Transforming Supply Chain Risk: A Strategic Path to Resilience in Retail and Consumer Goods

Transforming Supply Chain Risk: A Strategic Path to Resilience in Retail and Consumer Goods
August 13, 2026 10 mins

Transforming Supply Chain Risk: A Strategic Path to Resilience in Retail and Consumer Goods

Transforming Supply Chain Risk: A Strategic Path to Resilience in Retail and Consumer Goods

Leading retail and consumer goods organizations are strengthening supply chain resilience through strategic risk management. This helps them navigate growing cyber, geopolitical and climate-related risks, turning uncertainty into a competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways
  1. Supply chain risks increasingly originate from enterprise-wide exposures, such as cyber, geopolitical and climate threats, requiring organizations to rethink how risk is assessed and managed.
  2. Many organizations continue to assess risks in silos, limiting their visibility to identify and manage interconnected exposures that can amplify disruption across the enterprise.
  3. Using data-driven intelligence, enhanced visibility and risk quantification, retail and consumer goods organizations can strengthen supply chain resilience and create competitive advantage.

The sensitive and complex nature of retail and consumer goods (R&CG) supply chains means many organizations are understandably reluctant to change strategies that appear to be working. However, last year, almost a third (30.6%) of R&CG organizations reported suffering a loss as a result of supply chain or distribution risks,1 signaling the urgency to shift strategies.

Instead of viewing risk in silos and reacting after disruptions occur, forward-thinking leaders are pivoting toward a more strategic, proactive approach to supply chain risks. By developing a holistic view of risk and applying advanced analytics and risk quantification tools, they are transforming supply chain risk from a vulnerability into a source of strategic advantage.

Where Interconnected Risks are Increasing Business Interruptions

Cyber Risks Pose an Immediate, Catastrophic Threat

The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber threats pose complex, pervasive risks to supply chain operations, with the interdependencies among evolving technologies only compounding these risks. Aon’s own cyber broking data found that supply chain issues contributed to 28.5% of reported cyber incidents in the U.S.,2 as attackers exploit the interconnected networks of suppliers, logistics partners and technology providers. Strengthening cyber resilience is critical to preventing the devastating impact of disruption and downtime in the wake of an attack, which can have far-reaching consequences on operations, reputations, employee wellbeing and business solvency.

#2

Supply chain or distribution failure is the second-highest current global risk in the R&CG sector.

Source: Global Risk Management Survey, Aon

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Quote icon

Whether it's AI and cyber, geopolitics and tariffs, or it's climate and sustainability, today everything is interconnected, and businesses can no longer afford to assess any risk in isolation.

Tom Bowman
Global Retail and Consumer Goods Industry Leader
Geopolitical Volatility is Reshaping Supply Chain Decisions

Escalating geopolitical tensions have created an unpredictable world. In a volatile global landscape, supply chains have had to evolve beyond traditional “just-in-time” predictability to a new era of resilience. As shipping corridors become strategic pressure points and shifting tariffs, trade sanctions and export controls disrupt trade flows, navigating a complex global trade environment requires greater agility than ever before. In response, R&CG leaders can be forced to adjust pricing, change logistics partners, broaden their supplier bases or stockpile inventory. By actively assessing, transferring and mitigating the risks associated with each of these adjustments, forward-thinking leaders are turning supply chain agility into long-term resilience.

Top 5

The industry’s geopolitical risk is forecasted to rise from ninth to a top five risk by 2028.

Source: Global Risk Management Survey, Aon

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Retailers are Bearing the Brunt of Climate Events

Hurricanes, flooding, typhoons, droughts and heatwaves are just some of the extreme weather events that have impacted R&CG supply chains in recent years. The nature of global supply chains means that localized weather events can quickly become international bottlenecks. A 2024 drought affecting the Panama Canal had global consequences as reduced capacity saw freight costs increase, transit times lengthened and procurement cycles disrupted.3 Beyond damaging transport networks, extreme climate events impact the industry by destroying infrastructure and decimating crops. In 2025, global economic losses from natural disasters totaled $260 billion, with less than half of these losses insured. This created a global protection gap of 51%.4 As climate risk continues to escalate, organizations should accelerate their climate resilience and mitigation strategies to strengthen their ability to navigate new forms of volatility, access capital and reduce the protection gap.

$133B

Losses not covered by insurance in 2025

Source: 2026 Climate and Catastrophe Insight, Aon

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4 Steps to Increase Supply Chain Resilience

1. Supply Chain Risk Diagnostics and Analytics

Many businesses view individual issues in isolation, unable to see how these exposures accumulate and interact to create much larger, systemic vulnerabilities. Aon brings an external, independent perspective that makes those connections visible so that they can be assessed, forecast and proactively managed. By translating complex data into prioritized insights, organizations are empowered to break down interconnected exposures and allocate resources toward addressing exposures more effectively.

  • Undertake a Rapid Risk Assessment: Aon’s Supply Chain Risk Diagnostic Tool is a survey that helps organizations quickly assess the effectiveness of their supply chain risk management. Gauging supply chain protection against more than a dozen critical supplier and enterprise exposures creates a clear baseline view of strengths, weaknesses and priority vulnerabilities.
  • Enable More Informed Decision Making: Supply chain diagnostics empower organizations to decide when and how to act. For example, in the face of geopolitical risk, leaders can determine the optimal time to shift aspects of their operations. By taking an enterprise-wide view, retailers can assess the logistics, tax implications, workforce risks, natural hazards and infrastructure risks associated with restructuring supply chains. Data-backed insights also allow organizations to examine the totality of risk before committing to major decisions.
2. Critical Business Interruption and Supply Chain Quantification

More than a third (37.2%) of retail businesses have already experienced loss as a result of business interruption (BI).5 Against the increasing risk of cyber attacks, natural disasters, labor strikes and geopolitical conflicts, any one of these threats can significantly disrupt operations, erode margin and damage customer trust. By measuring and quantifying exposures, organizations can move beyond assumptions and make informed decisions about resilience investments, contingency planning and risk financing.

  • Understand the “What if”: Measuring and quantifying risks uncover hidden vulnerabilities, including risks unknowingly retained. Aon’s Global Risk Management Survey found that only 27% of retail businesses have assessed their supply chain risk, while only 12% have quantified their exposure.6
  • Prepare for the Unforeseen: Business interruption exposure analyses help organizations determine the potential financial losses they may face if natural disasters, supply chain disruptions, property damage, political upheaval or disease hit their operations.
Quote icon

An increasing reliance on complex IT systems isn’t being matched by continuity planning maturity, leaving leaders without a clear picture of the impacts of downtime on their operations and reputations.

Vesa Hakanen
Supply Chain Risk Solutions Leader, Europe, the Middle East and Africa
3. Scenario Modeling and Risk Advisory

Against an increasing spectrum of risks and resource constraints, a strategic approach to prioritizing risks helps organizations allocate capital more effectively. Achieving this requires deeper insights into emerging risks, understanding how organizations are responding to them and how frequently they occur across sectors and geographies. By filtering out what is and isn’t important, leaders gain the clarity to determine where to focus attention, investment and how risk is financed.

  • Assess and Manage Supplier Risk: Advanced analytics provide deeper visibility across the supply chain, helping organizations assess the financial health and operational resilience of critical suppliers. With more robust assessment of supply chain risk, organizations can:
    • Prioritize Investment: Focus on resilience investments with the highest return on investment.
    • Validate BCPs: Strengthen existing formal and informal business continuity plans (BCPs).
    • Expose Hidden Vulnerabilities: Reveal single points of failure, concentration risks and the financial exposure of critical sites or systems.
    • Optimize Risk Transfer: Make more informed decisions regarding insurance limits and risk retention.
    • Drive Internal Alignment: Bridge communication gaps between operations, finance and risk teams.
    • Demonstrate Governance: Prove proactive risk management practices to executive boards and investors.
  • Leverage the Power of Predictive Supply Chain Risk Intelligence: The Aon Risk Indicator Tool is a data-driven solution that helps organizations identify, map and understand risks across their broader value chain, including emerging and difficult-to-quantify exposures that may lack traditional loss data. By drawing on historical events and patterns across industries, regions and risk types, the tool shows how frequently those risks have occurred over time. Beyond being a strong risk-mapping resource, its real impact comes from applying it to specific questions, such as how risks have manifested within a company’s supply chain over time.
  • Eliminate the Noise, Sharpen Your Focus: AI models and data analysis can help filter out the noise, preventing data overload. This provides organizations with a better understanding of the threats they may face, supporting stronger scenario planning and more targeted risk mitigation.
Quote icon

Retail organizations are overwhelmed with data, but data only becomes powerful when it's properly interpreted and transformed into actionable insights.

Lauren Field
Director, BI Valuations and Supply Chain Risk Management Solutions, North America
4. Risk Financing and Captive Optimization

With robust, quantified data, organizations are better positioned to make informed decisions about how to use alternative risk transfer solutions and which new or bespoke insurance products to pursue. Aon helps clients connect risk analytics to capital strategy, designing risk-financing structures that align with their risk appetite, improve resilience and optimize the overall cost of risk.

  • Move Beyond the Traditional: Conventional insurance programs only cover a small fraction of the risk facing the R&CG sector. However, better analysis and quantification of risk can unlock opportunities to transfer more of that exposure in ways that are both effective and capital-efficient. For companies with highly specialized products or heavy dependence on specific suppliers, a major interruption can be especially catastrophic.

    Once risks are properly quantified, organizations can consider a broader set of financing solutions, including:
    • Captive Insurance: To optimize the total cost of risk by retaining well-understood, predictable layers of risk within the group and accessing wider forms of capital, such as reinsurance and parametric coverage, for emerging or hard-to-insure exposures.
    • Parametric Insurance: To provide rapid, pre-agreed payouts triggered by objective events (such as weather indices or defined disruptions), helping to address gaps left by traditional indemnity covers.
    • Credit Insurance: To protect against counterparty default and supplier insolvency risk, particularly where the failure of a key partner could disrupt supply and cash flow.

Turning Risk Visibility into Resilience

From supply chain analytics and risk quantification to scenario modeling and alternative risk financing, retailers are leveraging innovative ways to confront the challenges of geopolitical, economic and trade-related volatility. Having the right tools in place can help stakeholders across organizations gain greater visibility into their risk exposures and engage in informed dialogue around risk mitigation. This enables more coherent and effective strategies.

By taking an enterprise-wide approach to risk, organizations can better prepare for the unknown, mitigate the risks they already understand and build the critical supply chain resilience that ultimately becomes a source of competitive advantage.

Learn how Aon can help your organization with its supply chain strategies, and explore more expert insights in the retail and consumer goods industry.

Aon’s Thought Leaders
  • Tom Bowman
    Global Retail and Consumer Goods Industry Leader
  • Vesa Hakanen
    Supply Chain Risk Solutions Leader, Europe, the Middle East and Africa
  • LeAnn Timble
    Director of Emerging Property Risk Control, North America
  • Lauren Field
    Director, BI Valuations and Supply Chain Risk Management Solutions, North America

Sources

1 Global Risk Management Survey, Aon.
2 2025 Global Cyber Risk Report, Aon.
3 Panama Canal Drought: Reshaping Global Shipping Routes and Supply Chains, FreightAmigo.
4 2026 Climate and Catastrophe Insight, Aon.
5 Global Risk Management Survey, Aon.
6 Ibid.

General Disclaimer

This document is not intended to address any specific situation or to provide legal, regulatory, financial, or other advice. While care has been taken in the production of this document, Aon does not warrant, represent or guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or fitness for any purpose of the document or any part of it and can accept no liability for any loss incurred in any way by any person who may rely on it. Any recipient shall be responsible for the use to which it puts this document. This document has been compiled using information available to us up to its date of publication and is subject to any qualifications made in the document.

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