its estimated 22 million global customers. Bailey recently shared his perspective of how retail is being challenged by evolving tariffs on a panel at the World Retail Congress in London.  From his perspective, this time period of immense trade disruption is a great opportunity for retailers if they switch from the defence to the offence. History repeats itself The US-imposed tariffs and evolving trade war is not the first time the retail industry has had its supply chain disrupted – the pandemic already tested the grit of retailers and can be viewed as a case study for how to overcome unpredictable global trade disruptions. “I think we were in a world [before Covid-19] where we focused on one supply chain to service all geographies,” Bailey explained. “I think we have a choice now, as in the brands or retailers, to diversify our sourcing base over time, which will take time,” he added. “It will take years or months to find or buy great supplies to new geographies, to build the capabilities of those geographies, and to find economics that make all of that viable.” Anko has been working for well over a decade on digitising and simplifying its design  process through to ordering, manufacturing, shipping and distribution. Bailey recommends that retailers should consolidate in the sourcing markets they are already in – “going narrow and deeper,” he said – by finding new partners that will give them the ability to serve multiple geographies in a world that’s going to keep on changing. “I think if you want to be a successful business for the long run, then we really need to be thinking about having an operating model that can cope with those types of shocks,” Bailey said. Adapting and evolving Bailey believes there are two time horizons that retailers should be cognizant of when navigating the choppy global trade environment, the immediate and the long-term. “If you think about the immediate, I think there’s two really important things: Where do you source your products from and where do you sell them?,” Bailey questioned. “I know that sounds really obvious, but clearly, if you’ve got a very heavy indexation to China as a sourcing destination, and currently the US is where you’re selling those products, then you’re in a difficult position,” he elaborated. Bailey has identified different solutions that Anko is already exploring and he implores other retailers to look into. The first being to seek out alternate markets to the US that have a similar consumer demographic, like Australia. “I got more capacity in China, I’ve actually got the ability to probably do better deals than I had even before this, so therefore, I could use this as a short term opportunity in the Australian context,” Bailey revealed. The second solution is to lower or keep prices stagnant despite inflation in a bid to gain greater market share in the US. “I think it’s a very legitimate strategy… I’m sure some retailers are looking at that,” Bailey said. Ultimately, the trade disruption caused now by tariffs and previously the pandemic is a lesson in unpredictability that retailers are going to have to learn time and time again. “I think what this has taught us, again, is the world is probably going to have unpredictability about it – so therefore, let’s build our models for that, as opposed to, let’s build it the best case,” Bailey concluded. “This is a long term problem as an industry we need to figure out, how do we build those capabilities in other markets so that we do have optionality in the long run.”