like Quickbooks to manage it all.

A proactive supply chain network can make everyone’s job a lot easier, but it isn’t so common among businesses. Only 22% are known to have an active supply chain network.

To help summarize the term, a proactive supply chain network means the end-user can generally track any change in supply or demand.

They always have their eyes on the process, and this usually leads to better customer satisfaction.

In the United States, the retail industry only has a supply chain accuracy of 63%, which means there are a lot of delays and issues with re-stocking products.

An example of a problem that can stem from this is that 34% of businesses have shipped some orders late due to selling a product that was never in stock in the first place.

Based on data taken from 2020, the estimated value for out-of-stock items during that year was $1.14 trillion.

(Zippia)

6. Technology Used in the Supply Chain Market

As you might expect, technology plays a significant role in the supply chain market’s ability to function.

There are honestly more technologies involved than I could possibly discuss, but industry experts have their sights set on a few that are currently taking priority.

Some of the most important technologies for the supply chain market include:

Data analysis = 41%
IoT = 39%
Cloud computing = 39%
Info security = 31%

Technology has also proven to bring in its fair share of revenue.

Industry professionals projected that global software revenue in the supply chain market would reach $8.5 billion in 2022.

Of course, it’s expected to increase from there as software solutions become increasingly important.

Half of the industry seems to believe that software is a vital component, as 50% of organizations find it to have a strong impact across the board.

Taking a data-driven approach to this industry is necessary to keep it running as smoothly as possible.

The statistics for data-driven supply chain management are there but keep in mind these numbers are relevant to the pre-pandemic era.

A little over 40% of organizations are confident that data analytics will be one of the top technologies in supply chain management over the next two years.

Aside from that, 28% of leaders in the supply chain analyzing data from multiple systems is vital to advanced analytics.

Reducing costs is an ongoing battle, and 81% of managers in the industry feel utilizing data analytics will be a key component in this challenge.

Before the end of 2019, roughly 75% of large manufacturers were looking to update their supply chain operations with the help of analytics-based situational awareness and IoT.

7. Software Projections for Supply Chain Management

On the horizon, you can expect software to become more integrated with the supply chain industry as a whole.

Simply put, the top five markets for this sector of the supply chain industry are in some of the biggest countries in the world.

The following data were projections made for 2021.

United States – $8.6 billion
Germany – $885 million
United Kingdom – $847 million
Japan – $824 million
China – $737 million

Software regarding supply chain management is an expansive need in the industry, and it’s bound to pull its own weight in revenue.

Aside from new technology and process developments, new investments will also be a core component regarding improvement in the supply chain market.

(FinancesOnline)

8. Where are Investments Going?

Industry leaders are looking for the right areas to put their money for new investments in the supply chain.

There are quite a few areas that need substantial work, while other investments are merely in place for the sake of being proactive.

Nevertheless, the table below highlights some of the most prominent investments made toward retail supply management in 2021.

Investment Area	Percentage of Investments
Omnichannel fulfillment	58.6%
Productive planning and demand forecasting	55.73%
Enable flexible operations	52.87%
Improve inventory management	48.52%
Real-time supply chain visibility	40.02%
Integrated operational planning	40.02%
Automate risk identification and issue resolution	37.15%
Production and distribution automation	31.52%

Each of these is guaranteed to make many improvements, but the supply chain industry is a rabbit hole of needs.

Many more areas will see their own improvements down the road, but those listed above are crucial to bounce back from what the world experienced during the pandemic.

Investments aren’t a fix-all solution, of course, but they can facilitate change, as it gives those on the ground floor resources to adapt and improve processes moving forward.

Once again, these numbers were taken from reports for 2021, and they’re bound to adjust with each passing year.

Nevertheless, all of these areas still need work in 2023, as the world is still experiencing supply chain issues that were caused back in 2020.

The investment areas mentioned above aim to cover different levels of the supply chain market.

This is in hopes that they’ll benefit from each others’ advancements and make for a more fluid and cohesive process from beginning to end.

Overall, improvements are being made with investment dollars or not, as the industry as a whole was forced to adapt and overcome due to Covid-19.

(FinancesOnline)

The Bottom Line

Far from a simple industry, supply chain management will never be perfect, but it can come close.

This is what many industry professionals are working toward, and these statistics show that the industry is being optimized as time moves on.

There’s always the possibility that another global event significantly disrupts the supply chain, but the best we can do now is make it stronger than it has ever been.

In this article, you received a thorough yet concise look at supply chain statistics that highlight numerous realities about the industry’s past, current, and future state.