As 2026 approaches, logistics professionals are focusing on strategies to strengthen resilience in their supply chains. So, how does this impact inventory planning and fulfilment?

While efficiency, flexibility and cost-efficiency have long been the watchwords of warehouse operations, they’re going to be even more important next year for three key reasons.

First, e-commerce keeps growing: Forrester predicts that online sales in Europe’s top five economies will rise at a 7.8% CAGR over the next five years. Second, businesses are looking to provide more value-add services, such as cross-docking or reverse logistics, to maintain competitiveness. And third, supply chain disruptions show no signs of slowing down.

When these factors converge, the risk is that too much inventory gets stuck in one place. This means there is a growing need for overflow space to ensure inventory remains available and that rerouting and reconsolidation can occur quickly.

Increasing warehouse capacity remains on the agenda in 2026

The European warehousing market today is in a somewhat uncomfortable position, with plenty of capacity always available in some areas, but very little in many others. In order to keep goods flowing to meet continuous consumer demand, it’s therefore essential to plan capacity strategically alongside your supply chain routes.

Unfortunately, it’s the locations where space is tight, most commonly near large ports, on key trade routes, or by industrial hubs, that are most affected by unforeseen disruptions. Resilience-driven strategies should therefore start by identifying where these potential vulnerabilities are for your supply chain. Only when you know this should you start exploring the storage options that could potentially create a strategic overflow, taking into account the transport links and capacity of each site.

That’s to say, the best site for your supply chain might not necessarily be the closest facility to the Port of Rotterdam. For example, Maersk have helped pan-European variety retailer Flying Tiger Copenhagen to identify a key strategic location for them in Poland, where we’ve set up and run a huge warehouse which serves 22 countries and enables them to best manage peak demand. This site provides the productivity, flexibility and efficiency they see as critical to their warehousing needs.

Whether you need to store regular high-demand SKUs, anticipate future spikes, or ensure product availability for a product launch or campaign, there are many benefits to proactively securing overflow capacity for your inventory planning and fulfilment operations. You may even have other reasons to temporarily store inventory, such as awaiting clarity over international tariffs. Whatever factors may apply to you, right now it’s more important than ever to get ahead and understand where your best overflow options are – so you have smart, tested plans ready to go when you need to mobilise them.

And if you’d like a useful checklist of what questions to consider in order to bring your plans into focus, you might like to look at Maersk’s new e-book: Be ready to build your 2026 supply chain resilience strategy’.

Partnering to protect your network

Unsure which storage facilities might provide the most beneficial overflows for your supply chain network? Don’t worry. With a strong global and regional presence, and years of inventory planning and fulfilment expertise, Maersk can provide specific advice on storing your items where it’s most efficient and cost-effective.

Here are just some of the advantages of Maersk Contract Logistics:

• Strategically located warehouses: With 42 warehouses in key locations across Europe and more than 500 globally, amounting to 8.8 million square metres of space, we can offer temporary storage solutions on key trade lanes as you reroute.
• Solutions for every type of cargo: Whether it’s temporary storage for products ahead of Black Friday or to provide extra space in the case of a black swan event, we can meet all your overflow needs.
• Seamless integration with other Maersk services: Alongside handling your overflow inventory, we can get it on the move with multimodal transport options and help you cross borders with smooth customs handling.
• Future-proofed operations: Scale products and markets efficiently; with full control and confidence.

When it comes to resilience planning, treating your logistics provider as a co-architect can pay significant dividends. To use technology, data and third-party support smartly and competitively, it’s important to design around the moments that matter for your business, and then ensure that people and processes are aligned and ready. Maersk’s new warehousing campus in Dublin, Ireland helped Currys – the UK and Ireland’s largest technology retailer – get functions off the ground fast during an important sales period for the brand; while Flying Tiger Copenhagen have plans to open more fulfilment centres with Maersk all over Europe.

With peak-season shopping and special promotional events ever-more important to the retail bottom line, resilience-driven inventory planning and fulfilment will be key for supply chains in 2026. Maersk helps you adapt with speed and minimise risk by combining global scale with local expertise, giving you peace of mind that you’ll access overflow space quickly and dependably.

Let’s talk resilience

If you’re about to take the plunge into planning your resilience strategy for 2026 and would like to talk with one of our experts about building this into your network, get in touch today.

And if you’d like to find out a bit more about Maersk Contract Logistics generally you can read more here.