Supply Chain Challenges in 2025: What’s keeping APAC Leaders awake at night?
At the recent CeMAT Singapore and Australia events, Dematic conducted surveys with supply chain and logistics professionals to uncover the biggest challenges facing the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in 2025. The results highlight where leaders are feeling the most pressure, and where innovation will be critical in the months ahead.
With supply chains forming the backbone of global trade, these insights reveal both the immediate roadblocks and the longer-term opportunities shaping the industry.
Top 4 challenges for supply chain and logistics professionals in 2025:
Challenge #1 – Labour Costs and Availability
Labour shortages and rising wages remain the top concern across APAC, accounting for approximately 27% of responses. Warehousing and logistics continue to be people-intensive industries, and businesses are struggling to recruit, train and retain skilled workers. Many are accelerating investment in automation, robotics and intuitive software to reduce reliance on manual labour while improving safety and retention.
Challenge #2 – Overall Rising Costs
Parallel to global economic trends, 16% of respondents identified overall rising costs as a significant challenge. Inflationary pressures are impacting every part of supply chains: fuel, energy, rent, insurance and raw materials. The dual hit of higher input costs and labour shortages is squeezing margins, forcing organisations to optimise processes, improve energy efficiency and explore new digital tools to cut waste. Adopting cost-saving technologies and optimising warehouse processes can help mitigate these financial pressures.
Challenge #3 – Visibility of Data
Lack of end-to-end visibility remains a stumbling block for many APAC supply chains. Around 12% of participants expressed concerns about timely access to accurate data. As product ranges grow and multi-channel fulfilment adds complexity, real-time, accurate data is essential to make fast decisions and maintain control. Without it, errors compound and service levels fall. Integrating advanced integrated software solutions can support companies by providing end-to-end visibility and facilitating data sharing across the supply chain ecosystem.
Challenge #4 – Fulfilment Accuracy
Consumers expect near-perfect accuracy with every order. Errors in picking, packing, or shipping not only increase costs but also damage customer loyalty, which is a key concern for around 10% of respondents. Businesses can look to technologies such as warehouse execution systems, voice picking and RFID to keep accuracy consistently high.
Why space, speed and security are on the supply chain agenda
Supply chain and logistics professionals also highlighted additional trends shaping the industry today. One of the most critical is the use of space. With industrial property in short supply and urban density restricting new warehouse developments, businesses are under pressure to maximise every square metre. As a result, many are turning to high-bay warehousing, automated storage and retrieval systems and reconfigurable racking solutions to increase efficiency and capacity without expanding their footprint.
Another challenge lies in managing an ever-increasing product range. As companies expand their catalogues, forecasting, storage and fulfilment become more complex. To cope, organisations are adopting advanced analytics and flexible automation systems that can scale with growing SKU counts and adapt to fluctuating demand. This flexibility is becoming essential as product lifecycles shorten and consumer expectations evolve.
Speed of delivery has also emerged as a baseline expectation, particularly in e-commerce. Meeting the demand for same-day or next-day fulfilment while maintaining cost efficiency is no easy task. Businesses are investing in intelligent routing software, strategically placed micro-fulfilment centres, and orchestration tools designed to strike the balance between speed and profitability.
Building resilient supply chains
For APAC businesses, the challenge for the remainder of 2025 is balancing short-term realities with long-term investment in automation, visibility and sustainable practices.
Dematic works closely with customers across APAC to address these challenges, providing intelligent, automated supply chain and logistics solutions that optimise space, improve accuracy and support workforce efficiency. With engineering, manufacturing and service centres in more than 35 countries, Dematic has delivered thousands of successful installations worldwide, helping some of the world’s leading brands build the resilient supply chains of the future.