Nutricare & SPS Commerce: Full-Service EDI Success

Executive Summary

Consumers across Australia, Europe and the United States have made Nutricare’s natural health care products a global success. The increasing number of retail customers, growing order volumes and inventory management made their step into EDI a necessity.

Today, Nutricare is using SPS Commerce Fulfillment to manage their orders in the most simple and streamlined way possible. They rely on SPS to provide the full-service EDI solution to keep them compliant, eliminate entry errors and support them with hundreds of EDI, retail and systems experts in Australia, the U.S. and other offices worldwide. The SPS full-service solution is integrated with Nutricare’s Unleashed inventory management system and their logistics partners, to efficiently fulfill orders from more than a dozen of the world’s largest retailers and grocers.

Nutricare is using technology and innovation to reinvent health care products to be cleaner, natural and responsible. Its current products include the popular PATCH bamboo bandages that provide natural wound care. These bandages are found in stores and online across Europe, Australia and the United States. As a young company, founded in 2016, they have grown quickly and choose solutions, including Unleashed for inventory management, to help them scale with ease.

“We are a global business with a small team and do not have the time to enter orders all day, every day,” said Doreen Ventura at Nutricare. “We have tried to automate as much as possible.”

Choosing the right EDI partner

By deploying Unleashed, Nutricare set the foundation for automated order management. They were waiting for the first retailer to ask them do EDI, and it didn’t take long. When the call came, Nutricare did a quick search for a local EDI provider and moved forward.

“We chose an EDI provider quickly for our Australia retailers and signed the contract,” said Ventura. “Then, I spoke with a few colleagues in the industry and all mentioned their positive experiences with SPS. Next, Grove Collaborative in the U.S. wanted us to do EDI using SPS. We heard the SPS name everywhere and found out that their reputation was solid. SPS was the obvious leader and trusted by our partners.”

Ventura’s initial EDI choice was a web portal from another EDI provider, but she found it difficult to navigate. So, when it came to doing EDI in the U.S., Nutricare deployed full-service EDI with SPS Fulfillment instead.

“Our first EDI solution made life difficult,” said Ventura. “Once our contract ran out, we immediately switched our Australia business to SPS. SPS Fulfillment tells me what my retailer requires, when I have missing information, and what to do next. I’m not an EDI expert but with the ease of this solution I have confidence that our EDI is correct and in compliance. It’s been a radically different experience than our first solution, I’m so glad we switched.”

Experiencing full-service EDI

Nutricare’s supply chains differ greatly by region. In Europe, a master distributor manages their supply chain and retailer partnerships. In the U.S., they use a third-party logistics provider (3PL) to manage higher order volumes. And, in Australia, they have a small onsite warehouse but primarily use a 3PL, Mainfreight Australia.

“We learned that SPS not only integrates well with Unleashed, but they were compatible with Mainfreight as well,” said Ventura. “This was welcome news. We have yet to find a system or partner they didn’t work with. We won’t outgrow SPS or need to make alternative system or partner choices to support them. This is part of their full-service promise.”

SPS is making EDI simple for Nutricare by providing the technology, system automation to Unleashed, integration with its 3PLs, and the local experts in Australia and the U.S. to support the supplier at every turn.

“We started with two EDI retailers in Australia, and now have 15 across the world,” continued Ventura. “Our products are sold in major retailers including Amazon, Albertsons, Coles Supermarkets, CVS, Symbion, Walmart and Woolworths. I have complete confidence in our full-service EDI solution, SPS Fulfillment, knowing it supports our EDI needs today and whatever is around the next corner for Nutricare.”

Freeing staff from portals and manual entry

When Woolworths began carrying PATCHS, Nutricare’s team used the retailer’s web portal to download orders and communicate shipment details.

“As I was using the portal, I thought ‘how many systems am I going to have to learn as our company grows,’” said Ventura. “Why wouldn’t I put all my orders in one place? Using SPS Fulfillment just makes more sense. I only have to learn one system to view and manage all of our orders. Its efficient and so easy. I can even manage orders while answering phone calls, it’s that intuitive and has my complete confidence.”

Moving to an automated solution with SPS and Unleashed means that Nutricare is no longer entering orders in manually.

“When we automated with SPS, one of the biggest advantages was how it eliminated all human error in our order management,” said Ventura. “human error can occur when processing orders. Now our U.S. orders are automatically downloaded into Unleashed and ready to be sent to our 3PL on Monday morning. This save our U.S. teams a lot of time and gives them the freedom to do other things.”

Supporting Nutricare across the globe

Full-service solutions deliver more than technology. They provide the people who bring their expertise to any EDI situation that may arise. For Nutricare, it was important that SPS had local support in Sydney, Melbourne and Minneapolis that were available to help with any question.

“Team SPS is always there for me,” said Ventura. “They are friendly, accessible and walk me through any steps I need to do on my side. When I have a question, I can chat, email or call and I know I’ll reach my team that knows my business. It’s one of the reasons that we love SPS.”

Nutricare’s plans include further expansion into global markets, likely Asia and additional European markets. “With SPS, we know that wherever we go, they’ll be there,” states Ventura.