Enhancing supply resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study on beauty and personal care retailers

Purpose – The COVID-19 pandemic interrupts the supply chain of products around the world. The supplychains of beauty and personal care products in Bangladesh are also heavily interrupted during this pandemic.While these products are perceived as essential by mass people, retailers are struggling to get the supply of theproducts and maintain a smooth delivery to the people. Considering such facts, the purposes of the study are toidentify how the supply of retailers of these products is interrupted and how they can overcome theinterruptions to ensure supply resilience.Design/methodology/approach – A case study method has been used in this study. The data has beencollected through interviews from 16 retailers of beauty and personal care products.Findings – The results show that the supply of retailers of beauty and personal care products is interrupted inseveral ways. These include product shortage, limited delivery service, interruption of supplier payment,limited credit facility and irregularity in product delivery. To minimize the impacts of the interruptions andenhance supply resilience, retailers can undertake several strategies including intensive interactions anddeveloping cooperation with the distributors and manufacturers, ordering bulk quantity, formulating anadjusted credit ratio and focusing on product availability over brand preference.Research limitations/implications – The context of this study is limited to the beauty and personal careproducts of Bangladesh. Further study can be conducted in other countries and also supply chains of otherproducts to enhance the generalizability of the findings of this study.Practical implications – Supply interruptions are identified, and strategies are suggested to ensure thesupply resilience of retailers of beauty and personal care products. If proposed strategies are implemented byretailers of these products, supply interruptions can be minimized.Originality/value – The study contributes to the knowledge of the retail supply chain during a pandemic. Italso contributes to the supply management and resilience of retailers. As the context is a developing country,the study also contributes to the literature on developing countries.