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Wary of overstocking, US retailers have reworked their inventory strategy for this year’s holiday season:Big-box retailers such as Walmart and Target, and specialized stores such as Best Buy, are trimming their inventories ahead of the busy holiday shopping season, opting to zero-in their supply chains on products with high demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. Retail outlets spent a considerable part of this year working through overstocked inventories carried over from 2022.
Supply-chain flexibility is the new mantra: Buying trends are more unpredictable now than they were before the pandemic, global leader of the retail practice at consulting firm AlixPartners David Bassuk told WSJ. The volatility in consumer spending patterns has motivated executives to apply more adaptable inventory strategies. “What is driving our top line sales is our ability to keep our inventory fresh and clean,” Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Lauren Hobart said on a 21 November investors’ call. Macy’s executives are gearing their inventories to emphasize “variety versus redundancy,” president and CEO-elect Tony Spring said.
Holiday sales are expected to show muted growth this year: Retail sales for the 2023’s holiday season are expected to grow between 3-4% over 2022’s figures to between USD 957.3 bn and USD 966.6 bn, WSJ reports citing National Retail Federation projections. Holiday sales grew 5.3% y-o-y in 2022 to USD 936.3.
Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk has sold its remaining shares in Norwegian shipping firm Hoegh Autoliners, Reuters reports. Maersk, the second largest shareholder of Hoegh Autoliners, sold its 20 mn shares for NOK 90 (USD 8.3) a share. The shares accounted for 10.5% ownership and voting rights in the Oslo-listed company.
Dig deeper: The move comes as Maersk works to prepare for “challenging times ahead,” CEO of Maersk Vincent Clerc said during the company’s Q3 presentation in November. “Our industry is facing a new normal with subdued demand, prices back in line with historical levels and inflationary pressure on our cost base. Given the challenging times ahead, we accelerated several cost and liquidity-saving measures to safeguard our financial performance.”
The news got a lot of ink in: Reuters, Splash, Marine Link, and TradeWinds.
