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P R S Sarma and Aalok Kumar

Title: : Modelling resilient fashion retail supply chain strategies to mitigate the COVID-19 impact
Journal: International Journal of Logistics Management

This paper aims to develop supply chain

strategies for the fashion retail supply chain
(FRSC), likely to be disrupted by the current

pandemic (COVID-19) under physical and online
retail stores. The resilient retail supply chain

design is proposed under budget allocation
and merchandise capacity constraints.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper utilises the theory of constraint (ToC) and goal programming (GP) to

address the COVID-19 impact on FRSC. The budgetary and capacity constraints are formulated with a constraint
optimisation model and tested with six different priorities to deal with the physical and online stores. Next, all priorities

are developed under different FRSC business scenarios. The ToC-GP-based optimisation model is validated with one
of the Indian fashion retail supply chains. Findings: The proposed optimisation model presents the optimal retailing

strategies for selling fashion goods over physical and online platforms. The multiple scenarios are presented for
developing trade-offs among different strategies to maximise the retailer’s merchandise performance. This paper

also highlighted the strategic movement from high merchandise density stores to low merchandise density stores.
This implies a reduction of sales targets and aspiration levels of both online

and physical fashion stores. Research limitations/implications: The proposed
model is validated with one of the fashion retailers in India. Other nations

or multiple fashion retailers might be considered for more generalisation
of findings in the future. Practical implications: This research helps fashion

retail supply chain managers deal with consumer demand uncertainty over
physical and online stores in pandemic times. Limitation: Other nations or

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