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How to Onboard a New Retailer 

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A buyer says yes. That moment deserves the celebration it gets, but it's also the start of an operational project rather than the end of one. 

The work between that “yes” and the first clean shipment usually runs several weeks. In that window a supplier connects to the retailer through 

, registers item data, prints carton labels to an exact spec, passes a testing cycle, and learns how the retailer wants freight routed.  

For a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand moving into big-box retail, most of that work is new. Suppliers who treat those weeks as a readiness sprint tend to launch smoothly. Suppliers who treat them as paperwork often pay for it in deductions on their first orders. 

Why Does Retailer Onboarding Begin After the Deal Closes? 

Winning the account is a sales milestone. Shipping the first order clean is an operational one, and the two are weeks of work apart. 

That gap is where the cost of being unready shows up. Protein bar brand Aloha launched into Target, could not absorb the slotting fees and marketing costs, and was dropped for underperforming. The brand spent years reformulating its products and rebuilding through its own website and Amazon before it 

, seven years later. CEO Brad Charron put the lesson plainly: “you can’t be poorly financed entering a big-box retailer,” and “once you’re out, be prepared to sit in purgatory for five to seven years.” 

The brands that launch well start earlier than the deal. Jupiter turned down an early opportunity to sell at Target because its supply chain was not ready, invested in manufacturing stability first, and later 

 with a 3PL that already served Target suppliers. Razor brand Nimbi 

Preparation is also easier the second time. Men’s cosmetics brand Stryx rolled out to 2,000 CVS stores, then prepared for 950 Target doors with that experience behind it. “We have battle scars from the CVS rollout,” founder Jon Shanahan 

. “But that experience helped us prepare for Target.” 

What Are the Steps in Retailer Onboarding? 

Retailer onboarding follows a predictable order. Each stage depends on the one before it. A late start squeezes the stages that need the most care. 

1. Vendor Agreement and Requirements Review 

The supplier agreement and the vendor guide define what compliance means for this account. Between them they set order acknowledgment windows, delivery windows, label formats, packaging rules, and the penalty attached to each. Requirements differ by retailer. A 

 helps with scoping, but the retailer’s own guide is the authority. 

Nearly every large retailer requires EDI for purchase orders, order acknowledgments, advance ship notices, and invoices. Suppliers generally pick one of three paths. A full-service provider handles the mapping and compliance. EDI software puts that work in-house. The retailer’s own web portal works at a few orders a week and hurts beyond that, because every document becomes manual entry. 

,  commonly encoded in a UPC barcode for retail products in North America. Inner packs and cases might need their own GTINs, as well. Item data has to agree across three places: the retailer’s item system, the supplier’s own system, and the physical product. 

Testing is the stage suppliers underestimate most. The retailer sends test documents, checks the supplier’s responses against its spec, and returns errors to fix. Providers and retailers both refer to this stage as 

, and that the cycle commonly takes a few weeks. 

Distribution centers receive shipments by scanning cartons, so the physical label carries as much weight as the data. GS1-128 labels encode a unique serial shipping container code for every carton, and that code has to appear in the shipment data too. 

6. Routing Instructions and Carrier Setup 

Many retailers control the freight. The supplier requests routing, the retailer assigns a carrier and a delivery window, and the shipment has to follow both. 

7. First Order, Shipment, and Invoice Cycle 

The first live orders are worth watching document by document. Teams that catch a timing or quantity problem on order three avoid repeating it on order 300. 

How Long Does EDI Onboarding for Suppliers Take? 

Long enough that a launch date set without it is usually optimistic. Crstl, an EDI provider, breaks a legacy Walmart setup into four phases that 

eZCom puts general trading partner onboarding at two to six weeks. The spread is real. It depends on the retailer, the document set, and how clean the item data already is. 

Commercial timelines run longer. Hydration brand Waterdrop went from eight doors to more than 3,000 in 2023, across Walmart, Target, and H-E-B at once. The placements behind that launch 

, co-founder Henry Murray said. An outside consultant called the all-at-once approach “super high risk and high reward.” Most digitally native brands go local, then regional, then national instead. 

The practical move is to plan backward. Start from the first delivery date. Count back through testing, mapping, and provider setup. The math either fits the calendar or it does not, and a supplier who learns that in week one can still reset the date with the buyer. 

Which Retailer EDI Requirements Cause First-Shipment Chargebacks? 

Many first-shipment deductions come from a mismatch between what the retailer was told and what arrived at the dock. The categories are narrow and repeat across retailers. 

None of these require  unusual circumstances or especially bad luck. They happen when a process that worked for shipping 40 boxes a day has not been rebuilt for shipping to a distribution center that scans everything. 

Can Your Operation Support a National Retailer’s Volume? 

Capacity belongs in the onboarding plan alongside the data work. A national retailer needs output and consistency that most DTC operations have never had to produce. 

Stryx framed its Target rollout the same way. Shanahan said the core issue was inventory: could the brand put enough units in that many stores. He called cash flow management “the multi-million-dollar issue.” Target also told the brand how much stock to hold for replenishment. That is the kind of number worth asking about early, not in week two. 

Capacity work also changes who a supplier needs. Jupiter hired a head of supply chain and production, then moved to a 3PL with big-box experience. Supplement brand Grüns grew past 100 employees and hired a VP of retail to support more than 5,000 stores. 

Why Is the Retailer Routing Guide So Important? 

The routing guide tells a supplier how freight moves, and retailers enforce it the way they enforce price. 

On collect freight, the exchange runs through three connected EDI documents. The supplier sends an EDI 753 Request for Routing Instructions with the shipment details. The retailer returns an EDI 754 with the carrier and the pickup or delivery window. The supplier then sends the 

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The window for this is short. SPS Commerce notes that the process often allows as little as 24 hours before shipment, and that missing it or ignoring partner requirements can mean significant chargebacks and a lower scorecard. Reading the routing guide closely before the first purchase order arrives is cheaper than learning it from a deduction. 

How long does retailer onboarding take? 

Plan on six to 14 weeks for a first large retail account, depending on the retailer and the EDI path. Crstl puts a legacy Walmart EDI setup at 8 to 14 weeks from contract to go-live, while eZCom reports two to six weeks for general trading partner onboarding. Item data cleanup and capacity work can run in parallel. 

Usually, yes. Most large retailers and distributors require electronic documents regardless of supplier size. Some offer a web portal for very low volume, which works for a handful of orders a week and stops working as volume grows. 

What is the most common cause of a first-shipment chargeback? 

A mismatch between the shipment data and the physical shipment. That includes late or inaccurate advance ship notices, carton labels that disagree with the data, quantity discrepancies, and unregistered barcodes. 

A 3PL can own labeling, packing, and shipping execution, and many are experienced with specific retailers. Responsibility still has to be assigned explicitly. Onboarding problems often trace back to an unclear handoff between the supplier’s system, the 3PL, and the EDI connection rather than to any one of them failing. 

What should we do first if the first delivery date is already set? 

Count backward from that date through testing, mapping, and provider setup, then compare the result to the calendar. If the date does not fit, that conversation with the buyer goes better in week one than in week six. 

Want To Get Live With a New Retailer Faster? 

Onboarding moves faster when someone already knows the retailer’s rules. 

 connects suppliers to those rules and handles the mapping, the testing, and the sign-off. It also builds the order, shipment, and invoice documents a first shipment needs. 

 has guides on item setup, routing, and 

How to Automate Supplier Order Processing 

 runs from the arrival of a retailer’s purchase order (PO) to payment. There are four documents that really drive it: the PO (EDI 850), the acknowledgment (EDI 855), the 

 (ASN, or EDI 856), and the invoice (EDI 810). When a trading partner sends those through EDI, they move between systems without anyone retyping them. When a partner sends a PDF instead, all four steps still happen, with a person manually handling each one. 

Those steps are the manual touchpoints. 

, and when dealing with PDFs as opposed to EDI documents, order entry can take up a whole day’s work. Counting each touchpoint separately is what makes it removable, one at a time, instead of waiting until the end of an order-to-cash cycle. 

What Are the Manual Touchpoints in Order Processing? 

 is any step where a person moves order data by hand. Retyping a line item from a PDF into an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is one. So is keying a ship-to address for a single distribution center (DC), or checking an invoice total against a PO on two screens. 

Each touchpoint fails in its own way, which is why it’s important to look at the whole map. 

Calling all of it “manual work” hides which step cost money. Root cause analysis is essential for fixing the right one. 

Acknowledgment and label generation have no published before-and-after number, because they usually get reported inside a broader automation result. 

Why Does Manual Order Entry Cost More as a Supplier Grows? 

The cost of a manual touchpoint is the error rate times what an error costs downstream. Before automating, Beyond Meat saw an error reach a customer in roughly 1-3% of orders. A wrong item, a wrong quantity, or a wrong price all made it into the ERP and out to the partner. At 30 orders on a heavy day, that means an error will occur most weeks, and each onewill reach a retailer you sell to as a credit, a return, or a chargeback. 

Published cost-per-order figures need care. One cited range puts manual PO processing at 

. The same source says companies process only 32.6% of invoices straight through. Both numbers measure the 

 side, which includes the requisition, the approval routing, and the payment. That is a different job from a supplier’s order entry. These figures provide context, not a benchmark that suppliers should quote about themselves. 

SPS Commerce estimates that up to 5% of revenue, or about 50% of operating profit, is lost to compliance and processing failures. That is an enterprise cost-of-inaction estimate. It covers retail partner failures broadly rather than order entry, so a smaller supplier should read it as the shape of the exposure and not as their own number.  

How Much Manual Work Does EDI PO Automation for Suppliers Remove? 

Beyond Meat runs order processing for North America and Latin America with a team of three. An additional person covers retail and foodservice distributors across Europe. As the company added distributors in the UK and EU, PO volume grew faster than the team, and most orders arrived as PDFs waiting to be manually keyed into NetSuite. 

Once those distributors joined the SPS network, about 70% of the customer base began ordering through automated fulfillment. Order processing time is down roughly 25% over two to three years. The EU role did not need a second hire. Automation absorbed the volume that would have justified one. Onboarding a new distributor took about three months before, and most now go live in a few days. 

“SPS Commerce has saved at least 25 percent of our order processing time over the last 2 to 3 years.” 

Jessica Powers, Manager, Customer Service, Beyond Meat 

What Happens When Customers Send PDFs Instead of EDI? 

, and a supplier is rarely in a position to ask. 

, a family-owned maker of fire sprinkler components, relied on several large customers who all sent POs as PDF attachments. Each layout was different, fields sat in different places, and formatting shifted over time within a single customer’s documents. By midday, 15 to 20 orders could arrive at once. 

, which maps each layout and turns the PDF into an electronic order with no change on the customer’s side. Accuracy came from one choice about how the data is read. Extraction runs against the customer’s own system-generated PDF file, not a scan of it. The system now automates 95-96% of AGF total order volume. The error points that dropped most were address fields and long part-number sequences. 

“The time you gain on the backside is worth it in a big way.” 

Rich Pancoast, Controller, AGF Manufacturing 

Unlike EDI onboarding, this changes nothing for the trading partner, which is why it fits the accounts you can’t move. 

Which Touchpoint Do Suppliers Usually Miss?  

Most automation conversations stop at order entry, and 

 is the touchpoint most likely still sitting on your desk. At 

, matching POs, invoices, and co-packer bills took hours by hand, and errors there produced lost POs rather than a visible shipping problem. 

 across the PO, the goods receipt note, and the invoice cut that work from half a day to 20 to 30 minutes. 

Automating the buy side and the sell side together saved 40 to 60 hours per week of customer-facing work. Order volume went from about 80 per week to between 400 and 600 at peak, and the trading partner network grew from 10 to more than 46, with no added customer service headcount. 

“The capabilities SPS has with NetSuite are above and beyond what I could even imagine, so that really leveled us up again.” 

Mike O’Halloran, Controller, Grillo’s Pickles 

Where should a supplier start to reduce manual order entry errors? 

Start with the touchpoint carrying the most downstream cost, which is usually order entry. An error there travels to the trading partner and comes back as a chargeback. Reconciliation is often the better second step. 

Does automating order processing require every customer to use EDI? 

No. PDF order automation turns a customer’s existing PDF into an electronic order with no change on their side. AGF Manufacturing automated 95-96% of its order volume while its customers kept sending PDFs. 

None of the three suppliers here cut headcount. Each absorbed growth instead, and Grillo’s grew order volume increased about fivefold with the same team. 

Want To Remove the Manual Steps From Your Order-to-Cash Cycle? 

 automates PO receipt, validation, acknowledgment, ASN creation, and invoicing. It works with the partners you already sell to, including the ones still sending PDFs. 

What Is Advance Ship Notice Inbound Signal Accuracy? 

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In the system, the shipment looked right. The advance ship notice (ASN) showed it leaving on time and in full. Yet by the time it reached the receiving door, the physical shipment told a different story: a partial pallet, the wrong lot, or a truck that had left a day late. 

That gap between what the system records and what moves through the supply chain is where small discrepancies can become larger operational problems. 

ASN accuracy is supposed to be the source of truth document that a team can plan around before a truck ever arrives. When that fact turns out to be wrong, procurement is the team explaining to operations why a schedule built on a confirmed shipment just came apart. 

What Does Shipped Actually Mean on an ASN? 

An ASN records what a supplier's system believes happened at the dock, not necessarily what a receiving team will find when the truck opens. Most ASNs are generated the moment an order is picked or invoiced, sometimes before a single case is loaded. The document says shipped. The transaction that would confirm it, an actual load, a carrier pickup, a scan at the door, may still be hours or days away. A manufacturing plant scheduling a production run around that ASN is scheduling around an intention. 

Why This Problem Lands on Procurement's Desk 

Whereas supply chain owns the consequence when a line stops, procurement owns the supplier relationship that produced the bad signal in the first place. That split puts procurement in an uncomfortable spot: the team gets the escalation after the fact, with little visibility into which suppliers are generating false positives and which are simply slow. 

The pattern typically shows up before any single shipment goes wrong. A supplier's ASN accuracy rate is a leading indicator of how much manual verification their transactions require, and manual verification is expensive. Every ASN that has to be double-checked against a phone call or a portal login pulls a buyer or planner away from work that actually needs their judgment. Multiply that across a supplier base of any size and the costs can become staggering, looking more a structural problem than an occasional headache. 

The False Positive ASN Problem Is a Timing Problem 

It's tempting to treat a false positive ASN as a supplier training issue: get them to enter better data and the problem goes away. That misses what is actually happening.  

Most false positives come from a mismatch between when a supplier's system fires the ASN and when the physical event it describes actually occurs. Fixing that requires the ASN to be tied to something verifiable, a carrier pickup scan, a warehouse confirmation, a shipment status that updates automatically rather than one a person keys in from memory. 

A supplier can be well-intentioned and still generate unreliable ASNs if their system has no way to confirm the event before reporting it. The fix is a connection that ties the ASN to the physical reality of the shipment, so the document updates when the truck moves instead of when someone assumes it will. 

What Great Inbound Shipment Visibility Requires 

Real inbound shipment visibility means a planner can look at an ASN and trust it enough to act on it without a second call. That requires three things working together:  

Most visibility tools solve the first problem and stop there. A dashboard that shows an ASN the moment it's created doesn't tell a planner whether that ASN is trustworthy. Speed without reliability just means the team finds out about the wrong information faster. The gap between seeing a shipment update and being able to act on it without checking it first is exactly where production schedules and procurement's credibility with the plant both take the hit. 

Turning ASN Accuracy Into a Supplier Accountability Conversation 

For procurement, ASN accuracy is a performance conversation waiting to happen, if the data exists to have it. Right now, most teams can tell you which suppliers are late. But few can tell you which suppliers are unreliable in a way that shows up as false positives rather than outright delays, because nobody is tracking ASN accuracy as its own metric. 

That's a gap worth closing. A supplier scorecard that includes ASN match rate, not just on-time delivery, gives procurement a specific, defensible reason to have the conversation before the next line stop instead of after it. It also gives supply chain a reason to trust procurement's read on a supplier relationship, because the data is there to back it up. 

 connects a manufacturer to its supplier community so that orders, shipment status, and invoices move on standardized, automated exchange instead of manual updates and phone calls. Within that connection, 

 watches for ASNs that deviate from what a supplier's own transaction history says is normal and surfaces those exceptions to the team so they can act before the shipment reaches the dock, not after. MAX puts the right exception in front of the right person early enough to make an impact without taking any action of its own. 

Most false positive ASNs happen because a supplier's system generates the shipment notice at order processing or invoicing, before the physical shipment is confirmed. The document reflects an expectation, not a completed event. 

How is ASN accuracy different from on-time delivery? 

On-time delivery measures whether a shipment arrived when promised. ASN accuracy measures whether the advance notice matched what physically arrived, including quantity, item, and timing. A supplier can be on time and still send unreliable ASNs. 

Why does ASN accuracy matter more as manufacturers automate planning? 

Automated planning and scheduling systems that use AI to help teams decide faster still depend on the data feeding them. Faster analysis of an inaccurate ASN still produces a bad plan. Improving ASN accuracy protects the value of every system built to act on it. 

Pick one supplier or one material where a false positive ASN has caused real disruption, a missed production run, an expedited freight bill, an uncomfortable conversation with operations.  

Ask two questions: how often does that supplier's ASN match what actually arrives, and how much manual checking does your team do because the answer to that question isn't already clear?  

Those two numbers are the start of a conversation that's overdue between procurement and its supplier base. See how SPS Commerce 

 to a more accountable supplier community. 

Your Retailer Compliance Scorecard Is a Tool, Not Just a Grade 

Retailer compliance scorecards can strike fear in the hearts of even the most confident and competent of suppliers, perhaps in part because they’re often compared to school report cards. It’s understandable to wince at the thought of being graded or scored. Making matters more complicated, there isn't a single scorecard standard. Every retailer structures their scorecard according to the measure(s) they’re most interested in, so 

 will look different from Amazon’s and so on.  

In the simplest terms, retailer compliance scorecards measure how well a supplier is meeting the retailer’s expectations. And just like your middle school math grade could greatly affect how your teacher (and parents) treated you, compliance scores are directly tied to things like retailer chargebacks, shelf space, promotional opportunities, and whether a retailer expands or shrinks future orders. In other words, scorecards can play a pivotal role in the growth of your business. 

While every retailer scorecard is different, there are several categories and metrics you’re likely to find on most. Suppliers that understand what each metric measures will be better positioned to obtain top scores and quickly address root problems the scorecard reveals.  

What is a Retailer Compliance Scorecard and Why is It Important?

A retailer compliance scorecard is a regular report (usually monthly or quarterly) that details how well a supplier is meeting the retailer’s operational requirements based on real transaction data (e.g., advance ship notices, dock scans, receiving records, labeling compliance).  

Retailers work with hundreds (if not thousands) of suppliers. Compliance scorecards offer a consistent, data-driven way to track and compare performance across the full supplier spectrum — giving buying, replenishment, and finance teams visibility into which suppliers are reliable and which ones are creating extra work downstream.  

Retailer compliance scores matter because they correspond to important consequences and opportunities. Good scores can translate to: 

Common Retailer Compliance Scorecard Metrics 

Scorecard metrics and their individual weightings vary by retailer. Here are some of the most common ones, divided by category: 

How To Use Your Scorecard To Find and Fix Problems 

While there are obvious benefits to getting good scores, less-than-stellar scores can also be helpful in identifying root issues that need attention. You can even think of 

 that help retailers and suppliers work better together. After all, retailers have a vested interest in helping their suppliers succeed. Rising tides raise all ships.  

The following table breaks down the metrics above and the possible root causes behind low scores: 

What is a retailer compliance scorecard? 

Retailers use compliance scorecards to track how well their suppliers are meeting operational expectations. Instead of a single grade, scorecards typically separate these expectations into various metrics gleaned through raw transaction data (ASNs, label scans, etc.). 

What are common retailer compliance scorecard metrics and how are they weighted? 

Every retailer structures its compliance scorecard differently in terms of both the metrics and their weights. A grocer that places utmost importance on in-stock rates may weight delivery timing and completeness more heavily than a specialty retailer focused on product quality. Before reacting to any single score, it helps to understand how that particular retailer weighs its categories. 

While scorecards vary, common metrics include: 

How often should suppliers check their scorecards? 

While you can wait for the monthly or quarterly summary, the scorecard itself might update more regularly and is often available on a self-service basis within the supplier portal. A weekly check can make it easier to catch issues before they turn into chargebacks.  

Because a bad scorecard can negatively affect the retailer-supplier relationship and shrink growth opportunities, it’s difficult to put a dollar amount on the cost. However, bad scorecards can also correlate to chargebacks. Walmart suppliers, for example, 

Partner with SPS Commerce for Fewer Scorecard Surprises  

Many of the errors that show up on a compliance scorecard start as data problems. 

 uses MAX, the agentic AI supply chain layer that sits in the SPS network, to watch every transaction, ensure it matches what each retailer requires, and flag what’s off before it ships — so a missed ASN or labeling error gets caught before it becomes a deduction.  

If you're already sitting on deductions tied to scorecard failures, 

 helps suppliers identify invalid deductions, gather documentation, build stronger disputes, and recover more revenue across every major retailer. 

Not ready for either? Explore more supplier support articles on 

Dropship vs. Distribution Center Fulfillment for Automotive and Industrial Brands 

 brands, fulfillment decisions get complicated quickly. A single parts catalog can include high-volume components, slow-moving service parts, specialized equipment, and products with very different customer requirements. That makes a company-wide decision between 

 fulfillment difficult to apply in practice. 

A fast-moving automotive component may make sense to stock at a distributor’s warehouse, where inventory can support frequent orders efficiently. A specialized replacement part may make more sense to ship directly from the supplier when demand is too low to justify stocking it across multiple locations. 

The right fulfillment model also depends on who's buying, not just the part.  

An OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer—a company that produces components or products which are then sold, rebranded, or integrated into finished goods by another company) might want the same part shipped in bulk to its warehouse, while a distributor wants it drop-shipped order by order. It’s the same part, made by the same supplier, but two different fulfillment models (based on the trading partner). 

For automotive and industrial brands, the more useful question is: 

Which fulfillment model makes the most sense for 

Automotive and industrial brands often manage thousands of 

, each with a different demand pattern. 

Some parts move consistently and predictably. Others may sit in inventory for months before a customer needs them. Service parts can create another challenge because demand may be low, but availability is critical when a vehicle, machine, or piece of equipment needs repair. 

A high-volume part may be a strong candidate for DC fulfillment. The brand can send inventory in larger shipments, while the distributor or other buying organization holds stock closer to demand. 

A low-volume service part may have a different profile. Stocking that part across multiple distribution points can tie up inventory and warehouse space. Dropshipping from the supplier can provide another way to make the part available without positioning inventory at every location. 

The same brand can use both models across its catalog. 

When deciding how to fulfill a particular SKU, start by considering the following three factors: 

These factors can point in different directions. A high-volume part may require dropship for one trading partner, while another customer receives the same part through a DC. That means fulfillment decisions often need to account for both the 

Consider an automotive brand that sells the same replacement component through two distribution partners. 

The physical part is the same, but the fulfillment process is different because the trading partner requirements are different. 

Industrial brands can face the same situation. A manufacturer selling specialized components may use warehouse fulfillment for predictable replenishment orders while shipping less predictable service orders directly from supplier inventory. 

EDI Requirements for Dropship vs. DC Fulfillment 

Each fulfillment model also creates different 

Dropship orders typically involve individual purchase orders (POs), order acknowledgments, advance ship notices (ASNs), invoices, and inventory information. The exact documents depend on the requirements of the trading partner. 

DC and warehouse fulfillment can involve warehouse-specific transactions when a third-party logistics provider (3PL) or other warehouse operator handles fulfillment. For example, a 

 can communicate what needs to be shipped, while a 

The important point for automotive and industrial brands is that 

the EDI workflow has to follow the fulfillment workflow

If a supplier supports both dropship and DC fulfillment, its systems need to route orders and documents correctly based on the trading relationship and fulfillment requirements. 

The specific transaction set can vary by trading partner, so brands should use their partner requirements as the source of truth when designing the workflow. 

Why Dropship Can Add Operational Complexity 

Dropship can give automotive and industrial brands more flexibility, especially for slow-moving parts. On the flip side, it can also create more individual transactions to manage. 

Instead of sending one consolidated replenishment shipment to a distributor’s DC, a supplier may process many individual customer orders, each requiring its own documentation, shipment confirmation, invoice, and status updates, which creates more opportunities for manual work and errors. 

Automotive and industrial brands can use a simple set of questions to determine where each SKU fits. 

Consistent, high-volume demand can support DC fulfillment. Lower-volume demand may make dropship more practical. 

2. How important is immediate availability?

Consider what happens when the part isn’t available. A replacement component that keeps a vehicle or piece of equipment operational may warrant a fulfillment strategy that gives the brand greater control over stock, since dropshipping from the brand’s own inventory can close the gap that a distributor’s DC schedule can’t. 

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