TOWARDS RETAIL AGILITY

Blue Yonder, a leader in supply chain and retail solutions, brings unique insights into how the retail market is transforming globally and regionally, with a special focus on operational agility, technology, and the MENA market’s distinct challenges and opportunities. Blue Yonder’s Corey Tollefson, Chief Revenue Officer, and Yahyah Pandor, Senior Regional Director, Retail – UAE & Gulf, discuss the evolving retail landscape in the MENA region.

Let’s deep dive into the retail market in MENA. How have you observed it growing in the last two years?

Corey Tollefson: Retailers are no longer looking for point solutions that only solve a specific problem and isolate part of a broader business process. In the past, retailers purchased the solutions for each aspect of their operations, like general ledgers or treasury solutions, because that was all that was on offer. Today’s evolving market needs require businesses to maintain a fully integrated, visible, and scalable financial suite. The same shift is happening within supply chain management. Over the last two years, we’ve invested over $2 billion—$1 billion organically through product innovation and $1 billion through acquisitions—to build an end-to-end platform with cognitive and interoperable solutions. These solutions are powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the data cloud, and can be easily added without having to rip-and-replace existing solutions the retailer may be using. This trend reflects how retailers want to spend their resources improving customer interactions, not stitching systems together.

How does the MENA retail market differ from global markets?

Yahyah Pandor: We see a lot of the same global trends, but the MENA market has unique characteristics. Take Dubai, for instance—it’s a global hub. We meet with people from Russia, India, and Kazakhstan, all in a single day. The retail landscape here therefore attracts brands you won’t often find in Europe or the U.S. While the fundamentals of retail—planning, execution, reporting—remain the same, the region has its own seasonality. Religious and cultural holidays and events such as Ramadan, Diwali, and Onam, alongside regional specific holidays such those of the Philippines, all require constant planning for retailers across MENA. Retailers here must be highly agile, and their systems must adapt quickly. For example, many retailers required the capability to trigger a promotion at the touch of a button for the mid-September Onam holiday.

What’s the pressing issue for Blue Yonder right now, both globally and in MENA?

Yahyah Pandor: Right now, transportation and warehouse management are critical issues. The supply chain is at the heart of retail operations, and Blue Yonder excels at connecting these aspects with traditional merchandising and planning solutions. Globally, and particularly in MENA, retailers need to upgrade from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to ones that can share information in real time up and down their supply chain. In order to operate competitively, retailers require solutions that streamline operations, reduce supply chain costs, and help manage margins, especially in a region where retail real estate is still a significant cost.

We discussed earlier the difference between integrated ERP systems and best-in-class applications. How does Blue Yonder’s new solutions overcome this trade-off?

Corey Tollefson: Traditionally, retailers had to choose between an integrated ERP system, which ties everything together but might not specialize in specific areas, and best-in-class solutions that solve specific supply chain problems but don’t integrate well. When we launched our biggest product release in company history last December, that trade-off no longer exists. We’ve architected our solutions to be independent while seamlessly connected through our Blue Yonder Platform, Powered by Snowflake. This allows retailers to continue to extract value from their ERP while getting the most out of their supply chain software with Blue Yonder.

How is Blue Yonder helping retailers connect their brick-and-mortar stores with online channels?

Yahyah Pandor:
That’s a great question. We offer advanced assortment and planogramming solutions, which allow retailers to create better shopper experiences, whether it’s for a large hypermarket or a small fashion store. On the omni-channel side, our commerce solutions show where inventory is available—whether online or in a physical store—and make it simple for customers to purchase online and pick up in-store or even have it delivered to a nearby location, like a restaurant, within the hour.

Corey Tollefson:
Yes, and the beauty of this connected experience is that it provides real-time inventory updates. If you see a product in stock online, you can order it and have it be delivered right to where it needs to be or choose to have it set aside for you at the nearest store.

Returns are a big issue in the region. How is Blue Yonder addressing that?

Yahyah Pandor:
Returns are definitely a major challenge in this region, where people return up to 50% of their online orders. Blue Yonder has a solution custom made for managing returns efficiently, simultaneously improving customer experience while keeping costs in check. With this technology, retailers can efficiently track what can be restocked and lower the costs associated with returns, helping them recover and repurpose inventory faster.

Corey Tollefson:
Exactly. Returns tie up a lot of inventory and money. We offer solutions that help retailers track these returns more effectively, optimize the whole return journey and even use them as opportunities to drive store traffic. For example, when a customer returns something, they could receive a time-sensitive digital coupon, encouraging them to shop in-store within a set time period.

Convincing retailers of the ROI (Return on Investment) from new tech can be a challenge. How do you handle that?

Yahyah Pandor:
ROI is critical. We invest time in understanding a retailer’s needs and what they’ll gain from a project. It’s not just about the cost of doing something, but also the cost of not doing it. We provide a clear business case, outlining the benefits and the potential losses if they don’t move forward.

Corey Tollefson: We also introduced something called a “Composable Journey,” which represents a structured approach to aligning our customers’ goals, issues and challenges with the solutions that Blue Yonder’s innovations can solve. The outcome of this work is a jointly agreed-upon roadmap with aligned business cases, some of which are projecting up to a 12 times ROI. This makes sense as these roadmaps often deal with some of the most challenging supply chain problems our customers have, and which only Blue Yonder can solve.

Do you also cater to digital-first or D2C brands, or is Blue Yonder only for big retailers?

Corey Tollefson:
We strive to support as many retailers as possible, and our Blue Yonder Platform makes implementation easier and more cost-effective. Bringing back to what I stated earlier, our composable journey is creating interoperability across the platform to support businesses like D2C. For example, visibility into delivery status for both the warehouse and transportation teams creates a seamless customer experience that is critical for a D2C repeatable customer.

AI is a hot topic in retail. How is Blue Yonder using AI to transform the industry?

Corey Tollefson:
AI is central to how we envision the future of retail. We’re introducing AI agents that handle many of the unproductive, menial tasks planners currently do, like seeding merchandise plans. These agents are constantly analysing data and flagging important trends for human planners to act on, shifting their roles from data processing to strategic decision-making. We have extensive experience in applying AI to solve supply chain problems.  We process over 20 billion AI-powered predictions every day for our customers. We continue to be on the forefront of this technology, and our Blue Yonder Platform has been purpose-built to maximize the impact of AI.

Yahyah Pandor:
In addition to generative AI, Blue Yonder is known for our predictive AI capabilities. To give a local example, we’re working with a retailer in the region whose AI-driven forecasting system will improve planner efficiency, allowing them to focus on more meaningful tasks. AI does the heavy lifting—forecasting and analyzing trends overnight—so the rest of the team can focus on actions that directly impact the customer experience.

What are the top three retail trends you see for 2025?

Corey Tollefson:
One major trend is the shift away from relying solely on offshore manufacturing. Retailers are moving production to nearshore plants, and in some cases, back to North America and Europe, especially as robotics reduce costs in warehouses and production. And finally, customer experience will be more important than ever. Retailers are recognizing the need to free up resources from back-end processes and invest them in improving the in-store and online shopping experience.

Yahyah Pandor:
Another big trend is the increased use of robotics and AI, especially in warehousing. Retailers are looking to cut costs and increase efficiency, and AI is moving from a buzzword to a practical tool that delivers real business value.