CHALLENGES: WHICH TRANSPORTATION/LOGISTICS CHALLENGES ARE MOST CRITICAL TO YOUR CUSTOMERS?
Although cost is always a major concern, as freight rates have leveled o, shippers have spent a bit less time worrying about what they spend. In 2023, 78% of logistics IT vendors told us that cost reduction is a critical challenge for their customers. While that still puts cost at the top of the list, it’s a smaller percentage than in 2022, when 94% of respondents cited cost as a major concern. Even as far back as 2019, 85% of vendors said that the need to cut costs was keeping customers awake at night. So at least some shippers are feeling relief in that department. Visibility remains the second-biggest concern for companies that use logistics IT: 74% of vendors mention that as a critical challenge. Sixty-one percent of respondents mention capacity, but that’s a significant drop from 2022, when 81% of IT vendors named that as a major concern. In addition, fewer customers are worried about enabling employees to work from home. Just 12% of IT vendors note that as a concern in 2023, vs. 21% in 2022, when the world was still figuring out how the post-pandemic workplace would look. Another striking change in recent years concerns sustainability. In 2019, just 17% of IT vendors said this was a critical concern for their customers. In 2023, that number has risen to 32%.
Cost reduction 78% Visibility 74% Capacity 61% Transport optimization 59% Data management 55% Customer service/CX 45% Ecommerce/omnichannel enablement 41% Compliance 38% Labor 37% Inventory management 36% Sustainability/social responsibility 32%
Demand forecasting 30% Growth management 29% Vendor management 26% Risk management 25% Security 24%
Global expansion 20% Work from home 12% Supply chain asset redeployment 11%
April 2023 • Inbound Logistics 57
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