As ‘Containergeddon’ Slogs On, Higher Returns May Saddle Retailers

As the number of container ships waiting outside of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach reaches 100, the impact on the holiday shopping season includes out-of-stocks and delayed online orders as well as empty shelves. Some of the larger retailers are working on alternatives, but analysts don’t see it helping until well after Black Friday. Michael Haswell, vice president of partnerships at Narvar, expects merchants to see an uptick in returns as well as a stretching out of the holiday shopping season. Here, Haswell discusses the full impact of “containergeddon.” WWD: What is ‘containergeddon’ and how is it challenging retailers and brands? Michael Haswell: Containergeddon is the logical outcome of factory closures in Asia during the height of the pandemic. As those factories came back online and increased production to make up for lost time, it created a logjam of container ships at U.S. ports, particularly in Los Angeles and Long Beach. The downstream impact on retailers and brands is that product won’t make it on shelves in time for Black Friday — some estimate as much as 25 percent of the products currently stuck on container ships won’t make it in time. M.H.: For those retailers that can’t charter their own

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