By Nicole Smythe, SAP
Eras (n.) a memorable or important date or event. While the true definition of eras is such, the relevance of the word in modern day pop culture has evolved into something extraordinary, and the root of it all is one woman: Taylor Swift.
Through her record-breaking Eras Tour, she has transformed her music releases into meticulously curated eras, each marked by unique visual and thematic identities, from gold fringe and bedazzled cowboy boots for Fearless (Taylor’s Version) to black leather and slinking snakes for reputation.
The tour’s impact on the global economy, and more specifically, supply chain, is multi-faceted. While hundreds of thousands of Swifties flock to the next touring city, they are not only bringing their sequins and heart hands, but their business to both small and large businesses.
While website browsers may have crashed when trying for tickets, here’s how to make sure your supply chain doesn’t when The Eras Tour comes to your city.
Navigating a Red-Hot Demand Spike
The Eras Tour has impacted every type of supply chain – from retail to hospitality to services – as the need for Taylor Swift inspired memorabilia has become top of mind for concertgoers across the globe.
Rebekah Scanlan, New York Post, recently wrote about the shift in spending habits ‘Down Under’ as Taylor Swift recently arrived for her Australian leg of the tour. She reveals that there’s been a red-hot demand spike for one specific all-American shoe: the cowboy boot.
Given its deep tie to Swift’s early country days, there’s been a record rush for the shoes, with Australian e-tailer The Iconic, revealing there’s been a 219% YoY increase in cowboy boots on the site, dating back to December of 2023. Nicole Adolphe, Head of Style at The Iconic, tells Scanlan “I think we can definitely attribute the increase in demand for cowboy boots to the Swifties, especially considering a cowboy boot is essential to the look for her upcoming Era’s Tour.”
Through SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain and Generative AI solutions, companies now have the power to sense these shifts in demand before they happen, which enables them to position inventory at the right quantities and locations around the world.
Become a Mastermind with Your Planning and Manufacturing Processes
Where there is red hot demand, there also needs to be ample supply. Many business owners, both small and large, anticipated the demand for these items, but the ones that came out on top were ones agile enough to take advantage of the opportunity that the Eras Tour presented.
One boutique, Hazel and Olive, maximized their inventory and manufacturing strategies to seize the surge of particular styles. Taylor McMillan, founder of the online boutique, explained to Rebecca Deczynski, Inc. that the brand buckled down, added a full-time customer service rep to its team of five, and sped up its product ordering cycle to meet demand.
McMillan continues, stating “we rushed the manufacturing of some styles, and a lot of inventory we'd normally ship overseas by boat, we shipped by air to get them in fast enough.” While the long hours and strategy shifts were a change, the efforts paid off, as the boutique’s sales are up 40% YoY, which McMillan largely attributes to the Eras tour.
Companies, both small and large, have the power to do the same through solutions like SAP Digital Manufacturing, that allow them build agility into their production strategies, allowing them to respond quickly to market change and shifting customer demand.
There is no Eras Tour without Logistics
While there is much to do around the glitz and glam of the outfits, one thing is for sure – there is no Eras Tour without supply chain. To take it a step further, there is no show without the complex yet delicate coordination, organization, engineering, and transportation of the actual stage. While the seats may be filled with sequins, glitter, and fringe, the most important part is the logistics of ensuring that the stage, lighting, and sound systems are at the right stadium they need to be.
Taylor Swift’s production team confirmed that there are two separate stages and stage crews that can operate simultaneously in different parts of the country. In a sense, both stages are being set up, taken down, or moved at any given point in time, allowing Swift to perform in a different city each weekend, but giving her crew enough time to safely transport her stage to the next destination and build out and prepare accordingly.
The ability to deliver as promised is a key functionality within the tour, but also within a supply chain. Companies can build a creditable reputation with their customers, by delivering the right products to the right place at the right time.
Long story short, while there’s one person on the stage, there are hundreds of people throughout her supply chain that make it happen.
To learn more on how to deliver a resilient, agile, and customer-centric supply chain, download the recent Oxford Economics Research.
