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Small and mid-sized shippers (SMBs) are in a state of permanent overdrive, according to a report by Netstock.
Inventory moves have accelerated, dead stock is threatening to pile up on them, and traditional, linear supply chain planning is failing.
Он 2026 Supply Chain Planning Benchmark Report, based on data from over 2,500 Netstock customers and a survey of more than 150 users at businesses with less than $250m in annual revenue, shows shippers under unceasing strain managing their supply chains.
Inventory movement has accelerated and stock is now turned over four times a year, as companies deploy a mix of strategies to clear their warehouses from sales and promotions (used by 77%), to liquidation (39%), and moving goods to other locations (34%). Half the firms are using at least two of these tactics, up from 38% in 2024.
Notwithstanding these efforts, at 24% of SMBs, more than 10% of inventory is ‘dead stock’, that cannot be sold. In 2024 this afflicted 12% of SMBs, Netstock reported. The share of businesses with dead stock of less than 5% of inventory fell from 49% to 32% over the same period.
And almost a quarter (24%) are struggling both with low fill rates and low stock turn. While they sit on excess inventory, they also miss sales.
Part of the problem is that supply chains have become more complex. For one thing, the percentage of SMBs sourcing from two or more regions grew, from 45% in 2024 to 55% in 2026. On a positive note, this implies they have alternatives if one source is disrupted, the report’s authors noted.
On the other hand, supplier lead time swings were cited most, 29%, among the top factors affecting inventory planning, ahead of raw material and input costs (23%), freight and shipping costs (22%), and demand shifts (21%).
The report’s authors noted that cost pressure had been relatively stable, while timing and availability metrics rose, indicating that the primary pressure in 2026 is not price but predictability.
This points to a fundamental shift in the challenges with which supply chain planners are struggling. The report said that, last year, supply chain planning was largely dictated by trade policies – tariffs – which brought about an emphasis on front-loading and building buffer stock.
“2026 stripped away that clarity,” it said. “Tariffs remained a major pressure point, but they were far from the only challenge. The landscape shifted from a year of singular shocks to one defined by supply chain chaos, where trade policy changes, shipping route disruptions, raw-material costs, demand shifts, and uneven supplier performance converged at once.
“This report uses the term ‘supply chain chaos’ to describe a different kind of disruption: volatility shifts one variable at a time, while chaos moves several at once; leaving planners without a stable baseline for decision-making. For SMBs, these disruptions are no longer isolated; they compound,” it argued.
This is in line with the assessment of the World Economic Forum that global supply chains have entered an era of “structural volatility”, where uncertainty is no longer temporary but embedded in the operating environment.
The implications are far-reaching, challenging traditional concepts of supply chain planning.
“The defining insight of 2026 is that supply chain chaos is not a problem to be ‘solved’ once, but a condition to be managed daily,” the Netstock report concluded, adding: “Supply chain chaos can feel like a game of whack-a-mole. New problems can surface anywhere across the board, often with little warning. Focusing heavily on one area may sharpen a business’s response in that area while reducing its visibility elsewhere.”
Static annual supply chain scenario planning needs to be replaced with a more dynamic approach. McKinsey has argued that, in lieu of trying to predict a single outcome (solution) in a potential scenario, planning should shift to a range of possible options. By focusing on critical decision points, rather than events, planners gain the ability to adapt quickly to a range of scenarios, suggests the consultancy.
And Netstock stressed that “better inventory visibility and planning intelligence help teams identify where risk is emerging and respond faster and more accurately”.
“While no single winning playbook emerged from survey responses, the data points to a clear path forward – SMBs that invest in visibility and technology are better equipped to adapt as conditions change,” the authors wrote.