Nextsport Integrated SPS Fulfillment EDI with NetSuite ERP to Help Support Major Retailer Orders

Nextsport EDI Project Results in a New Trading Partner Connection

Nextsport designs, manufactures and markets innovative and engaging product for kids and kids at heart. The majority of its business comes from distribution in major retailers including Target, ToysRUs, Wal-Mart and other retailers. To support these relationships, Nextsport needed an EDI partner to perform all EDI operations on its behalf and integrate with its NetSuite ERP system.

At a customer’s request, Nextsport called SPS Commerce to learn about the company’s on-demand EDI services. After discovering that SPS had pre-existing maps to Nextsport’s retail customers, hearing recommendations from their retailers and learning about SPS’ proven integration with NetSuite, Nextsport choose SPS Commerce as their EDI partner in 2006.

Nextsport was quickly connected with retail trading partners through SPSCommerce.net and was invited to attend SPS’ annual customer meeting.

At that event, Nextsport met George Hynes, President of Logistic Edge, a third-party logistics (3PL) provider and SPS partner that works with several SPS customers. Logistic Edge became Nextsport’s 3PL provider and is managing 95% of the company’s orders today. In addition to starting this strategic relationship, Nextsport learned of SPS’ Trading Partner Intelligence (TPI) service, which it began using in 2010.

Integrating EDI with NetSuite and Logistic Edge

Nextsport elected to use SPS’ EDI Service for NetSuite for its high-volume customers and its 3PL and leverage the WebForms service for smaller retail customers. SPS Commerce rapidly completed the integration to connect with Nextsport’s NetSuite ERP solution and Logistic Edge.

“We were delighted to be chosen as Nextsport’s 3PL provider and given our past experiences with SPS Commerce, we knew the integration would be smooth and completed quickly,” said George Hynes, President of Logistic Edge. “Logistic Edge has several customers using SPSCommerce.net and has been very impressed with SPS’ technology and experienced staff that is always accessible and willing to go the extra mile.”

Managing Inventory with Trading Partner Intelligence

In late 2010, Nextsport looked to SPS Commerce to help them to more easily manage and monitor their inventory through the use of SPS’ Trading Partner Intelligence (TPI) Service. Using this on-demand intelligence solution, Nextsport’s sales and operations executives can quickly view the sell through rates of their products and use this information as part of their ongoing discussions with their buyers. Today they are able to view store-level sales data from 70% of their retail customers using the TPI service which has Point of Sale data from more than 120 retailers.

“SPS Commerce helps Nextsport easily meet our retailers’ integration and visibility requirements with on-demand EDI services, and more effectively manage our inventory with new services such as Trading Partner Intelligence,” explained TJ Carskadon, President at Nextsport.

This summer Nextsport is launching a new product line for fishing enthusiasts. TPI will help them to monitor the sales of these new items by retailer, geography and time period to identify any sales trends or potential inventory outages. Its sales team can use this information to work collaboratively with buyers to drive more sales.

“After just a short time of using TPI, we are able to monitor our sell through and have more proactive discussions with buyers on how to best market our sporting goods products in their stores,” said Carskadon.