The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in stepped-up adoption and improvement of supply-chain innovations, providing many industries with the opportunity to address some "pain points" that may not have previously been a priority.

"By some estimates, we're already seeing, or will see, accelerated adoption of some trends to take place in a mere 10 weeks when they could have otherwise taken 10 years," a group of Cushman & Wakefield executives wrote in an article in Cushman & Wakefield's The Zone magazine.

They identified several "fast-forward" trends, including expansion of online shopping, changes in how inventory is held, increased use of robots and autonomous vehicles, the use of "contactless everything," an increased need for cold storage warehousing, and the use of blockchain to track shipments.