Nourishing growth together

Challenge

As a pioneer in health and wellness since 1935, GNC provides innovative and trusted solutions to help people achieve their health goals. With a vast retail presence, strong wholesale partnerships and a growing digital footprint, GNC continues to expand its reach to wellness seekers worldwide.

GNC operates a complex supply chain, sourcing products from vendors, delivering GNC-branded products to leading retail chains and managing direct-to-consumer eCommerce orders. Given this complexity, maintaining efficient distribution centers is crucial. Automating data exchange through EDI is essential for both GNC and its vendors to ensure seamless and efficient operations.

Before working with SPS, the company grappled with paperwork and manual tasks, which consumed valuable time and delayed getting products onto shelves or into consumers’ hands.

“We’re in a race against time because all our products have expiration dates. Having the right data is key to keeping our supply chain on track. Our success hinges on reducing compliance issues, and EDI is a huge part of that. Without reliable accurate advance ship notices (ASNs), we can’t receive products efficiently. Without accurate invoices, we can’t pay vendors or get paid ourselves.”

– Marty Hahn, Director of Vendor Relations, GNC

In addition to this challenge, GNC recognized the importance of sharing sales and inventory data to bolster vendor partnerships and enhance mutual sales opportunities. Historically, GNC shared inventory and sales data with vendors, but the process was cumbersome, manual and often resulted in inaccuracies.

“We knew we had to get smarter about sharing sales and inventory data. Working with SPS gave our vendors easy access to accurate sell-through data so they could have positive, specific conversations with our merchant teams to drive higher sales.”

– Marty Hahn, Director of Vendor Relations, GNC

Solution

To address its dual role as both a retailer and supplier, GNC joined forces with SPS Commerce. This strategic move automated data exchange across GNC’s entire supply chain, optimizing interactions with 1,100+ vendors and 30+ retailers and grocers.

GNC entrusted SPS with onboarding vendors to meet its EDI standards, augmenting internal capabilities with expertise and resources from the SPS team. The vendor outreach program was instrumental in ensuring swift and seamless onboarding. This program addressed the technical intricacies of onboarding vendors and emphasized quick adoption to maintain a responsive supply chain.

Working with SPS allowed GNC and its vendors to quickly get on the same page and reduce the time spent troubleshooting data errors, resolving inventory issues and managing exceptions. SPS also provided a streamlined way for GNC to meet the complex order fulfillment requirements of its retail and grocery customers by consolidating 30 unique processes into one.

In addition, SPS provided a shared platform for GNC and its vendors to automate the sharing of critical sales and inventory data and pre-built dashboards and reporting tools to make use of the data.

Results

The collaboration between GNC and SPS led to significant operational improvements and efficiency gains. A standout accomplishment was the impressive boost in EDI adoption, reaching nearly 95%, along with a 95% accuracy rate for Advance Ship Notices (ASNs) which greatly improved inventory planning and receiving efforts.

The partnership also enhanced GNC’s vendor relationships by providing vendors with reliable sell-through data for better decision-making. The increased data accuracy and reporting capabilities enabled GNC and its vendors to collaborate more effectively, optimizing inventory management and sales strategies. Vendors that leveraged the SPS platform to analyze sell-through with GNC experienced a 16% increase in product sell-through over non-SPS vendors, demonstrating the power of better data for product planning and inventory management.