Retail resilience checklist

Organisations are increasingly relying on complex supply chains to deliver services efficiently and cost-effectively. Some industry sectors such as retail, automotive, healthcare to name just a few, are built on their supply chains and many organisations across all sectors, are choosing to outsource functions and services to streamline operations and focus on their core capabilities.

In both scenarios, the added exposure to third-party risks needs to be identified and managed. When critical functions are managed externally, it becomes more challenging to ensure they are delivered efficiently, and in a resilient manner that protects your business. The key question is: how confident are you, that your supply chain relationships can support your business without disruption?

Why supply chain resilience is gaining regulatory attention

Regulatory bodies are increasingly scrutinising supply chain risk. Factors driving this focus include evermore complex interconnected networks, an increase in customer expectations in terms of increased flexibility and shorter timescales, and an upsurge in wider and global on and off-line disruptions. Businesses are still ultimately accountable for the performance and security of the services delivered by third parties. While outsourcing can help reduce internal workloads and operational costs, responsibility for risk mitigation stays firmly in-house.

As supply chains become more layered, it’s vital to have a clear process for evaluating and managing third-party dependencies, especially as these suppliers face their own set of vulnerabilities.

1. What supply chain resilience means

Definition

Supply chain resilience is your organisation’s ability to absorb shocks, respond quickly, and maintain continuity when disruption hits.

What it involves

It’s about predicting potential issues, adapting in real time, and bouncing back fast when the unexpected happens.

Why it matters

Resilient supply chains reduce lost revenue, limit operational costs, support customer retention, and protect brand trust.

2. Why supply chain resilience has become business-critical

Constant disruption

Events like COVID-19, extreme weather, and political tensions have exposed the fragility of global supply chains. Resilience is not a “nice to have”, it’s an organisational necessity.

Operational advantage

Firms that maintain flow during disruption can gain market share and outperform slower-moving rivals.

Long-term cost savings

Minimising downtime and avoiding last-minute fixes reduces long-term costs, even if it means higher up-front investment.

Customer expectations

Customers expect consistency. Reliable delivery strengthens loyalty and increases repeat business, and your ability to continue to deliver even in tough conditions, can set you apart from your competitors, win over new business and increase your market share.

3. What you can do to deliver supply chain resilience in practice:

We recommend that you follow this comprehensive 8-point checklist as a journey – it’s not intended to be a one-off tick-box exercise:

1. Supplier diversification: Work with multiple suppliers across different geographies to reduce exposure to any single failure point. This includes developing relationships with one or more backup suppliers of critical services, so that you have pre-vetted alternative providers ready to step in at short notice to reduce exposure if your primary provider encounters problems.
2. End-to-end visibility: Track activity across your full supply chain, including second- and third-tier suppliers, to spot risks early.
3. Pinpoint weak spots: Audit your supply chain to flag risks, like sole-source suppliers, congested ports, or fragile IT systems. Then take action to address these! It’s also wise to evaluate each of your key suppliers’ own resilience, not just in relation to your needs. You need to know that they have a resilience approach and do not have inherent risks that are harder to relate directly to services they deliver to you. Do they have contingency plans in place internally? Can they continue their business operations during a crisis? By aligning your own business continuity planning with those of your key suppliers, you build a stronger, more adaptive supply chain.
4. Operational agility: Make sure you can move quickly to switch suppliers, reroute shipments, or shift production when conditions change. Prioritising agility over cost-savings in your supply chain to maintain continuity of your operations, is key.
5. Strong partnerships: Build trust and alignment with suppliers and logistics partners. Open lines of communication make response faster and more effective. Specifically, share data, discuss risk mitigation, and build shared contingency plans.
6. Smart tech upgrades: Adopt tools that give you real-time data, automate processes, and improve communication across your network., for example AI, automation, machine learning, blockchain, and digital twins to improve your forecasting, speed up decisions, and gain insight into supply chain dynamics.
7. Scenario planning: Develop detailed response plans for likely disruptions. Develop fallback strategies with alternative suppliers, routes, production lines. Then test and update them regularly.
8. Measure and refine: Track the performance of your resilience efforts. Adapt your strategy based on what works, what doesn’t as well as what changes. Get expert support from resilience and business continuity providers.

Staying ahead in a complex supply chain landscape

As global supply chains grow more complex, the risks associated with third-party dependencies increase in parallel. With regulators demanding greater transparency and control, businesses must take proactive steps to shore up resilience.

By identifying high-risk suppliers, embedding resilience into supplier management processes, and maintaining open lines of communication, organisations can reduce the impact of potential disruptions. Effective supplier risk management isn’t just good governance; it’s a strategic priority for long-term business continuity.

Support to strengthen your supply chain

Creating and maintaining a resilient supply chain can be a challenge, but you don’t have to face it alone.

Our team can help you conduct a comprehensive business impact analysis, mapping your key suppliers and assessing the criticality of their services. Using our powerful Shadow-Planner platform, we can automate this process or guide you through it manually, whichever suits your environment.

Take a proactive next step towards better supply chain resilience

As part of our managed services offering, we carry out third-party supplier Business Continuity Management (BCM) assessments. This gives you assurance that your external partners are prepared for disruptions - so their disruptions won’t become yours!

Your practical guide to identifying continuity gaps and building operational resilience across your business.

Retailers are facing increasing pressure to stay operational, despite disruptions ranging from supplier delays and POS failures to staffing shortages and cybercrime. The retail resilience checklist is designed to help you take stock of your current continuity readiness and uncover where improvements are needed.

You’ll assess six core areas:

• Operational resilience planning
• Multi-site risk mitigation
• Supply chain continuity
• Workforce readiness
• Scenario testing and compliance
• Software capabilities to support execution

Each section includes key questions and actionable insights to evaluate your preparedness and helps you understand what is required in planning for resilience. In addition to this, each point explains where modern business continuity management (BCM) software can help. This approach means that the following guide also serves a secondary purpose. It provides useful information on what to look for when selecting BCM planning software.

Whether you’re responsible for a single store or a nationwide chain, this checklist helps you move from reactive recovery to proactive resilience.

Operational resilience planning

• Have you identified your minimum viable company (MVC)?
  Your BCM software should offer structured tools and templates to help you define your most critical services and systems, so you can focus on what truly matters during a disruption.
• Do you have tested processes for service continuity?
  BCM software should include automated plan testing, version control, and scheduled reviews to keep continuity documents current and actionable.
• Have you mapped your key retail dependencies (e.g. PoS, logistics, payment platforms)?
  The right software platform should visually link interdependencies so you can quickly see how an incident in one area impacts others.
• Are continuity plans accessible and understood at all levels?
  Ensure the platform supports role-specific access and mobile-friendly playbooks so frontline staff know exactly what to do when disruption hits.

Multi-site retail risk mitigation

• Can you manage continuity centrally across multiple locations?
  Your BCM software should provide a real-time, centralised view of resilience plans across all sites, with drill-down capabilities for local variations.
• Are plans standardised yet store-specific?
  Look for software that has the ability to clone master templates while allowing local customisation to account for unique store layouts, risks, or operations.
• Do site managers have clear local playbooks and responsibilities?
  BCM software should support location-specific response workflows that can be deployed instantly when needed.

 Supply chain resilience

• Do you have visibility into supplier risk and alternatives?
  Effective continuity software should capture supplier information, track SLAs, and provide contingency planning features for supplier failure.
• Have you tested plans for logistics or supplier disruption?
  Ensure the software enables simulation and impact analysis to evaluate how supplier issues affect your operations.
• Can you track upstream issues and alert key stakeholders?
  Real-time alerts, workflows, and routing logic should be built-in to your software to ensure rapid escalation and team mobilisation.

Workforce readiness

• Are staff trained and aware of their continuity roles?
  Choose software that lets you assign tasks, manage training records, and automate role-based instructions.
• Do you have emergency communication workflows?
  Communication tools should be integrated into the software platform, allowing for fast updates via SMS, email, or app notifications.
• Have you identified essential vs. optional roles in a crisis?
  The software should allow tagging of critical personnel and offer visibility into resource gaps during emergencies.

Scenario testing and compliance

• Do you run simulations regularly?
  Your software should support configurable test scenarios, log outcomes, and help refine response procedures.
• Are plans aligned to industry regulations?
  Look for BCM software that has compliance support features aligned to BCI good practice
• Can you retain audit-ready records of actions and updates?
  Automatic logging of all plan changes, exercises, and responses is essential in your planning software, for both internal management and regulatory audits.

What to look for in BCM planning software:

Ensure your solution includes:

• Real-time visibility across all retail operations.
• Visual dependency mapping (systems, suppliers, sites).
• Mobile-friendly access for incident response.
• Integrated communication and response workflows.
• Scheduled plan reviews and automated testing.
• Dashboards for both central teams and local managers.
• Ability to send mass communications out in an emergency

Why Shadow-Planner?

Shadow-Planner is purpose-built for modern retail resilience.
Unlike traditional BCM tools, Shadow-Planner combines intelligent automation and streamlined continuity management to help your business stay operational through any disruption.

With Shadow-Planner, you get:

• Instant staff notifications and role-based tasking.
• Visual playbooks delivered to frontline teams.
• Seamless integration with your operational and IT systems.
• Proven success with retailers managing dozens to hundreds of locations.

Shadow-Planner puts resilience in motion, not on a shelf.