The collapse in the supply chain is already affecting in stores the main distribution companies operating in Spain.
Some recognize punctual problems in the stock of some products, especially those coming from Asia, which is where the jam is on maritime transport in ports.
IKEA is already having problems with some accessories and the English cut and rationa the purchase of high demand products such as video consoles, to avoid speculation.
Meanwhile, the global giants of the ecommerce, Amazon and Aliexpress, have reinforced their powerful logistics (have aircraft and boats) to overcome this bottleneck.
In the case of IKEA, it has 70% of products that comes from Europe, the problem is with those that come from Asia and that “can be found basically in accessories”.
In some stores in Madrid, scarce items such as bath curtains or baskets for clothing, which can not be replaced until mid-December.
These companies plan their orders well in advance and many of them have most of their production in Spain.
Despite this, from IKEA they admit “interruptions in the supply chain of the entire industry that also affect the IKEA value chain.”
“The global offer remains the same, but the availability of our products can vary between the different markets and even between the different stores of the same country,” explain.
“Given the continuous volatility and limitations of the supply chain, we are focused on ensuring availability in our best-selling products and ensuring that the most relevant products of the season or special moments in the year are available to our customers,” add
.
At Leroy Merlin point out that the fact of working with Spanish suppliers minimizes the problem.
Also, work for months in advance in provisioning planning, pointing from Leroy.
The problems can come with the products that come from Asia, such as heavy health (unnodorous, washbasins.) And taps.
The Christmas decoration items “were already purchased in the spring”, although this bottleneck goes back a long before, “it has now exploited and it catches us supplied.”
In some web pages, such as El Corte Inglés, the purchase of video consoles is limited to a unit per order and customer and many models are exhausted in stores and online sites, such as Amazon itself.
In the first case, it is intended to avoid tangling on the part of people who then want to sell these more expensive products.
Those who face this global problem from another angle are the global giants of ecommerce as Amazon or Aliexpress, because they have their own logistics.
Amazon counts, for example, with a fleet of 85 aircraft around the world, which is almost comparable to that of some airlines.
Its Chinese Aliexpress competitor opened last summer a new international air transport path that allows to accelerate the average delivery times between China and Europe in more than 30%.
He has done it through his logistics arm, Cainiao.
Amazon has also duplicated the capacity in ports to reinforce maritime transport, which is where it is a large part of the collapse.
In addition, they have predictive technology, which allows them to anticipate the demand and adjust the supply according to it.
“Our teams and systems constantly evaluate what we believe will want to buy our customers and work with our commercial collaborators to ensure that we have stocks so that we can provide an excellent shopping experience. That, there is no reason to delay shopping until the last moment
And get great offers, “says a spokesman for the company.
From Aliexpress, they explain that the products sent through this new route from China reach the consumers of key European markets of Aliexpress, such as Spain and France.
They charted an average of 80 flights a week, allowing us to guarantee now a maximum of 10 working days of delivery for transboundary orders made from Spain of hundreds of thousands of different products.
They have also opened three stores in the vicinity of Madrid, which allows them to have in stock millions of units of tens of thousands of different products from international sellers.
