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Two numbers in a new small business survey do not sit comfortably next to each other. In Ship4wd's 2026 Small Business Supply Chain Report, 83% of U.S. small and medium-sized businesses describe themselves as very or somewhat prepared for supply chain disruptions. In the same survey, only 28% report full real-time visibility into their shipping and sourcing operations.
That is a 55-point spread between how ready businesses feel and how much of their own supply chain they can actually see. The rest of the survey explains the spread.
Nearly every small business took a hit in 2025
The survey, conducted in April 2026 among 500 U.S.-based SMB owners and decision-makers, found that 99% experienced at least one shipping or sourcing disruption in 2025. For most, it was not a one-off: 82% dealt with disruptions on a regular or recurring basis.
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The costs were concrete. 62% of respondents reported lost revenue or missed sales as a result of disruptions, and 51% experienced customer dissatisfaction or churn. Separately, 96% said tariffs directly hurt their shipping, sourcing, or supply chain operations over the past year.
So the disruptions reached almost everyone, and most businesses paid for them more than once. Which raises the obvious question: Where does the 83% confidence figure come from?
51% of disruption protocols have never been tested
The survey offers one answer. Among businesses that say they have a disruption protocol in place, 51% have never actually tested it.
An untested plan has never been run against a late container or a supplier that went quiet. It sits in a drawer until the day it either works or doesn't, and no one knows which in advance.
Pair that with the visibility numbers and the 83% starts to look like confidence at a distance from the problem. A business that cannot see its inventory and shipments in real time finds out about a disruption the same way its customers do: after the fact.
Only 28% can see their operations in real time
Preparedness that holds up under pressure starts with knowing where stock is and what is about to run short. That is the one place the 28% differ from everyone else in the survey.
For small businesses, closing that gap increasingly means software rather than spreadsheets. Real-time inventory management platforms track stock across locations as transactions happen and flag looming shortages before they become missed orders. It turns readiness into something a business can verify on a screen rather than assume.
Testing the disruption protocol comes next. But a test is only as good as the data feeding it, and a business without live numbers has nothing to rehearse with.
96% expect tariffs to stay their top concern in 2026
The pressure that produced these numbers is not expected to ease. 96% of surveyed businesses anticipate tariffs will be their primary concern in 2026, and 31% expect a serious or even devastating impact.
That leaves most small businesses heading into another year of the conditions that cost 62% of their revenue last time, still without a live view of their own operations. The 2025 numbers are already in the books. The 2026 numbers depend on what businesses do about the 55 points between feeling ready and being able to check.
