B2B Supply Chain Agility That Keeps Wholesale Moving When Everything Else Shifts

B2B supply chain agility is one of those concepts that sounds suspiciously like a buzzword until a retailer changes a delivery window, a factory runs late, or a carrier shortage rips through your transportation plan. Search patterns show operators asking how do I make my supply chain more flexible or why does my supply chain break every peak season, usually after one too many frantic emails to buyers trying to explain why a shipment is running behind.

If you have ever felt like your supply chain was built on rigid rails while the rest of the industry moves like a flock of startled birds, agility is probably your missing piece.

Why agility matters more in B2B than B2C

Wholesale fulfillment is predictable until it suddenly is not. Retailers adjust forecasts without warning. Lead times expand or contract. Routing guides update in the dead of night. Appointments vanish. Promotions launch early. Agility is not optional; it is the survival trait that determines whether your brand adapts or gets penalized.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10, framed the stakes perfectly. "If you do not do it right, you get those massive chargebacks." Agility prevents those charges by eliminating rigidity.

Where B2B supply chain agility usually breaks down

The biggest problem is visibility. When inventory accuracy is questionable, upstream decisions become guesses. Brands over-order, under-forecast, or send shipments from the wrong region. Bottlenecks appear. Flexibility disappears. Without real visibility, no amount of strategy can make a network agile.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment, sees this repeatedly. "One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLs is inventory accuracy. Maybe their previous 3PL was not great at picking the orders accurately. So they were losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items." Inaccurate picking destroys agility because it destroys trust in the data.

Why D2C-first 3PLs cannot provide B2B agility

D2C networks rely on simplicity: fast picks, frequent turns, small units, and predictable carrier pickups. Wholesale is built on pallets, appointments, routing guides, and multi-node coordination. D2C-first systems break because they cannot bend without snapping. They rely on lightweight logic and reactive workflows, not the structured flexibility wholesale requires.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO, explained the heart of the issue. "A bad WMS will not track inventory 100 percent. A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point you touch it." Agility requires detail. Without detail, you get instability instead.

How slow communication kills agility instantly

The fastest way to cripple a supply chain is to deliver information too slowly. When routing guides update, delivery appointments shift, SKU requirements change, or inbounds arrive off-schedule, the brand needs answers immediately. Ticket queues, rotating support reps, or delayed responses make agility impossible.

Joel sees the damage constantly. "At some 3PLs you get thrown into a ticketed queue, and you get different people replying every time. It can take days, if not weeks, to get a resolution." Agility dies in that environment because decisions must happen in minutes, not days.

G10 solves this by simplifying the communication model. "You call one person. That is it. And things get done," Joel said.

What true B2B supply chain agility looks like

Agility is not chaos. Agility is structure that adapts quickly. It looks like real-time WMS visibility, flexible labor allocation, fast carrier coordination, and pre-built workflows for exceptions. It looks like routing guide compliance without scrambling. It looks like ASNs that update seamlessly when quantities or timelines change. It looks like pallet builds that adjust without sacrificing accuracy.

Connor explained how agility starts with onboarding. "When we onboard a client who sells into places like Amazon or Walmart, the process changes depending on where they are selling. We work through all of their routing guide requirements and make sure the warehouse is ready before the first order ever drops." Agility is not improvisation; it is preparation.

Agility under pressure at G10

The best examples of agility appear during stress. Late inbounds. Tight deadlines. Volume surges. Retailers who move the goalposts at the last minute. These are the moments when rigid operations collapse and flexible ones shine.

Joel shared a Target inbound story. "Our supervisor, warehouse manager, and several employees worked the entire day into the night, then came back at 5 a.m. to make sure we had the routing completed." Agility meant adapting the plan without sacrificing accuracy.

Another moment came during a viral D2C wave that hit unexpectedly. "The client asked, Can you help us? And we said, Yeah, we gotcha. Then we sent a truck to the carrier at midnight." Agility does not mean chaos; it means capability.

The bottom line for wholesale brands

B2B supply chain agility determines whether brands stay ahead of demand or get buried by it. When your supply chain can flex, shift, accelerate, or reroute without breaking, retailers notice. They reward consistency. They protect your shelf space. They trust your brand. When agility is missing, delays multiply and penalties follow fast.

If you want a supply chain that moves as fast as your customers expect, reach out to G10. You will get accurate operations, disciplined workflows, and the kind of flexibility that keeps wholesale moving even when everything else changes.