In short
- Freight costs are rising and schedules are less reliable: DHL points to fuel volatility, port congestion and rerouting, and 72% of trade professionals now name U.S. tariff volatility the most impactful regulatory change, up from 41% a year earlier.
- Six moves protect your margins and availability: sharper demand forecasting, an ABC-based inventory split, fuller containers, regional sourcing where it pays off, supplier performance tracking and dynamic pricing.
- Together, they help your business absorb disruption instead of reacting to every delay.
What supply chain disruption looks like today
Two pressures are driving up costs and stretching lead times for European e-commerce and wholesale businesses at the same time.
Trade routes are under strain. According to DHL's freight market analysis, fuel volatility, port congestion and rerouting are raising ocean and air freight costs while weakening schedule reliability. DHL's view is that this disruption is no longer temporary.
Trade policy isn't settling down either. In the Thomson Reuters 2026 Global Trade Report, 72% of trade professionals named U.S. tariff volatility the most impactful regulatory change, up from 41% the year before. 76% expect U.S. tariffs to stay for at least the next four years, so absorbing or passing on these costs has become a normal part of running the business.
When routes shift, wait times spike and tariff rules change, your purchase orders land across a much wider window than before. The buffers that worked last year may no longer be enough.
What do longer delivery times and higher shipping costs mean for your business?
Higher shipping costs and unpredictable deliveries create problems that go well beyond logistics. Here's what's at risk if this continues:
- Inventory planning gets harder. When a shipment's arrival window stretches from days to weeks, your safety stock calculation changes. Buy too early and cash sits in stock; buy too late and you run out during peak demand.
- Cash flow takes the first hit. Higher freight costs are cash you pay out before your customers have paid you.
- Margins get squeezed. Freight, tariffs and surcharges compound fast. If you can't absorb them or pass them on without losing customers, thin margins can turn negative.
- Competitors with shorter lead times win the order. Customers rarely know why delivery is slow. They just order from whoever gets it there faster.
- Service problems compound. Delays lead to complaints, complaints lead to negative reviews, and unreliable delivery is harder to recover from than a price disadvantage.
Which 6 moves limit the impact of longer delivery times and higher shipping costs?
Purchasing and inventory management software like Optiply gives you the tools to limit the impact of supply chain disruption, wherever it comes from. These six moves work in practice.
1. Gain insight into customer demand
Inventory management software uses historical sales data to produce more precise demand forecasts. With accurate forecasts, you see seasonal and market-driven demand trends coming, so your purchasing decisions get sharper. When lead times are long and variable, that precision is what prevents both stockouts and overstock.
Fitwinkel saw this directly after switching to data-driven purchasing. Purchaser and Sales Manager Martijn Janssen described the shift: "The fact that Optiply makes the calculations, analyses the sales of recent years and can therefore make a prediction, that saves so much work for me. That time-saving is really the trigger. And it is also a lot less error-prone than our old way of working." When your lead times stretch by weeks, that kind of forecasting precision becomes essential.
2. Optimise your inventory
Not every product needs the same buffer. An ABC analysis segments your catalogue by revenue contribution, so you focus cash and attention on the products that actually drive your business. Fast movers get priority, while slow movers get leaner buffers. This balance matters more when purchase orders cost more and every euro in stock has to earn its place.
3. Reduce transportation costs
When shipping costs are high, partially filled containers are expensive. Purchasing software helps you analyse fill rates and align order volumes with container capacity. Fewer, fuller shipments cut both cost and complexity, and keep your cash flow in better shape.
4. Shorten your supply chain where you can
Ask whether every product you source internationally needs to come from far away. Regional suppliers in Europe often offer shorter lead times, lower freight costs and no tariff exposure. The unit price may be higher, but total landed cost can be competitive once shipping, delays and carrying costs are factored in.
Shorter doesn't automatically mean better, though. Optiply's Inventory Intelligence Index found that companies with long supply chains actually reach the highest service levels, because longer lead times force more disciplined forecasting and safety stock planning. Want to see how supply chain complexity affects inventory performance? Check out the Inventory Intelligence Index benchmark.
5. Improve your supplier management
Track lead times, on-time delivery rates and quality metrics per supplier. When disruptions hit, that data tells you immediately which suppliers are reliable and which are adding risk. It also gives you a basis to negotiate better terms, like deferred payment on delayed shipments, volume discounts or agreed alternative routing.
Tackle Group Europe shows what this looks like in practice. They grew revenue 20% while needing 3% less stock, gained 3% extra service level, and now have more than 90% of purchasing advice processed automatically.
Willem Bontrup, CEO and founder of Tackle Group Europe, puts it like this:
"We achieved 20% revenue growth and needed 3% less stock to make that growth possible. That means less capital is tied up in inventory."
In a more volatile supply chain, that kind of supplier insight and automation is what keeps your options open.
6. Choose dynamic pricing strategies
If your shipping costs move, your pricing should too. Integrating inventory management software with a pricing tool lets you update prices based on current landed cost, demand and competitor positioning, so you protect your margin without making manual pricing decisions every week.
Mastertools did exactly this by connecting Priceshape to Optiply, which gives the team real-time insight into its price position in the market. Combined with 92% automated purchasing, they cut their backorders in half.
Build a supply chain that can absorb disruption
Supply chain disruption has become structural. Routes get longer, costs climb, and trade policy shifts faster than most purchasing cycles can adapt to. Waiting for conditions to stabilise isn't a strategy, and for most businesses it hasn't been for some time.
Buying at the right time with accurate demand data, keeping your most important products in stock without over-investing in slow movers, and managing suppliers on performance data are what keep your products available and your margins intact.
Optiply turns your sales data into purchase orders automatically and recalculates safety stock as lead times shift, so your availability holds even when the supply chain doesn't cooperate. Book a 15-minute demo and we'll show you how to keep products available without increasing stock.
Frequently asked questions about supply chain disruption
How do I manage inventory when I can't predict when orders will arrive?
Work with a range instead of one fixed lead time. Inventory management software can build that variability into your safety stock calculations, so you carry enough buffer to cover late arrivals without tying up excess cash. The more performance data you track per supplier, the tighter that buffer can get.
Should I stop sourcing internationally to avoid supply chain risk?
Not necessarily, but review it product by product. For fast movers with predictable demand, a reliable European supplier at a slightly higher unit price can often work out cheaper overall than a distant supplier with a 10-week lead time and a wide uncertainty window.
How much safety stock should I hold if lead times keep changing?
There's no universal number. It depends on your demand variability and how volatile a specific supplier's lead time has become. Many teams build an extra buffer into their fastest-moving, highest-risk SKUs first, rather than raising safety stock evenly across the catalogue. An ABC analysis is the fastest way to decide where that buffer actually belongs.
Why do shipping costs keep going up even when my order volumes are stable?
Rates respond to available capacity, not just demand. Rerouted vessels, ships sailing slower to save fuel, and higher insurance on contested routes all reduce effective capacity even when nothing on your side has changed. That's why costs can rise even in a quiet demand period.
Does purchasing automation actually help with longer lead times, or just with the paperwork?
Yes, it changes the purchasing decision itself. Automation recalculates safety stock and reorder points as lead times shift, so purchase orders adjust to the new reality instead of running on old assumptions.
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