Explainer: Retailer-vendor tips

Retailers and vendors need each other in what should be a symbiotic relationship. So, let’s clear the air on some of the issues where retailers and vendors can begin their efforts in ensuring that orders are perfect. Here are some tips that each can implement to help in this common effort.

Related: The Perfect Order: Conclusion

Retailers:

1. Communicate clearly to your audience, which is not only internal to your organization, but notably external to your vendor community. Sometimes your own personnel cannot comprehend your vendor compliance documentation; as such, how do you expect your vendors to understand your requirements? And part of clear communication is a vendor compliance portal that is easy to navigate.
2. Consolidate your vendor compliance documentation (operational, logistics, and technical specifications) in one place and on one portal. Stop spreading it around to multiple places.
3. Stick to the standards. X12-EDI is a standard in its structure and data values, some of which can also be found on the GS1 website. Stop breaking the rules, because this imposes hardships, disruption, and costs across your vendor community … you know … hardships, disruptions, and costs like what you as the retailer don’t want and continue to blame your vendors for. Stop blaming your vendors for your problems.
4. If you are going to place an intermediary software company in between you and your vendors, make certain that they are up to the task, technically, operationally, and personnel. Don’t blame your vendors because you made a bad software partner choice. Take ownership and do something.
5. Train your own staff to be the experts that they need to be and have at-the-ready the information and answers that they need. Ensure that vendors can get the answers that they need quickly, because time is of the essence. Make it easy for your vendors to get through to the experts that they need to when the answers they are looking for are missing or elusive on your compliance portal or in your compliance documentation, then learn from this and update your portal and documentation quickly and accordingly.

1. You wanted to sell into retail, so own this lock, stock, and barrel … technically and operationally. You’ve got to take responsibility for everything every step of way throughout your supply chain, whether you own it or you contract for it.
2. Organize your master data management (items, customers) across your supply chain because this is going to be critical to your success.
3. Educate yourself. Ideally, you would have done your due diligence before you signed up to sell to retail. But if you made the decision to do so and are going forward, then at least get knowledgeable. GS1/GS1US has courses (some of which are free) on barcode standards. Many retailers offer courses on their own portals and have branched out into general supply chain topics … avail yourself of these retailer-provided courses. If your EDI software provider offers a course that looks relevant, take it.
4. Organize the vendor compliance documentation. If there is one consistent failing that I see with the brand companies that I help, it is that they consistently lack an organized library of retailer vendor compliance documentation. And to add insult to injury, the vendor compliance documentation is usually not kept up-to-date. And when there is a new release of a requirement, it should be reviewed and discussed among all affected personnel within and partners outside of your organization to understand the impact. Just because an outside vendor like an EDI company is handling things doesn’t mean that you don’t need to understand what’s going on … you do.
5. Know your way around the vendor compliance portals. Establish user profiles. Set up alerts (if possible). Check the portals regularly as part of standard operating procedures depending upon the different departments within your company.

Getting an order to be perfect requires every aspect of the retailer-vendor relationship to be clear in the technical and operational requirements, to have the barriers that are obstructing the ability to successfully fulfill the order removed. But this is hardly the reality. Retailers, you do own the leadership responsibility here, so accept it but don’t abuse it. Vendors, you wanted this relationship, so accept the challenges that come with it, because there are certainly rewards that can be reaped from it.

Retailers and vendors should be communicating and working better together to achieve The Perfect Order, because they both ultimately have the consumer to answer to. And a perfect order is something that everyone involved will benefit from.

Read the entire series:

The Perfect Order: Introduction

The Perfect Order: Defining the customer

The Perfect Order: Right Product

The Perfect Order: Right Quantity

The Perfect Order: Right Source

The Perfect Order: Right Destination

The Perfect Order: Right Condition

The Perfect Order: Right Time

The Perfect Order: Right Documentation

The Perfect Order: Right Cost

The Perfect Order: Are returns a customer right?

The Perfect Order: Conclusion

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