From Manual Errors to Scaling with Confidence
MerchSource is the U.S. retail division of ThreeSixty Group, the Southern California-based consumer goods company behind Sharper Image, FAO Schwarz, Vornado, and other national brands. It manages the full U.S. trading partner network, from purchase orders placed with Asia-based manufacturers through to fulfillment across 95 active retail accounts, including the country’s largest retailers and ecommerce platforms. The SPS Commerce relationship began in 2004.
The challenge:
High EDI error volume across a growing brand portfolio.
The solution:
SPS automated order-to-cash workflows inside NetSuite, extending what the system already did.
The result:
Three brands in-house, a reduction in errors by 99% and no new hires.
The challenge
When Sharon Lloyd joined MerchSource the company had grown fast through acquisition of leading brands like Sharper Image, FAO Schwarz, and Vornado.
The operational picture included roughly 1,500 EDI errors logged in her first year, consuming hours of attention every day. Chargeback disputes required a level of review cadence the team could not sustain alongside error remediation.
The solution
SPS connected directly into MerchSource’s Oracle NetSuite environment, automating the order-to-cash workflows the team had been handling manually. This meant inbound purchase orders flowed directly into the ERP, ASNs were created with accuracy to help avoid label-related chargebacks, and invoices were reconciled without line-by-line review. NetSuite kept doing what it was already doing. SPS streamlined within.
When trading partner requirements changed, such as a distribution center closing or a retailer updating its label specs, the fix happened at the network level. MerchSource did not need to rebuild the mapping or open a project. SPS had already seen the same change across hundreds of other suppliers in the network.
“It’s like a concierge. SPS already knows what your trading partners need — they’ve got a vast number of other customers going through the same thing.“
— Sharon Lloyd, EDI Manager, MerchSource
That freed up the capacity to tackle other priority projects such as moving other divisions in-house, eliminating hefty external consulting costs. SPS managed the onboarding in phased waves so the team could validate each group before moving to the next. No outside help. No missed holiday window.
The results
Since MerchSource began working with SPS Commerce, they have been able to grow their operation without growing their EDI department. Chargeback disputes that previously expired uncontested are now reviewed weekly. The institutional knowledge that once lived with outside contractors lives inside the team. And when the next acquisition comes, MerchSource has a foundation that absorbs it rather than breaks under it.
The benefits of the network effect continue to compound. When MerchSource connects to a new customer, their requirements are already understood and embedded into the solution and the first order flows faster. Weeks of implementation time are saved because the work of understanding the retailer has already been done across the broader network. Working through issues with their 3PL also goes especially smoothly since that partner also works with SPS Commerce. Issues surfaced can be resolved the same afternoon.
As the company plans to onboard more vendors for its flagship store, it plans to extend EDI-based invoicing across that vendor base, replacing a manual accounting process that currently consumes significant bandwidth. This allows a small EDI team to manage a large network across several brands.
Onboarding new trading partners isn’t intimidating, because we trust the team and the network to help us scale with speed.
– Sharon Lloyd, EDI Manager, MerchSource