How to optimize logistics flows and address supply chain challenges in food retail by 2025?
4 June 2025 by Edina GÁLFI
Supply chain management in large-scale retail is essential to ensuring product availability on store shelves—especially for fresh and frozen goods, which require strict cold chain control. The challenges of cold logistics are numerous, and optimizing supply chain processes remains a top priority for industry players.
According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), around 14% of the world’s food is lost before even reaching the market, amounting to $400 billion per year. The entire supply chain is affected—from producers to processors and distributors.
In this article, we’ll explore how supply chains work in large-scale retail, highlight best practices to reduce cold chain failures, and look at 2025 logistics trends in food distribution, with a particular focus on sustainability.
1. How does the supply chain work in large-scale retail?
Supply chain management involves overseeing the flow of dry, fresh, and frozen products from suppliers to the end consumer. This includes every stage, from harvest to plate.
Logistics flow in supermarkets and the supply chain
Supply chains in large-scale retail rely on complex, well-coordinated logistics flows—executed in very short timeframes. These flows include receiving, storage, order preparation, transportation, and the handling of returns and unsold items.
For fresh and frozen products, logistics must be tightly integrated with cold chain management, ensuring that goods arrive in optimal condition.
Key stages in the retail supply chain:
- Sourcing and ordering
Retailers place orders with suppliers based on market needs and consumption forecasts. Shelf restocking is therefore guided by estimated demand and sales cycles. - Receiving and storage
Products—especially perishables—are received in warehouses that must meet strict temperature standards. Rigorous checks ensure that items arrive in good condition and are stored properly. - Order preparation
After reception, products are sorted and prepared according to each store’s needs. This includes inventory management, product rotation (first in, first out), and delivery planning. - Delivery
Prepared goods are transported to stores in refrigerated trucks or insulated containers to preserve the cold chain all the way to the shelf. - In-store stock management
Once in the store, products must be shelved as quickly as possible, following storage and rotation standards—though specific practices may vary by retailer.
What are the core supply chain processes?
Supply chain processes must be:
- Responsive
- Flexible
- Compliant
One of the main goals is to ensure product availability on shelves while minimizing stockouts.
Here are some solutions to improve supply chain efficiency in large-scale retail:
- Demand forecasting
Accurate demand planning is crucial. This involves forecasting tools and inventory management software that analyze consumption trends, promotions, and seasonal events. Stock must be optimized to avoid both surplus and shortages—especially for sensitive items like frozen goods, fresh products, and medicines. - Cold chain management
Maintaining the cold chain is essential for product quality and safety. This requires precise temperature control at every step—warehouse, transport, and store. - Monitoring and traceability
Technologies like temperature sensors and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions allow real-time monitoring of products throughout the supply chain. This traceability helps maintain optimal service levels—ensuring products stay at the right temperature and allowing quick intervention when needed.
Traceability is a key tool for ensuring product quality and consumer safety.
Optimizing supply chain processes helps reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, and minimize stockouts. For temperature-sensitive goods and products with short shelf lives, optimization is even more critical.
2. How to anticipate future trends and challenges in the sector?
The retail sector is constantly evolving, with new challenges emerging to meet consumer expectations and regulatory requirements. Companies must adapt to a rapidly changing environment and prepare for future demands—especially in terms of sustainability, logistics innovation, and technology.
Sustainable logistics in retail
Sustainability has become a top priority for many retail companies. Cold logistics, in particular, is often criticized for its environmental impact. Optimizing logistics processes helps reduce that impact while improving operational efficiency.
Solutions such as Olivo insulated containers contribute to more sustainable logistics by offering thermal autonomy without relying on energy-consuming refrigeration units. These containers keep temperatures stable for several hours, reducing energy use and the carbon footprint of transport.
What if you could lower costs while adopting greener logistics?
2025 retail supply chain trends
D’By 2025, several trends will shape the evolution of retail supply chains. Key challenges—like cold chain management, stock control, and flow optimization—will be central to business strategies.
- Automation and robotics
Automating warehouses and order preparation processes—with the help of robotics—will speed up operations and reduce human error. - Traceability and IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) and real-time traceability will allow even finer supply chain control. Connected sensors will be essential to ensure cold chain continuity and guarantee product quality at every stage.
To be effective, it’s important to focus on the most relevant data: temperature, location, door openings, and alerts. Gathering too much unnecessary information can make it harder to make quick decisions. A structured approach helps turn data into real operational value.
- Multimodal transport and cost reduction
Multimodal transport—combining road, rail, sea, etc.—is expected to expand, helping reduce logistics costs and increase flexibility. Paired with Olivo’s insulated containers, this strategy will enable more efficient transportation of perishables.
Beyond operational benefits, multimodal transport encourages the pooling of merchant flows between multiple players, helping reduce costs and optimize resources. This collaborative mindset supports the emergence of collective logistics intelligence, increasingly sought after to meet both economic and environmental challenges.
How to master supply chain management and optimize cold logistics?
Large-scale retail supply chains depend on fluid, responsive, and precisely synchronized logistics, especially for temperature-sensitive goods. To keep products available on shelves while minimizing waste and extra costs, several key levers can be activated:
- Anticipating needs using forecasting tools based on historical consumption data and real-time trends allows more accurate stock adjustments and avoids stockouts.
- Cold chain continuity, supported by agile, robust insulated transport solutions like Olivo containers, ensures product quality at every stage—from the logistics hub to the store.
- Prioritizing critical products (short shelf-life, high turnover, or high value) helps structure logistics flows around the most sensitive items.
- Using multimodal transport and pooling resources across multiple players promotes cost-sharing and a more sustainable, collaborative logistics model.
These pillars help retailers boost overall supply chain performance while meeting new sustainability and customer satisfaction expectations.
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