📈#011: Demographic shifts reshaping supply chain you should know

Welcome to the second quarter of 2024, where Market Mosaic is committed to continuing to serve you with our cutting-edge market insights and international economic trends. 📈 It’s now an interesting time for us to engage you: In case you missed it, we are presently calling for contributors to our newsletter to seek diverse perspectives.

In this week’s edition, we dig into the key importance of supply chain agility amidst emerging market growth, explore how fintech platforms are reshaping supply chain financing, and analyze how demographic shifts are redefining supply chain priorities.

Let's dive into these insights together!

— Insights Team, Rwazi

Our Edition this week:

• Data Spotlight

• The Pulse

• Sector Scan

• Our Competitive Watch

DATA SPOTLIGHT
Supply chain agility key for capturing emerging market growth

Despite macroeconomic headwinds, consumer spending surged in emerging markets during Q1 2024. Our latest data analysis showed that Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia recorded double-digit year-over-year growth rates, far outpacing the modest gains seen in North America and Europe.

This divergence highlights the immense untapped potential in developing economies as their growing middle classes drive rising consumption. However, capitalising on these high-growth consumer markets will require global brands to build highly agile, tech-enabled supply chains.

Our analysis also indicates that logistical challenges like stockouts, delayed deliveries, and high return rates remain persistent pain points, especially in emerging Asia. Innovative last-mile solutions, cold chain investments, and integrated online-offline models will be crucial for e-commerce players to overcome these obstacles and meet evolving customer expectations.

Take the case of India, where e-commerce sales skyrocketed by 38% year-over-year in Q1. While the sheer size of the opportunity is attractive, complex infrastructure, fragmented supplier networks, and underdeveloped logistics have posed major challenges. Companies that can navigate this complexity and build resilient supply chain capabilities will be able to capture outsized growth.

Key Insights: Unlocking the full potential of emerging markets requires granular consumer insights and predictive supply chain analytics.

THE PULSE
Featured Chart: Projected global supply chain finance market size (2024-2027)

SECTOR SCAN
Fintech platforms are unlocking new supply chain financing avenues

The rapid ascent of homegrown fintech platforms, particularly in Africa and South Asia, is not just transforming how consumers access financial services — it's also opening new avenues for brands to optimise their supply chains.

Fintechs like Flutterwave, OPay, and Chipper Cash have achieved unicorn status by leveraging mobile money, micro-lending, and embedded finance to serve the continent's previously underbanked population. This fintech revolution is enabling seamless digital payments, working capital, and inventory financing at scale.

For consumer-facing companies, strategic partnerships with these innovative fintech players can unlock a wealth of granular consumer insights to drive more responsive procurement and distribution. Automatic invoice settlement, dynamic supplier credit terms, and predictive cash flow forecasting are just a few of the supply chain benefits these platforms can provide.

Take the example of a leading personal care brand expanding across Africa. By integrating its ERP with Flutterwave's embedded finance solution, the company gained real-time visibility into retailer stock levels, extended flexible payment terms to distributors, and improved forecast accuracy, boosting fill rates and working capital efficiency.

Key Insight: Looking ahead, investment in fintech leaders could yield high returns as they continue disrupting the traditional banking landscape and catalysing broader economic development across regions. Brands that forge strategic partnerships stand to reap significant supply chain optimisation dividends.

OUR COMPETITIVE WATCH
Demographic shifts redefine supply chain priorities

Profound demographic changes are reshaping consumer profiles and preferences worldwide - and supply chain strategies must adapt accordingly.

Rwazi's research indicates that Millennials and Gen Z now account for over 60% of the global population, wielding immense purchasing power. These younger generations exhibit markedly different consumption patterns, prioritising experiences, sustainability, and digital engagement over traditional goods.

Meeting their evolving needs will require highly responsive, tech-enabled supply chains. Real-time demand sensing, dynamic inventory optimisation, and integrated logistics networks will be critical capabilities. Take the surge in online grocery orders during the pandemic - leading retailers had to rapidly build out micro-fulfilment centres and autonomous delivery fleets to keep up with surging Millennial and Gen Z demand.

Meanwhile, rapidly ageing populations in developed economies present new opportunities in healthcare, senior living, and leisure travel - creating fresh supply chain imperatives around product customization, cold chain management, and last-mile delivery. Brands catering to these growing silver consumer segments must rethink their sourcing, production, and distribution strategies.

Key Insight: Understanding these nuanced demographic shifts and aligning supply chain strategies will be vital for companies to capitalize on tomorrow's consumer landscape. Predictive analytics and simulation modelling can help enterprises stress-test their logistics networks and get ahead of emerging trends.

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT RWAZI?
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Thank you for reading and joining us on Market Mosaic this week. We hope this edition provides valuable, actionable insights for deciding with data. 📊 

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