MEC accelerates item-lifecycle automation with SPS: standardized data, faster product setup, and stronger supplier collaboration

The challenge

MEC, Canada’s iconic outdoor gear retailer, has been expanding its assortment, channels and e-commerce experience to meet the expectations of a fast-growing customer base. But behind the scenes, their teams were struggling with a manual product-setup process that slowed new item introductions, created inconsistencies in item data, and consumed significant internal time.

Before SPS, MEC’s item setup relied heavily on manual entry into their ERP—an approach that was both time-intensive and prone to errors. As MEC accelerated its assortment expansion and supplier partnerships, this workflow became a bottleneck for efficiency and scalability.

“Before SPS, product setup was a manual, time-consuming process. Now we can onboard more items with far less effort—and far fewer errors.”
— Josie Nixon, Vendor Management & Compliance, MEC

The solution

To streamline item setup and improve item-data quality, MEC partnered with SPS to implement the Relationship Management solution focused on standardized item-attribute delivery and automated ERP product-setup.

Because MEC was already leveraging SPS for vendor onboarding, order management and analytics, adding item-data automation into the same ecosystem created immediate alignment and efficiencies.

Through standardized item-attribute delivery across suppliers, automated ERP integration, and a cohesive vendor-enablement process, MEC gained a repeatable, scalable system for collecting, enriching, and activating item data.
Key elements of the solution included:

• Standardized item-attribute data delivered from suppliers through the SPS network
• Unified vendor management, with SPS coordinating onboarding across orders, analytics, and item lifecycles
• A future-ready data model designed to scale into e-commerce attributes and complete end-to-end product setup

“Having one partner for vendor onboarding, orders, analytics and now item data has unlocked huge efficiencies.”
— Josie Nixon, Vendor Management & Compliance, MEC

The results

Since implementing the SPS item-data solution, MEC has accelerated product setup, improved data accuracy, and strengthened supplier relationships. With standardized, automated item-attribute delivery, MEC can now launch more products with less effort—enabling their teams to focus on setting up more products in less time instead of manual data chasing.

Key outcomes include:

• Faster onboarding of new items, enabling more products to be launched in less time
• Improved data accuracy, reducing the risk of downstream issues in e-commerce, reporting, and supplier engagement
• Streamlined supplier collaboration, thanks to clearer expectations and cleaner data
• A partner-driven approach, where SPS supports both MEC and suppliers through adoption and continuous improvement