Suppliers overestimate consumer trust in the supply chain

Pretty much every consumer has dealt with a late, lost, or damaged package. Supply chain disruptions peaked in 2021 and, for the most part, have improved, but that doesn’t mean shoppers still don’t have trust issues.

A Deloitte survey recently found that suppliers vastly overestimate consumer trust in supply chains. The data shows that executives from leading suppliers overestimate that trust by as much as 25% when it comes to reliability. (On average, the gap when it comes to overall trust is 20%.)

• But these suppliers still acknowledge that supply-chain issues, although improved, still  persist: 77% of executives said they have experienced “an adverse supply chain event” in the past year, and 44% predict more volatility in the next two years.
• Among the chief concerns for suppliers are price volatility (46%), market instability/inflation (44%), and materials shortages (42%).

“Trusted relationships are often critical to supply chain performance,” the report reads. “However, while trust is deemed important in boardrooms and in the C-suite, insufficient attention is often being paid to this topic today.”

The top suppliers, per Deloitte, prioritize trust indicators such as reliability and predictability of their supply chains and were 2.5x more likely to have reached a 15% higher annual growth rate over the past year.

• Also, they were 1.6x more likely to report being resilient against shocks to their supply chain.

“C-suite executives should maintain and grow trust in their supply chain to help mitigate operational risk, improve resilience, protect the brand, make strategic decisions, and enable growth,” the report said. “When trust is impaired, the damage usually cascades across the business ecosystem.”