Purchase Order Automation by Onboarding Hundreds of Vendors
95% of all purchase orders received via EDI, reducing receiving time from three weeks to less than 48 hours.
- Company Type:
Retailer - Industry:
Sporting Goods
- Headquarters:
Fargo, ND - SPS Solution:
Community, Fulfillment
With more than two million active SKUs per store, sporting goods retailer Scheels relies on EDI for purchase order automation, making it a bedrock of their organization. Today, with the help of SPS Commerce’s vendor onboarding service, the company has almost all vendors on EDI and is seeing:
- Increased sales
- Increased inventory turns
- Reduced labor hours
- Reduced time to get product to the floor
It’s been a game changer for the retailer and its suppliers.
Boosting Inventory Receiving Efficiency
The retailer moved to EDI with SPS years ago, replacing a paper-based system. Since then, they’ve onboarded more and more vendors to improve their inventory management and receiving process.
“With a good label and a good ASN, shipments are scanned and instantly received into our inventory. It’s ready to go to our sales floor.
– Tony Duerr, Operations Leader, Scheels
The backrooms of their stores have changed from tunnels of brown boxes waiting to be put away to streamlined receiving operations thanks to EDI. Today, Scheels has items on the store floor within 48 hours, versus three weeks.
Achieving Purchase Order Automation
With 95 percent of orders received electronically, Scheels has almost reached complete purchase order automation. The retailer brought vendors into its EDI program using the expertise and resources of SPS Commerce. The Scheels and SPS partnership provides the order management automation and visibility that the retailer needed to manage its business.
“While their name is different, SPS very much functions as a part of our business. When they do an outreach to a vendor, they’re really outreaching on behalf of or as a part of the Scheels team. And I think that’s really critical that they come across and act in such a way that we’re proud of how they’re representing us.”
– Byron Snider, Information Services Leader, Scheels
The Interviewee:
Tony Duerr, Operations Leader, Scheels
Byron Snider, Information Services Leader, Scheels
The Challenge:
Move products through receiving and onto the store floor in hours not weeks.
The Solution:
SPS Commerce Fulfillment for EDI
SPS Commerce Community for vendor onboarding
The Results:
95% purchase order automation and products on the selling floor within 48 hours.
How do you ensure your inventory is on the selling floor in a timely manner?
Scheels leverages SPS Commerce Community to onboard their suppliers onto EDI, gaining insight into when shipments will be arriving at their stores by using an ASN. Watch our video with Scheels on how they use EDI for inventory optimization!
“We decided that we really want to expand and have EDI as our functional bedrock for our organization. Over the last six months, we’ve onboarded another 600 to 700 vendors.”
-Tony Duerr, Operations Leader, Scheels
Ready for purchase order automation? Learn why growing retailers partner with SPS Commerce.
Sign up here to learn more about how SPS can help with vendor onboarding, boost inventory receiving efficiency and increase inventory turns.
Ready to ditch the manual processes and reduce labor hours?
Learn how SPS can help, so you can focus on your stores and eCommerce sales.
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