You’ve probably noticed how almost every major online retailer has posted updates on their website warning customers they should expect shipping delays during this unprecedented time. Grocery stores have aisles of empty shelves where toilet paper and cleaning products would normally be—and global consumers feel a general unrest.

We decided to take a deeper look at the aggregate supply chain data using our platform Syncrofy, and do a little research of our own. Syncrofy provides visibility and exception management for supply chain execution, and we wanted to see the impact of the pandemic on supply chains.

EDI data is generally the first mode of communication from a supplier to let their customer know when they can expect the goods they ordered. We sampled purchase order acknowledgments (POAs) in Syncrofy from January 1st, 2019 to March 18th, 2019 and compared it to the same set and time period this year.

What we discovered was just what we suspected—the delays are real.

For the 2019 data set about 25% of the orders sampled were ready to ship at the time of acknowledgment while only 5% of the orders were ready to ship in 2020. By ready we mean they were acknowledged via EDI with a code of “AR” which means “Accepted and Ready to Ship.”

This decline in the share of orders which were ready to ship, combined with the uptick in orders in general, has many sellers and customers in a holding pattern as they wait for their items to get restocked. A task that is obviously happening at a much slower pace during this global health crisis.

We can all hope this pandemic is neutralized and the curve is flattened sooner, rather than later, so that our nation’s supply chains can resume business as usual. In the meantime, stay attentive to the responses your suppliers are sending via EDI!

To learn more about what insights Syncrofy can bring to your supply chain, visit www.coenterprise.com/syncrofy.

Stay safe everyone!