Should I have an inventory plan?
Don’t let inventory issues drain your profits. Costly errors in inventory management can have a variety of root causes, and those mistakes can add up quickly. You might have an overstocking problem, with a large amount of product on hand that’s not selling like you...
Revitalize your supply chain
Consumers have more choices than ever, with an enormous number of channels to shop from and an endless stream of products. With so much choice and flexibility, how do you stay relevant and profitable? According to the 2022 MHI Annual Report, a survey of over 1,000...
SPS Commerce celebrates 10 years of partnership with IWLA
For the past 10 years, SPS Commerce has enjoyed a strong partnership with IWLA (International Warehouse Logistics Association). This partnership has allowed us to serve the 3PL community, helping them manage the challenges of omnichannel and retail fulfillment. As...
What you need to know about micro fulfillment centers
Explore your options Every business experiences growing pains. It’s vital for businesses to look inward and examine current processes and systems as they scale. What needs to change to sustain growth? Part of that examination should include a review of current...
5 ways to prevent stockouts and overstocks with analytics
Whether you call them stock-outs, out-of-stocks, or colloquially say the product has “run out,” the lack of desired merchandise in-store or online can cause serious headaches for retailers vying to compete in a 24/7 omnichannel shopping cycle. For proof, take a peek at the latest quarterly reports from retail juggernauts Target and Walmart.
Gain sales with improved product data
If you’ve ever purchased anything online, you know how important it is to have comprehensive, accurate item descriptions. The attributes of an item, like color and size, can influence your decision whether or not to make a purchase. Item data gives you the confidence...
Four Factors to Consider before Implementing an EDI Solution
About Guest Author RKL eSolutions RKL eSolutions is a leading provider for Sage software solutions from coast-to-coast in North America. With over 21 years of experience, they combine technology expertise with accounting skills and systems experience, tailoring their...
Optimize inventory levels using the power of sales trend data
Well-managed inventory leads to higher profits while poorly managed inventory usually results in a loss. Whether that loss is financial in nature, a loss of customers or lost reputation, its effect is felt throughout the supply chain. Suppliers need to maintain...
How to get purchase order to invoice reconciliation right
Reconciling transactions takes valuable time and resources. When something is incorrect, a retailer can end up missing out on valuable discounts or even paying for products they never received. Automation of the purchase order to invoice reconciliation process, or...
Automate Shipping and Invoicing to Optimize the Fulfillment Process
The retail industry has changed quickly in the last couple of years. It’s no wonder, given the global pandemic. As the supply chain continues to evolve, consumer habits continue to evolve, too. Shoppers want a seamless experience across multiple channels, and...
Acumatica Summit 2023: A Recap
A big thanks to Acumatica for bringing the community together in Las Vegas! Seeing one another in person, connecting with customers, and meeting new partners face to face made each of us say “it’s great to be back!” While there were many conference highlights, here...
How Small Business Suppliers Can Stay Ahead of Order Challenges
Right now, there are more sales channels and more product options available to buyers than ever before. There’s also more volatility in the supply chain, causing new bottlenecks in the order process. The push and pull of customer demand can strain growing businesses –...
Test new products online before stocking at retail stores
Now is a great time for retailers to test new products and understand how to reach the right market. For decades, the process of getting a new product on store shelves was fraught with risk. Retailers didn’t want to gamble on an unproven product. If they did, they...
Product pages: Would you buy it with that item description?
As consumers increasingly research the products they buy online, they use item descriptions on product pages to inform their buying decisions. Not only does this information affect whether they buy your products at all, but it also affects whether they buy them from...
What is Assortment Planning?
Here are the top things you should know when it comes to assortment plannings: What is assortment planning? Why is assortment planning important? Where does assortment planning fit in your overall process? Key factors to consider when developing an assortment plan How...
Create retail branded packing slips for drop shipping
Part of a successful drop shipping business is branding. Making sure packages display the retailer’s branding and shipping information helps customers recognize their order immediately and identify it with the retailer’s brand, even if the order was packaged and...
Profiting from Assortment Planning in Retail
Your ability to deliver on new item innovation could mean the difference between being down five percent or up five percent (or more) at the end of the season or the end of the year. That's why assortment planning in retail is so important. That up or down spread on...
The importance of big data in retail
What is big data in retail? Big data analytics is the collection of information that can be used to reveal more about customer habits.
Five top EDI documents to integrate and automate
Electronic data interchange (EDI) isn’t exactly a riveting or “sexy” topic, but what it can do for businesses in the retail and retail supply chain ecosystem is actually pretty exciting. This standardized digital language for business documents empowers companies to...
Automated PO match eases the payment process for retailers
Retailers using EDI who haven't fully embraced an automated PO match system may be overspending and overstaffing. The problem is they rely on a lot of staff time to prepare and compare documentation to ensure the purchase orders match the warehouse/store receiving...
Simplify Omnichannel Fulfillment
Shipping and fulfillment has become a big deal to retailers’ bottom lines, especially as everyone gears up for the impending holiday season. The big push last year was about retailers finding vendors that could ship directly to the consumers and figuring out how to manage the returns.
Accurate Inventory Data can make or break sales
The Importance of Maintaining Accurate Inventory Data Accurate and up-to-date inventory data can have a make-or-break effect on your sales. Retailers need accurate inventory data from suppliers to meet their consumers’ expectations. Likewise, consumers need...
Traceability in the Healthcare Supply Chain
Traceability in Healthcare Traceability is the watchword in the pharmaceutical industry due to the opioid crisis and the new laws and regulations created in response. Now, healthcare companies are required to increase the traceability of all pharmaceuticals and...
Why Grocers Should Use EDI – Grocery Wholesale EDI
How the food industry has evolved with grocery EDI In the history of grocery operations, electronic data interchange (EDI) may have been one of the game-changing developments in the last 30 years. Of course, we’re a little biased, but we’ve seen how EDI has greatly...
Strategic retail planning for success in Q4
The holiday season is so important that retailers must plan all year to ensure it goes over well. It's one thing to consider the products you want to carry, and yet another to make sure you have all the systems and processes in place to serve your customers...
Four Painful SAP EDI Problems You Can Overcome with Full-Service EDI
Far too many SAP EDI solutions fall short, leading to wasted resources and lost opportunities. But with the right SAP EDI solution, you can avoid these problems altogether. Osborn, LLC is a leading supplier of industrial brushes. The company faced several challenges...
More suppliers consider selling direct to consumer
When it comes to online sales and distribution channels, shipping pallets and cases of products off to retailers isn’t the only option for suppliers anymore. Vendors normally send their products to a retailer for in-store and online sales, but more and more, suppliers will handle the fulfillment on their behalf and drop ship the item to the consumer.
Four Takeaways from SuiteWorld 2022
SPS Commerce was thrilled to attend and participate in SuiteWorld 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada in September. Jim Frome, President and Chief Operating Officer at SPS, presented an educational session with representatives of Thrive Market and Lionel, LLC. Here are four...
Optimize your On-Time, In-Full (OTIF) performance
Reducing discrepancies and errors in your supply chain will have major impact on your bottom line. Learn how three-way matching can save you money.
Improve the order-to-cash process to speed up payments
What is the order-to-cash process? The order-to-cash process involves all the steps that start from when a customer places an order to when you get paid for an invoice. Automating the order-to-cash process is essential for ensuring accuracy and an efficient order...
Four keys to selecting the right EDI tools for your business
With new challenges, new solutions and new technology, the world of commerce gets more complex every day. Customer and partner preferences are changing fast, and it can be difficult to keep up with all the new regulations and requirements. In particular, EDI stands...
Automated Shipping: How to Streamline Order Fulfillment
Running a successful eCommerce store takes a lot of work. There’s no way around it. Building a brand, driving sales, and keeping product quality high are all difficult tasks. But you know what shouldn’t be difficult? Order fulfillment. Order fulfillment is one of the...
What’s Next for Product Information Management
Retailers and brands are increasingly investing in their product information, not just customer information. What’s behind the increased attention? The answer is simple: changes in consumer shopping behavior. High-quality product information is critical for driving...
Three Ways Fulfillment for NetSuite Helps Optimize Picking, Packing and Shipping
Every retailer has specific rules, requirements and preferences for packing shipments. What’s more, retailers have different packing requirements for different types of goods, such as apparel or perishables. These requirements include how many units can be packed per...
Capture buyer’s attention with retail sell-through data
Vendors know that buyers are busy people. They’re buying thousands of products for a single store or focusing on one department across a regional or national chain of stores. And, unfortunately, they don’t have a lot of time to converse with individual vendors, especially those who fall in their second or third tier according to sales volume.
How EDI Shipping Can Declutter Your Day
As the pace of retail quickens, so does the need to have better visibility to products and shipments in transit. This is what makes EDI and transportation a perfect match. When suppliers (aka shippers) and carriers want to know answers to the following questions, EDI...
The SPS Commerce Holiday Readiness Guide
The holiday season can be a busy, hectic time for businesses of all sizes. Increased channel traffic, order spikes and your partners’ downstream challenges can be especially difficult to manage. But, by selecting the right mix of solutions to help you stay ahead of...
6 Advantages of Integrating Your Infor ERP System with SPS Commerce
For larger businesses, implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can add layers of complexity onto an already-complex process. Understanding your ERP system’s full capabilities can take months, and finding the best ways to leverage those capabilities...
How to Create a Positive Customer Experience with Automation
Modern retail customers have high expectations when purchasing a product from a business. Customers expect to have customer experiences that meet or exceed their expectations, expecting on-time delivery, flexible payment options and the ability to purchase products...
Understanding Sell-Through Rate
What is sell-through rate? Sell-through rate is the total amount of inventory sold during a certain time measured as a percentage of the amount of stock received from suppliers in the same period. For example, a sell-through rate of 10 percent indicates that only a...
How does order fulfillment improve grocery operations?
Manual order processes are becoming a thing of the past in the grocery supply chain. That’s because consumers are rapidly embracing new grocery supply chain management services like click and collect (also known as buy online, pickup in store or BOPIS) and home...
Change Management: 5 Keys to Streamlining Your Cloud Migration
Moving from an on-premise ERP system to a cloud solution offers a wealth of benefits ranging from cost savings to system flexibility. But replacing the software central to your business can be risky without the right safeguards and partnerships. Migrating your...
How an Automated Shipping Tool Can Help Solve Today’s Order Fulfillment Challenges
There’s no doubt that the rise in omnichannel shopping has made order fulfillment more challenging. In addition to complex retailer and customer needs, suppliers also face an unprecedented labor shortage. To unpack these trends, we sat down with Morgan Asplund,...
4 Ways Independent Grocery Retailers Can Benefit from In-Aisle Ordering
Big-Box retailers rely on and benefit from technology in real, quantifiable ways. But what about smaller, mid-market or independent grocery retailers? How can order management software with in-aisle capabilities help these retailers? These stores may not have the...
Best Practices to Drive Sell-Through
Sell-through compares the amount of inventory a retailer receives with what’s actually sold to the consumer–and it’s more important than ever. Finding the gaps between supply and demand can help uncover insights that boost sales. Improving sell-through can be...
Order-To-Invoice EDI for SAP: A New Standard
A common refrain at SPS Commerce is that EDI, as a standard, is anything but standard. After all, how could it be when every retailer in the world has different business rules, requirements, and expectations of their suppliers? EDI becomes even more non-standard when...
Streamline 3PL Collaboration with Third-Party Warehouse Service
The seamless feel of today’s consumer landscape hides a fact that suppliers grapple with every day: Fulfilling orders is complex. To maximize sales and meet customer expectations, suppliers need to juggle critical relationships with third party logistics partners,...
Supply Chain Collaboration Nets Measurable Results In Any Economy
There’s been a lot of recent news about the challenges in the retail supply chain. Retailers and suppliers are weathering many obstacles including unanticipated spikes in consumer demand, port delays and labor shortages, to name a few. Here are some of our...
EDI 753: The Increasing Presence of The Routing Request From Retailers
To do business with an increasing number of retailers – including behemoths like Amazon, Cabela’s, JC Penney, Kohl’s and many others – suppliers must now use a routing request called a 753, an EDI transaction that lets retailers know electronically that a shipment is ready to be picked up. The information gleaned from the 753 allows retailers to figure out what orders need to be picked up, the size of the load, available pickup window (and from where), then decide the most efficient route that will ensure a robust truckload. `
Empower Customer-Facing Staff with Real-Time Order Visibility
Digital shoppers won’t settle for ambiguous answers, incomplete information or untimely fulfillment status updates. Service reps won’t feel much satisfaction from their work either if this is the best they can do based on the data available to them. The secret to success is being able to track an order…if you can’t track it, it will lead to more emails, phone calls, unnecessary communication and a dissatisfied customer or poor customer experience.
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