Your path to enhanced vendor collaboration starts here
To meet customer expectations and stay ahead of disruptions (while still being profitable), you need to change how you collaborate with vendors. We’ve unlocked the most important supplier communication efficiencies.
The first step: asking the right questions
Struggling to meet consumer expectations while keeping fulfillment costs in check? This requires collaborative planning with your suppliers so you can effectively allocate and sell your products. Without vendor collaboration, it’s impossible to offer a seamless customer experience.
When you’re ready to take the first step on the path to clear vendor collaboration, ask yourself questions like:
How clear is our vendor guide in setting supply chain expectations and performance standards?
WHY IT MATTERS
Clear standards eliminate guesswork and give suppliers a roadmap for success.
How well do we communicate our vision and strategic priorities to suppliers?
WHY IT MATTERS
Suppliers who understand your priorities can collaborate with you to drive mutual gains.
How do we get all suppliers aligned with our requirements and timelines?
WHY IT MATTERS
Alignment across your supplier community keeps inventory flowing and customers satisfied.
What information and support do we provide to help suppliers succeed?
WHY IT MATTERS
Sharing timely insights and expert resources enables stronger results across the supply chain.
Can we see a complete picture of supplier performance and act on the gaps?
WHY IT MATTERS
A comprehensive view builds accountability across your supplier community.
How healthy is your supply chain?
Tired of inventory management surprises? Identify the supplier performance gaps that cause inventory issues with our Health Vitals tool.
Navigating the challenges of poor vendor collaboration
A lack of vendor collaboration isn’t just inconvenient for your employees. It’s potentially affecting the overall customer experience, leading to lost revenue and missed opportunities:
Increased supply chain disruptions: Miscommunication between a business and their vendors can have a ripple effect that causes delayed shipments or inventory problems, impacting customer satisfaction.
Higher operating costs: Poor collaboration often leads to a need for manual corrections, duplicate work or recovery costs, driving up operational expenses.
Decreased product quality: Without the proper alignment, vendors often fail to meet quality standards, leading to defective products or subpar deliveries.
Lost revenue opportunities: Disjointed vendor relationships lead to missed opportunities to optimize pricing, improve lead times or introduce new products, affecting sales and profitability.
Strained business relationships: Poor collaboration erodes trust between businesses and their vendors, making it harder to foster long-term partnerships.
Frequently asked questions about vendor collaboration
How can better supplier collaboration improve customer experience?
Strong supplier collaboration ensures seamless inventory management, faster order fulfillment and consistent product availability. By working closely with suppliers, retailers can anticipate customer needs, reduce delivery delays, and provide a more reliable shopping experience—whether online or in-store.
What types of supply chain data are important for customer experience?
Key supply chain data that impacts customer experience includes inventory levels, order statuses, shipping timelines and product availability. Real-time insights into these areas enable retailers to avoid stockouts, manage delivery expectations and ensure customers receive the products they want, when they want them.
How does poor supplier collaboration negatively impact customer experience?
Poor supplier collaboration can lead to inventory mismanagement, delayed deliveries and stockouts, all of which frustrate customers and damage brand loyalty. When communication and data-sharing between retailers and suppliers are lacking, it becomes difficult to meet customer demands efficiently, leading to lost sales and negative reviews.
How can vendor collaboration help reduce out-of-stocks that frustrate customers?
By fostering transparent and proactive communication with vendors, retailers can better forecast demand, ensure timely replenishments and maintain optimal stock levels. This collaborative approach minimizes the risk of out-of-stocks, ensuring customers find the products they need when they shop.
How can data from SPS help me improve my customer experience?
SPS Commerce provides actionable insights into your supply chain, including inventory tracking, order management and supplier performance. These data-driven tools help retailers optimize operations, reduce stockouts and deliver a seamless shopping experience. With SPS data, you can make informed decisions that align with customer expectations and boost satisfaction.
A better customer experience stems from stronger vendor collaboration
Imagine if you could:
Reduce or eliminate time spent manually fixing item errors
Consistently ship products on time and in full to customers
Set accurate expectations on item availability across sales channels
Provide up-to-date outbound order communications to end consumers
With proper data exchange between you and your vendors, you’ll have the insights needed to ensure your customers are happy—with the right product, in the right place, at the right time.
By automating data exchange and improving collaboration with your suppliers, you can move inventory faster, reduce holding costs, optimize stock levels and improve customer experience. The SPS Commerce Supply Chain Performance Suite provides the automation and visibility to make this possible.
When vendors know better, they do better
Course correct faster with your trading partners when you boost vendor collaboration. Set and maintain expectations, and your orders will arrive on time and in full.
SPS Commerce partners with you to automate information exchange between you and your supplier community.
When customers are happy, we’ve done our jobs right. One of our competitive advantages is that every order fulfilled by domestic vendors runs through SPS Commerce. This allows us to process orders without downtime, ship orders to customers quickly and meet our delivery timelines.
Bill Gratke, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain, Planning and Reporting
The journey to a stronger supply chain starts with vendor collaboration
Regular text: The SPS Supply Chain Performance Suite includes the technology, expert team and proven process to automate the exchange of data with your vendor community.
With true vendor collaboration, you can:
Optimize warehouse space with item details
Improve planning with advance shipment notifications
Automate receiving with scannable barcode labels
Support smarter order management with supplier inventory visibility
Empower suppliers to maintain optimal stock levels by sharing sell-through data
Vendor onboarding
Relationship Management
Vendor scorecarding
Performance Management
Order Management
Supply Chain Performance Suite