Navigating Retail Portals: Challenges and Opportunities

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

In today’s retail supply chain, portals are one of the primary ways retailers communicate essential business processes with their trading partners. From item setup to compliance reporting, these systems serve as the operational gateway for many day-to-day supplier interactions. If you've ever lost time chasing down a requirements update, hunting for the right contact, or deciphering yet another new compliance requirement, you're not alone — and that's exactly why this work matters.

Our RVCF Business Process Workgroup has spent several months focusing on Retail Portals to make working together as productive as possible. As our work has progressed, we have identified Communications (changes/updates, performance, contacts), Security, and Access as essential focal points for our best practices. We're also building a shared glossary so that suppliers and retailers are finally speaking the same language.

If you work with Retailer Portals as a user or as a creator, we need your input! Retail portals are the backbone of today's supplier-retailer relationships. From item setup to compliance reporting, they're the operational hub where so much of the real work gets done. When they work well, business flows. When they don't, everyone feels it.

Join us on Wednesday, July 15 at 1:00 PM ET to share your experiences, compare approaches, and help shape recommendations for improving portal effectiveness across the industry.

Register here and be part of the conversation.

The Central Role of Contract Language in Post-Audit Recovery and Deduction Disputes

By James Hilton, Director of Consulting Services, Smyyth & Carixa

Post-Audit Industrialization: Is Your Defense Keeping Pace?

By James Hilton, Director of Consulting Services, Smyyth & Carixa

Reducing EDI-Related Chargebacks

By Michael Kotoyan, MBA, PMP, EDI Academy Instructor and Founder

Chargebacks (often referred to as "expense-offsets") are financial penalties for non-compliance with your customer's requirements. Retailers issue chargebacks because vendor noncompliance disrupts operations and creates an additional expense for the retailer. Therefore, retailers create "expense offset policies" intended to recover the additional costs incurred due to vendor noncompliance.

Unfortunately, EDI-related chargebacks have become a profit center for many retailers. Chargeback fees vary greatly from customer to customer. A $100 penalty for an EDI document containing errors would not be uncommon. Most retailers provide a chargeback fee schedule. Chargebacks are usually deducted off the invoice payment.

Some common challenges that organizations face with chargeback problems are:  (Click Link to Read More)

Navigating Retail Portals: Challenges and Opportunities

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

In today’s retail supply chain, portals are one of the primary ways retailers communicate essential business processes with their trading partners. From item setup to compliance reporting, these systems serve as the operational gateway for many day-to-day supplier interactions.

While portals are essential, their structure, content, and accessibility vary widely across retailers, often creating challenges for the teams that rely on them every day. Most portals support functions such as:

• Item Setup, Maintenance, and Attributes
• Transportation and Logistics
• Compliance and Deductions
• Financial Data
• Supplier Performance Reporting
• Supplier Onboarding

Because these portals play such a critical role in enabling supply chain collaboration, RVCF has launched a discussion focused on identifying best practices for retail portals. Our goal is to explore how portal structure, content, and access can better support both retailers and suppliers.

Our first session focused on mapping the major functions portals support. In the upcoming discussion, we will move deeper into identifying where friction occurs—when information is difficult to find, processes are unclear, or data is needed quickly to keep the supply chain moving.

If you work with retailer portals, your perspective is valuable.

Join us on Wednesday, March 18 at 1:00 PM ET to share your experiences, compare approaches, and help shape recommendations for improving portal effectiveness across the industry.

Register here and be part of the conversation.

Portals in Retail: A Roadmap to Partnership

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Communication with trading partners is the backbone of every successful retail relationship—and portals are an essential tool for sharing critical process information. Within this intricate engine of information, each company provides operational information on critical business processes that grease the wheels of the supply chain. From the initial creation of product data, logistics, compliance, and score carding, these portals present trading partners with the “rules of the road.” Roadblocks to maximize the impact of portals are disconnection and lack of clarity, sometimes showing in structure and other times in access.

In 2026, RVCF is launching a Portal Business Process Workgroup to define portal structure and clear & consistent content by aligning to best practices, which help retailers and suppliers reduce friction, improve execution, and accelerate speed to market.

This group will collaborate to develop practical recommendations for portal structure and content across key functional areas, including:

• Item Setup, Maintenance, and Attributes
• Transportation and Logistics
• Compliance and Deductions
• Supplier Performance Reporting

We invite you to be part of this effort from the start. 

Join us for the first workgroup meeting on Thursday, February 19, 2026, at 1:00 PM ET, where we will align objectives, scope, and next steps. Your experience and perspective will directly influence the guidance developed for the industry. Please feel free to invite colleagues who work closely with these processes—broader participation will strengthen the outcomes. 

Register here and we look forward to working together!

Realistic Implementation Planning for GS1 Digital Link: A Practical Roadmap
By Andy Verb, President, Bar Code Graphics

The Path to a Connected Future: Rethinking the Delivery of Product Catalog
By Todd Gould, Founder & CEO, Loren Data Corp.

The State of AI Maturity in Retail
By Ellie Quartel, AVP, Retail Industry GTM, ServiceNow

Intelligent Supply Chain With Automated Mapping: The Next Step Towards True Connectivity
By Michael Rabinowitz, CEO & Founder, CoEnterprise

Case Study: CEDEX × UE Group ~ Modernizing Cross-Border EDI, Supply Chain Connectivity, and E-Invoicing for a U.S. Furniture Manufacturer

California Retailers Association Announces the Launch of the California Retailers for Environmental Innovation Coalition

Coalition's primary goal is to collaborate with lawmakers and regulatory agencies to make California’s retail sector a model for sustainable innovation nationwide

The California Retailers Association (CRA) announced today the official launch of the California Retailers for Environmental Innovation, a transformative coalition dedicated to advancing sustainability and environmental leadership within the state's retail sector.

The California Retailers for Environmental Innovation brings together retailers, service providers, local governments and industry partners to shape California’s complex environmental policy landscape through collaborative and practical solutions. This strategic coalition leverages collective expertise and advocacy to address issues ranging from sustainable packaging and textile recovery to e-waste management and extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs, always with consumer affordability at the forefront.

"The coalition’s mission is to balance environmental progress with business pragmatism ensuring California's regulations boost sustainability without creating financial burdens for consumers or retailers," said Rachel Michelin, President and CEO of the California Retailers Association. "By joining forces, members can actively influence public policies, participate in critical discussions with lawmakers and regulatory agencies and showcase industry-defining leadership in environmental innovation.

In addition to the coalition launch, CRA is excited to announce the hiring of Rachel Wagoner, former CalRecycle Director, who will help steer the Environmental Coalition mission, goals and objectives including providing strategic insight on legislation and regulatory issues through the lens of her decades of experience working on some of California's most critical environmental policies.

Businesses and organizations that join the Environmental Innovation coalition will benefit from:

• Enhanced influence on shaping regulatory outcomes and environmental programs
• Strategic engagement with policymakers to streamline compliance and minimize operational challenges
• Opportunities to amplify their sustainability initiatives and partner on innovative solutions for a circular economy
•  Quantifiable cost savings through coordinated policy advocacy and design

California Retailers for Environmental Coalition is a project of the California Retailers Association. Membership is open to retailers, trade associations, nonprofits, small businesses, chambers of commerce and other stakeholders committed to balanced and sustainable solutions.

California retailers and sustainability stakeholders are invited to join this powerful coalition and help shape the future of environmental innovation statewide. For more information about the coalition click HERE.

Why Didn’t I get selected for that job, I am the perfect fit!

By Brett Schurman, Owner SERecruit, a Professional Recruiting Firm

Why Didn’t I get selected for that job, I am the perfect fit!

By Brett Schurman, Owner SERecruit, a Professional Recruiting Firm

Why Didn’t I get selected for that job, I am the perfect fit!

By Brett Schurman, Owner SERecruit, a Professional Recruiting Firm

Bringing Professionalism to RFID Deployments

By Mark Roberti, Founder and President of the RFID Professional Institute

Case Study: A Story of Embedded Third-Party Risk Management at Retail Scale

By apexanalytix

A large global retailer transformed supplier risk management by embedding apexanalytix’s Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) directly into its homegrown supplier management system. For 60,000 GNFR suppliers, risk is now assessed at onboarding through Inherent Risk Questionnaires, continuous monitoring and external data signals to proactively manage risk. The result: touchless onboarding, streamlined compliance, and scalable risk management built into everyday workflows.

Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ) Defined

Research by Gerard F. Smith, Pezold, Smith, Hirschmann & Selvaggio LLC.

Serial Numbers for RFID and 2D Barcodes at Point of Sale in General Merchandise Retail

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Let’s begin with the bottom line. Two-dimensional (2D) barcodes on the consumer package at Point of Sale (POS) are coming and RFID has seen an increase in adoption in general merchandise retail. Both data carriers require a unique serial number (SN) for every item. To comply with industry GS1 standards, only one serial number can be assigned to an individual item and that serial number is used in both barcodes and RFID. Barcodes include linear barcodes such as  GS1-128, and two-dimensional barcodes such as QR or Data Matrix.

Barcodes can accommodate a longer, alphanumeric, variable length serial number. The RFID chips commonly used today are restricted in the amount of data they can hold and use only numeric data. To use the same serial number in both technologies, the simple answer is to use a numeric serial number that works with today’s RFID tags. Even if you are not currently tagging your products with RFID, that may not always be the case.

But with any technological decision there are factors to consider. Please read on for more information.

Reimagining Retail Waste: The Case for Reuse in Supply Chains

By Pact Retail Solutions, a division of Pact Group

Plugging the Profit Leaks: Tackling Accounts Receivable Deductions

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth & Carixa

Making Collaboration Work: Building Solutions Through Data Standards

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

The dictionary defines collaboration as "the action of working with someone to produce or create something" — a practice where individuals unite around a shared purpose to drive business success.

But the real question is: How do you actually make collaboration happen?  How do you bring together groups with different priorities, align their interests, and find sustainable solutions that benefit everyone involved?

At RVCF, we believe it all begins with relationships.  Building strong connections with your peers and partners creates a foundation of trust and mutual respect — fostering a spirit of collaboration that can transform challenges into opportunities across the industry.

This summer, we are focusing on how to foster collaboration through the use of data standards in the retail landscape. Whether it’s improving compliance with Advanced Ship Notices, enhancing label clarity, ensuring On Time/In Full deliveries, or refining scorecards, working together to resolve these challenges benefits the entire retail ecosystem — helping every company better serve the consumer.

Over the past two years, our investigations into operational gaps have revealed a common thread: many of these gaps can be addressed by expanding or clarifying existing standards. As data standards continue to evolve, gathering and channeling feedback from our members has allowed us to present meaningful solutions — improving the quality, accuracy, and efficiency of information shared between trading partners.

Are you ready to be part of the solution for retail’s future?  Learn more about how RVCF is driving change here.

And don’t miss our live discussion at GS1 Connect, June 9–12:  Data Standards: A Powerful Alliance in Supply Chain and at Tabletop 512!

Also plan to join us at the RVCF Fall Conference in Scottsdale, November 2-5. We look forward to collaborating with you!

Reducing Retail Vendor Non-Compliance Penalties and Deductions; A CFOs Quick Guide to Navigating Chain Retailer Compliance Programs

By James Hilton, Vendor Compliance Consultant at Smyyth

Weathering the Tariff Storm: How Consumer Goods Companies Can Protect Margins and Keep Goods Flowing

By James Day, d/b/a Proven Supply Chain Solutions and Steve Weyer, GSCC, Inc.

Increasing the "Values" in Your Value Chain

By Russ Shumaker, Ben Barras - World Vision

It’s easy to think of value chains as strictly operational and logistical—move goods from Point A to Point B, trim costs, increase efficiency. But as RVCF members know well, every aspect of business is an opportunity to drive efficiency, cost savings and purposeful impact and sustainability.

At World Vision, we’ve seen it happen through our ten-year relationship with Costco.

If you saw the April issue of Costco Connection, you read about our long-standing partnership with Costco. They are effectively managing their value chain in strategic ways—donating excess inventory, redirecting returned products, and partnering with World Vision to serve children and families in disaster zones and under-resourced communities.  Costco benefits from tax advantages, the elimination of costs for destruction, disposal and transportation and they promote a more sustainable operation, while philanthropically supporting the underserved.  These are all qualities that their customers and employees appreciate.

Costco’s example goes to show that sustainability, compassion, and purpose can coexist with logistical excellence and scale. It’s proof that your business—even your value chain—can be part of something bigger.

But even if your business doesn’t have a robust value chain, you can make an impact too. When customers and employees see their company doing something meaningful, something that reflects their own values, it deepens loyalty, drives engagement, and creates a culture people want to be part of.

So here’s the question: How are you increasing the “values” in your value chain?

A Reflection on 25 Years

By Kim Zablocky, Founder and Principal, Retail Value Chain Federation

Looking back to the 90s, I was President of New York Credit & Financial Management, an over 100-year-old organization that brought together banks, factors, manufacturers, and brands to share credit information on common customers and borrowers. During the 90s, the New York Credit Group services hosted several consumer goods manufacturers and wholesalers.

As the retail industry consolidated, surviving retailers modernized their supply chains with new technology, providing speed to the market or end consumer. With these improvements, retailers required their merchandise suppliers to modernize their supply chains, including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), labeling, and value-added services. The Vendor Guide was introduced, and failure to meet its requirements led to compliance charges. Suppliers struggled to keep up with these requirements, resulting in significant receivable dilution equating to hundreds of thousands of dollars, causing angst and frustration.

This issue became the main topic at our group meetings. We couldn't believe retailers were taking their fees without reason, so we surveyed to better understand these charges. We found that suppliers were doing a poor job of meeting retail customers' requirements. Believing these charges originated from the retailer's Accounts Payable department, we organized a group called the Dispute and Deduction Resolution group.

Our first meeting was held at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum, with Walmart's VP of Accounts Payable and his deputy addressing the group. This event thrilled suppliers, who were excited to have such discussions. After Walmart, we had meetings with Federated/Macy’s, Dayton Hudson Co., and Kmart. Despite the success of these events, charges continued, anger grew, and we had to change the business model.

We realized compliance charges originated from shipment failures: being late, incomplete, erroneous documentation, or damage. Charges were 80-90% accurate, with 10-20% disputable. This led to the creation of the position of Vendor Compliance Manager who was responsible for resolving line-item deductions. In April 2000, we held the first meeting of Vendor Compliance Managers, attracting nearly 100 brand representatives. They needed help managing orders from their largest retail customers, and peer-to-peer discussions of best practices were essential.

The next meeting was to be held in May at Newark Liberty Airport Marriott, and suppliers requested a retailer's presence. Saks Fifth Avenue was invited. The group was excited to hear from a retailer at the new group gathering. We met again in October at the Manhattan Beach Marriott in California, where two retail industry experts addressed merchandising and merchant expectations. Our February 2021 meeting in Las Vegas, NV, marked a turning point. Both the CIO and Director of Vendor Relations of Dillard’s Department Stores addressed the group. We were on our way to building a valuable organization!

Years went by as so many different brands and retailers passed through our doors. Service providers took notice and joined our events, allowing us to upgrade meeting locations. Some of our first sponsors were QRS Product Catalogue, Printronix, Manhattan Associates, and Dynamic, to name a few.

When January 2013 rolled around, we realized that the organization now represented Brands, Retailers, and Service Providers, and our name, Vendor Compliance Federation, no longer described our value proposition, we rebranded to the Retail Value Chain Federation, RVCF.

By this point, we were hosting three conferences a year with Spring and Fall being the preferred events. We also hosted individual retail-supplier summits.

As our 20^th Anniversary rolled around, so did COVID. Unable to host events that year we relied on open forum calls, webinars, and endless golf games. Sadly, the virus had a financially stressful effect on the retail industry.  While larger chains survived, smaller chains struggled. The virus still haunts many companies that are still in recovery mode. Thus, RVCF, reflecting the times decided to make the Fall Conference our only in-person event and to expand the scope of virtual activities for our membership.

So, now our 25^th Anniversary Conference is headed back to the JW Marriott Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, AZ. The theme is a Celebration of Collaboration.

I know we did good! We harmonized the relationship between trading partners by addressing the human element of face-to-face communication, a lost art given the many ways to communicate on electronic media today.

Here’s what I believe we accomplished.

• Help brands better understand retailer order fulfillment requirements, thus, reducing compliance deductions.
• Improve the practices of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)
• RVCF Compliance Clearinghouse, alerting member brands to important retail vendor guide changes
• The Priceless One-on-one meeting at RVCF events
• Keeping the retail industry aware of the latest practical solutions offered by Service Providers that help all parties improve sales, reduce costs, and make our members more efficient in their business processes.

USE THIS LINK to share your own RVCF Story.  Also, view the timeline of RVCF Retailer Participation Through the Years.  We look forward to continuing our shared journey to addressing the needs of the retail community in ways that best align with their needs and priorities.  

Retail EDI Basics Whitepaper Now Available

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

RVCF has posted an EDI Basics for Retail whitepaper in the Thought Leadership Store .

Background - RVCF was approached in 2021 by retailers looking for improved automated receiving, including a more accurate and timely EDI Ship Notice. A survey was conducted to identify issues and best business practices. When the results were presented at the RVCF Fall Conference, we saw a need for basic EDI education including understanding terms, concepts and relevant business processes.

RVCF established the Business Process Guideline Work Group, made up of retailers, merchandise suppliers, and solution providers which has created various Guides written for those in business operations, providing the information needed to be successful in their roles in supply chain, transportation, ordering, shipping, receiving, accounts payable/receivable, and master data, including where EDI transactions play a role.  The Group's library of Guides is available for download at rvcf.com.  Contact info@rvcf.com for access. 

This whitepaper brings together the EDI basics identified in the previous business process guides.

The EDI Basics for Retail paper covers EDI standards, basic terms, concepts and components. It includes EDI error prevention, notification and corrections, plus a list of EDI Resources. 

EDI Educational Opportunity – RVCF recognizes the importance of EDI in retail today. When RVCF conference attendees are asked what topics they would like to see addressed, EDI education is always on the list. RVCF is pleased to share a special offer for virtual EDI training sessions hosted by EDI Academy. EDI Academy will offer a monthly series of six virtual EDI Training sessions intended for both the technical and business user including those new to EDI and those with years of experience. These are live hosted webinars, not pre-recorded sessions. 

Topics to be addressed in each series include:

• Supply Chain EDI 101 - Introduction to EDI
• Supply Chain EDI 110 - EDI Connectivity and On-Boarding
• Supply Chain EDI 201 - EDI Enveloping & Structure
• Supply Chain EDI 301 - 850,810, 856 ASN and UCC-128 Labels EDI
• Supply Chain EDI 401-Advanced: E-Commerce EDI & Change Order Automation
• Supply Chain EDI 410 - Advanced Course: EDI for Finance, Inventory & Transportation

A discount is available when you register in the Events section on RVCF.com.  Register for individual sessions or complete all the courses and mapping exercises in the series to become a Certified EDI Academy Professional ®.  Additional discounts available for groups of 3 or more registering for all sessions in the series.  Contact info@rvcf.com for details.

RVCF Members Recognize the Value in Digital Standards

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

RVCF Publishes Business Process Guides

Each year RVCF members provide input on a business process that could be improved. In 2023 the process was automated receiving using an EDI 856 Ship Notice / Manifest and the GS1 Logistics Label. RVCF members, including retailers, merchandise suppliers, and solution providers, created a guideline for Error Prevention and Notification for EDI Ship Notices and Labels. The guide includes best business practices; a list of ship notice and label errors; basic terms and concepts for both EDI and supply chain; how to produce quality bar code labels; and resource links for standards organizations.

Because misaligned PO data between retailer and supplier systems causes ship notice failures, the next guideline, completed in 2024, was on the PO change process (RVCF Business Process Guideline for PO Changes). This guide includes information about the original PO process; relevant EDI transactions; PO types and terms; methods used for PO changes; data most often changed and tools to synchronize the PO in the supplier and retailer system.

The guides are written for those in business operations and acknowledge the importance of standardizing the terms and definitions used in digital communications. In retail, an integral part of the automated receiving and PO change processes includes EDI transactions. It also includes retail standards for barcodes, the shipping label format, and rules for GTIN allocation and package measurements. 

RVCF’s role in industry standards is to help their membership identify relevant standards bodies and existing standards. We also work with the appropriate standards group to submit change requests.

New X12 EDI Qualifiers Approved for Use in US Retail

The guide for automated receiving includes a matrix of all ship notice, label and carton errors. The comprehensive list is the result of surveys, monthly group discussions, and error lists from several major retailers. It includes an error name, definition, the relevant EDI segments and elements and the associated X12 EDI error codes. Of the seventy errors listed, we identified a need for forty new EDI codes (also referred to as qualifiers). RVCF followed the ANSI X12 Change Request process to receive approval for the new EDI qualifiers.  

Likewise, with the work on the PO change process, three new EDI qualifiers were requested and approved. The new codes further define the type of Purchase Order:  Ship to DC/Mark for Store; Ship to Store/Mark for Consumer; and Ship to DC/Mark for Consumer.

The new codes are available in version 8060. Using the relatively new EDI ISX envelope as part of the EDI transmission “wrapper” it is possible to use the latest code list with an older version of EDI. Please see X12.org for more information.

The Next RVCF Business Process Guide – Item Master Data

The next business process guide will be on item setup and attribute maintenance, always key to the order-to-cash  process. Surveys showed that incorrect item master data was the second biggest reason for PO changes and a significant cause for Ship Notice failures, so the 2025 business process guide will be on item setup and attribute maintenance.

With the roll out of two dimensional bar codes on the consumer package, complete and accurate item data will be critical for both retailers and merchandise suppliers if they are to meet consumer expectations.

Improving Communication in Retail

RVCF recognizes the importance of harmonizing the language and terms used for retail business processes. When business partners use the same terms, associated with clear and unambiguous descriptions, communication is greatly improved. Each party is able to aggregate like-data to provide root cause analysis for issues, predict future business trends and meet consumer expectations.

Register now and join us on 2/19 at 2pm (Eastern) for our first Business Process Guidelines Group Meeting of the New Year.  Contact SHaupt@RVCF.com to learn more. 

RVCF - The Retail Value Chain Federation (RVCF) provides platforms and opportunities for communication between retail industry stakeholders. They promote education through live events, teleconferences, webinars and research. They offer benchmarking of best practices, technology solutions, and strategic initiatives. RVCF works with Retailers and Merchandise Suppliers to address their individual priorities helping them to become more collaborative trading partners. They are committed to the advancement of the retail industry as a whole. RVCF celebrates their 25 anniversary in 2025. Contact RVCF at Info@rvcf.com

GS1 US® helps companies power their supply chains to deliver safe, consistent, authentic, and trusted experiences. GS1 is a not-for-profit, global data standards organization that creates the common language that helps companies and their trading partners identify, capture, and share trusted data that links their physical and digital supply chains. GS1 US, best known as the recognized source for UPC barcodes, is the GS1 Member Organization for the US, (GS1US.org).

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standards and conformity assessment system. Founded in 1918, the Institute works in close collaboration with stakeholders from industry and government to identify and develop standards- and conformance-based solutions (ansi.org).

X12, chartered by ANSI, develops and maintains EDI standards. X12's diverse membership includes technologists and business process experts in health care, insurance, transportation, finance, government, supply chain and other industries. X12 members develop and maintain EDI standards that facilitate consistent electronic interchange of business transactions for business-to-business operations (X12.org).

Resilience and Recovery: How Product Rework Experts Sustain the Fashion Industry

By Randy Burk, Executive Vice President and “Creative Problem Solver” for Quality Corrections & Inspections

Supply Chain Collaboration: Building Trust, Breaking Barriers

By David Verette, Vice President of Sales, SPS Commerce, spscommerce.com

Supply chain collaboration has become more crucial than ever as organizations face mounting pressure to do more with less to stay competitive. Recent SPS Commerce research across retailers, suppliers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) reveals insights into how organizations are reimagining collaboration to create more resilient and efficient supply chains.

Three pillars of effective collaboration

The research identified three critical elements that form the foundation of successful supply chain partnerships.

1 - Clear, open and empathetic communication

The overwhelming consensus among participants was that effective communication serves as the cornerstone of successful collaboration.

A supplier management professional noted, "Communication is key, and it needs to be on both ends. We have excellent communication with our vendors, letting them know what we need so we can deliver the right product.” This sentiment was echoed across all sectors, with over 75% of participants emphasizing the importance of maintaining open lines of communication.

2 - Unified goals and priorities

Shared objectives are essential for driving successful partnerships. However, the research revealed that prioritization plays an equally critical role, with 73% of respondents citing it as a key success factor.

An inventory manager at a 3PL explained, "The problems are that (1) the goal is not always defined well, and (2) there are too many goals. Deciding on the priority helps everyone be on the same page."

3 - The power of personal connection

The human element remains irreplaceable in supply chain collaboration. Nearly 80% of participants emphasized the value of building personal relationships with their partners. From knowing suppliers' and drivers' names to fostering close working relationships, these connections create the foundation for long-term mutual success.

Breaking down barriers to collaboration

The research also identified several significant obstacles that organizations must overcome to achieve effective collaboration:

• Time constraints: Retailers must navigate an expanding array of sales channels, supply chain disruptions and customer demands while trying to build and maintain supplier relationships at scale. Many teams find themselves consumed by immediate problem-solving rather than focusing on strategic relationship building.
• Siloed decision-making: 70% of respondents identified isolated decision-making as a major barrier that creates ripple effects across the supply chain.
• Fragmented data: The lack of a unified, real-time source of truth emerged as a critical barrier, with 76% of organizations reporting increased confusion and inefficiencies.
• Ego and competition: Three-quarters of respondents (76%) pointed to competitive mindsets as a significant obstacle to effective teamwork and collaboration.
• Misaligned objectives: Conflicting goals between teams undermine operational efficiency, an issue highlighted by 70% of survey participants.

Building tomorrow’s partnerships

Organizations seek more sophisticated forms of collaboration that go beyond traditional partnerships. The research highlights several key characteristics of this evolved approach:

Multi-stakeholder engagement

A clear pattern emerged: successful supply chains now depend on multi-stakeholder collaboration. As one supplier noted, “Network-oriented would be the most appropriate (approach) because it allows you to work across brands, platforms and organizations.”

Human-centered automation

Despite the push for automation, successful collaboration maintains a human touch. Organizations seek ways to personalize interactions while automating tedious processes. One respondent explained, “You have to make a personal connection. Sometimes that’s what it takes, going to each individual supplier and each individual person at each business.”

Technology plays a crucial role by automating routine tasks and giving teams the right information at the right time. This shifts the focus from day-to-day operational tasks like tracking basic order and inventory status to strategic relationship building. With the right technical foundation, organizations can move quickly from identifying supply chain issues to finding solutions, giving teams more time to focus on future planning and supplier collaboration.

From ideas to action

Leading organizations are embracing new collaborative approaches, including:

• In-person workshops to solve problems and plan initiatives.
• Regular check-ins with partners.
• Integrated communication tools, such as messaging platforms and videoconferencing.
• Clear tracking of commitments and follow-ups.

Moving forward

The evolution toward collaborative supply chains represents a strategic imperative. Successful organizations will:

• Build open, accountable partnerships.
• Connect teams through shared data and clear communication.
• Balance technology with human relationships.
• Align priorities across departments and partners.

As supply chains grow more complex, strong supplier partnerships will be a key differentiator.

RVCF 2024: Building Partnerships, Driving Innovation, and Elevating Collaboration

By Carol Rodriguez, Founder and CX Architect, Custamor Lab, www.custamorlab.com, carolina@custamorlab.com

What a Great RVCF 2024 Fall Conference!

The conference was an incredible opportunity to connect with retailers, suppliers, and vendors, focused on the quickly evolving landscape of retail operations. In-person interactions were the heart of the event, making it easy for attendees to share successes, discuss challenges, and explore innovative solutions for supply chain requirements, including leveraging new technologies.

The power of social connection and nurturing business relationships was clear throughout the event. Engagement encouraged through one-on-one meetings, forum sessions, fun activities, and the keynote addresses sparked collaboration, inspired new ideas, and highlighted opportunities.

Shining a Spotlight on Suppliers
Among the many impactful discussions, the “Supplier Discussion Forum” session stood out as a highlight. It took on a fresh approach, encouraging participants to share best practices from their organizations to address the challenge of meeting customer expectations and streamline supply chain workflows while protecting the bottom line. The room was impressively filled with industry heavyweights, bringing years of expertise in supply chain practices and the shared consensus on the critical value of strong retailer relationships for business success. The attendees supported each other throughout the discussion on how to balance customer requirements with cost efficiency to optimize operational processes for mutual profitability.

The discussion wrapped up with new perspectives on actionable insights, comparisons of technology and workflows, practical tips for success, and a reinforced commitment to partnership-driven innovation as new geo-political requirements, like measuring sustainability, are introduced.

Effective Order Management: Elevating the Customer Experience
Another standout session, "Effective Order Management: Elevating the Customer Experience," emphasized how optimizing order management processes boosts customer satisfaction, retention, and operational success. The session highlighted how bridging logistical efficiency with exceptional customer experiences is key to fostering trust and loyalty.

A major focus was the critical role of real-time inventory visibility. By using predictive analytics, businesses can reduce stockouts and delays, directly improving customer satisfaction. The session also explored how integrating technology, like CRM platforms and AI-powered tools, can create seamless processes that eliminate friction in the customer journey, benefiting both B2B and D2C interactions.

Another key theme was the importance of transparency and personalization, where proactive communication, such as order tracking updates and alerts about delays, helps build stronger relationships with customers. Attendees also discussed how businesses can use key performance indicators (KPIs), like order accuracy and fulfillment times, to continuously improve their order management systems and align operations with customer expectations, and ultimately excellence.

The session concluded with the idea that businesses can leverage order management not just to improve operations but to create deeper, more loyal customer connections. By adopting a customer-first mindset and unifying B2B and D2C with an omnichannel approach, companies can deliver a seamless experience that is cost efficient, maximizes revenue, and builds trust to foster long-term loyalty.

Harnessing The Power of Customer Love

Complementing these operational insights, the "Customer Love" session expanded on the importance of fostering deeper emotional connections with customers. Adopting a customer-first mindset, rooted in empathy and trust, can drive loyalty, retention, and long-term revenue. The focus was on the principal supported by the neuroeconomics of fostering meaningful connections between brands and their customers in B2B and D2C contexts.

A key theme was applying customer love principles to B2B relationships, often centered around transactions and contracts. Attendees were encouraged to treat B2B clients as partners, cultivating trust and loyalty by exceeding expectations and creating a sense of collaboration, just as with D2C customers. This approach reinforces the value of partnership and creates deeper, more lasting connections.

At the heart of the presentation was the Customer Love Framework, consisting of four pillars: Ratings & Referrals, Revenue, Retention, and Brand Power. These principles guide businesses in creating exceptional customer experiences that foster long-term loyalty.

Technology's role in fostering customer love was also explored, with tools like Salesforce Service Cloud as a Customer Relationship Management tool and Tableau analytics enabling businesses to personalize interactions, quantify success, and ensure that both B2B and D2C customers feel valued, measured by Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Net Promoter Scores (NPS).

The session concluded with a powerful reminder: Love is good for business. By putting customers first in every decision, organizations will thrive.

Fostering Connection, Collaboration, and Future Success

The RVCF 2024 Fall Conference highlighted the power of human connection in driving business success. Through networking, collaborative discussions, and shared insights, attendees explored practical solutions to meet the challenges of today’s retail landscape. From optimizing supply chains to fostering deeper customer relationships, the event emphasized that strong partnerships are key to thriving in the industry.

As Helen Keller famously said, "Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much." The conference was a testament to this spirit of collaboration. Looking forward to continuing these meaningful conversations and building on this year’s success at RVCF 2025 in Scottsdale, Arizona!

Death, Destruction, Devastation and Hope: A Critical Time for Corporate - Humanitarian Partnerships

By Ben Barras at World Vision

This has been a season of unprecedented humanitarian crisis resulting from the frequency and power of devastating storms that have wreaked havoc throughout the Southeastern United States, and we are more than a month away from the traditional end of the hurricane season.

Individuals, communities, small businesses and major retail and consumer goods organizations have all been affected.  As a member of a World Vision Humanitarian Relief Team that visited Western North Carolina, I saw firsthand the deadly devastation that Helene delivered to entire communities.  I also witnessed the power of partnerships between Retail and Consumer Goods companies and Humanitarian Relief organizations like World Vision, coming together to deliver lifesaving aid and restore dignity and a sense of normalcy to people devastated by the storm.

If you, or your company would like to be a part of such life saving efforts, for the benefit of individuals, communities and customers, please consider reaching out to World Vision via this link, or other Humanitarian Relief organizations that you may have a relationship with, to learn more about ways you can help.

Peace and Gratitude!

Ben Barras @ World Vision

How Does Your Deduction Policy Compare?

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

RVCF continues to review over 40 Retailer’s deduction policies as a reference point for industry expense offset policies, normalizing deduction types, violation description, and penalty charges. The 2024 update shows a few shifts in the previous review’s data including an emphasis on streamlining policies.

The survey includes 557 possible deductions in categories ranging from EDI to Transportation with data from 4 new retailers revealing:

• 889 changes were made, and 276 deductions were completely removed
• The single largest number of changes by an individual retailer was 34
• The largest number of removals by an individual retailer was 65

This will be a featured topic at RVCF’s Fall Conference, where we will dive into the trends we are seeing, and the Deduction Policy Review will be available for members afterwards. Curious about the trends? Join us in Tucson November 3-6 to meet fellow retailers, suppliers, and service providers to collaborate on best practices and share ideas at the RVCF 2024 Fall Conference.

News from the RVCF Business Process Guidelines Work Group

The RVCF Business Process Guidelines Work Group was created to provide a forum to identify and document best industry practices for a specific business process including the use of automated, digital communication. They are written in business language and intended for those in business operations.

• Our first guide, “Error Prevention and Notification for EDI Ship Notices and Labels” includes information about preventing and fixing issues with the EDI 856 Ship Notice (ASN) and barcoded logistics labels. The guide includes a comprehensive list of issues with names, descriptions, and error codes. It also includes a section on EDI basics and a section on printing and troubleshooting shipping labels.
  
  
• Our second guide is the “Business Process Guide for PO Changes” and includes information on the types of PO’s and PO Changes used in retail today, including a PO replace, PO cancel / reissue and an EDI PO Change.

Previous work groups identified incorrect master data as a leading cause of ASN errors and PO changes so for 2025 the Work Group will address the topic of Master Data Management. 

Retailers, Merchandise Suppliers and Service Providers are welcome to participate, including those working in business operations, finance, vendor relations, customer service and automated technologies such as EDI.  We will meet monthly, starting in February.  RVCF Membership is not required and there is no cost to participate.  We ask that you register at rvcf.com.  Access instructions, an agenda, and a list of registrants will be sent prior to each meeting session.

Documents from past and current Work Group Projects are available in the Business Process Guidelines Group on RVCF.com.   Members can log in and request to join the RVCF Business Process Guidelines Group. Non-Members, use this link to request group access. 

Because the Basics Matter

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Recently I had the pleasure to be a guest on the GS1 US webinar How a Common Language Can Help Your Supply Chain, where we discussed the foundational principles of data and standards in the retail industry.  As we talked, I thought too often we neglect the core standards that make our supply chain systems operate at maximum efficiency and how just a reminder of its importance can move it to the forefront of our actions.

One of the most persistent issues in supply chain is inventory visibility- with unified commerce coming to the forefront, you cannot effectively compete if you do not know where your product is and how many are present in each location. It’s both simple and complicated because building a process that recognizes these data points and harnesses the power of the information requires a clear vision and system connection.

Another hallmark of mastering the basics is communication and this can take many forms:

• Effective use of EDI to close the loop of business document sharing
• Addressing PO changes and creating a process to reconcile changes with the retailer and the supplier
• Reduce the knowledge gap in error resolution strategies and actions
• Maintain and share clean and accurate master data for products

I hope that you will take a few minutes to watch the conversation and then share it with your colleagues. Often, we are swept up in the current project or focus, but it’s always good to remember and share the foundational activities that create value throughout the supply chain. The webinar can be found here: How a Common Language Can Help Your Supply Chain: (This will take you to a registration screen for GS1US’s Learning Management System where you can create a free account and access the video.)

No One Does It Alone

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

The Disney Legends Awards for 2024 included fourteen very talented and successful honorees, including Harrison Ford, James Cameron, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Williams and Frank Oz. During their acceptance speeches they all had the same message:  “No one does it alone.”

Collaboration and communication is key for RVCF, with both our retailer, merchandise supplier and solution provider members and with key industry organizations. We’ve recently worked with several organizations to help provide our membership with educational webinars, training material, business process guidelines, and new EDI codes.

It is true that no one does it alone and we are grateful for the time, effort and contributions made by these vital organizations. We look forward to working in concert with them in the future. Our collaborative work includes the following:

GS1 US (www.gs1.org) had representation on our Business Process Work Group for Error Prevention and Notification for EDI Ship Notices and Labels. They will join Susan Pichoff from RVCF at the RVCF Fall Conference in November to discuss Techno Tools and Supply Chain Transformation for the Future of Retail. GS1 US  and Susan also collaborated on a Back to Basics webinar in August that focused on the importance of data standards and essential business processes like inventory visibility, trading partner communication, and master data accuracy and availability. 

Recent work with AIM Global (www.aimglobal.org) has produced the 2024 updated RFID FAQ’s for Retail. It covers the basics and is intended for those in business operations. RVCF worked with retailers to create a list of questions and the AIM RFID Experts Group verified the answers. We are currently working with AIM to publish a next level Retail RFID FAQ that covers the more technical aspects for those tasked with creating and maintaining an RFID system. A Two-Dimensional Barcode for Retail FAQ is in the works, focusing on the basics for 2D bar codes (e.g. QR) on the consumer package, augmenting and perhaps someday replacing the UPC.

We are also working with RFID Journal Live to include the RFID FAQ for Retail on their website.

RVCF and Drs. Brian Gibson and Glenn Richey of Auburn University's Harbert College of Business & Center for Supply Chain Innovation combined resources to present sessions that focused on critical supply chain issues at the last two RVCF Fall Conferences.

In the US, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) maintains standards for EDI. Our work on the business process implementation guides for EDI Ship Notices and EDI PO Changes brought to light additional EDI codes, also referred to as qualifiers, needed in retail for the 850 Purchase Order and the 824 Application Advice, used to send error notifications for the 856 Ship Notice. We submitted an ANSI X12 Change Request and helped carry it through the process for approval. It includes three Purchase Order Type codes which will provide clarity on the type of PO being exchanged. The Change Request also includes forty Application Advice codes which makes it possible to use the 824 Application Advice to notify suppliers of errors encountered with the EDI Ship Notice, the shipping label and the carton, with enough specificity so the suppliers can fix and determine root cause for shipping errors. The new codes will be published in January. The relatively new EDI envelope ISX level allows for the use of newer codes with older EDI versions.

Both NEECOM (New England Electronic Commerce / EDI User Group) and RVCF have supported each other throughout the years. NEECOM’s (NEECOM.org) virtual and live conferences are an excellent resource for information on current EDI initiatives.

Information for each organization:

GS1 US® helps companies power their supply chains to deliver safe, consistent, authentic, and trusted experiences. Best known as the recognized source for UPC barcodes, GS1 is a not-for-profit, global data standards organization that creates the common language that helps companies and their trading partners identify, capture, and share trusted data that links their physical and digital supply chains (GS1US.org).

AIM’s Mission Statement:  As the unbiased resource for networking, education, advocacy and standards, AIM will help its members grow their businesses by fostering the effective use of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) solutions.  AIM’s Vision is advancing the effective use of automatic identification and data capture (AIMGlobal.org).

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standards and conformity assessment system. Founded in 1918, the Institute works in close collaboration with stakeholders from industry and government to identify and develop standards- and conformance-based solutions (ANSI.org).

X12, chartered by ANSI, develops and maintains EDI standards. X12's diverse membership includes technologists and business process experts in health care, insurance, transportation, finance, government, supply chain and other industries. X12 members develop and maintain EDI standards that facilitate consistent electronic interchange of business transactions for business-to-business operations (X12.org).

The New England Electronic Commerce Users’ Group (NEECOM) is a nonprofit organization established in 1990. Today our members are large and small organizations in a variety of industries. Our members include manufacturers, distributors, retailers, hospitals, insurance companies, motor carriers, universities, banks and government agencies. The common thread is our interest in EC/EDI and related technologies. We welcome companies who are at any stage in their implementation of Electronic Commerce (NEECOM.org).

Auburn University's Harbert School of Business, the largest academic unit within the university, offers continuing education for Supply Chain professionals. The Department of Supply Chain Management (auburn.edu) provides learning opportunities that address business complexity⁠ by combining logistics and operations management training and providing a practical understanding of procurement, operations, and logistics.

From Spreadsheets to AI-Driven Solutions: The Technology Journey of Accounts Receivable Management  

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth & Carixa

The Value of Benchmarking and Best Practices: Working Together to Improve Retail

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

We often read about the techniques that businesses use to improve their Key Performance Indicators and establish the standards of their processes. Growth and progress rely on leadership examining ways to make meaningful changes that result in measurable savings or innovative solutions. The two most common are Benchmarking and Best Practices.

• Benchmarking- comparing your performance, statistics, and data with others in your industry

• Best Practices- agreed upon processes that have proven to be the most effective and beneficial for your industry

What is the difference between Benchmarking and Best Practices?

Benchmarking allows you to look at KPIs and compare your information with others, helping to identify gaps and opportunities. It also reduces costs or improves business relationships because of changes that are highlighted.

A Best Practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to other known alternatives because it often produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing things, e.g., a standard way of complying with legal or ethical requirements.[1]

Why do they benefit users?

Benchmarks allow companies to look at their existing practices and determine how they perform against the market in which they compete. It encourages goal setting and expectations that are reasonable to an industry, enabling strategic planning.

Best practices look at results across a variety of companies and draws out the methods and processes that are most effective- saving money, increasing customer satisfaction, reducing time to market, or decreasing friction in the supply chain.

By looking outside of your company’s four walls, you gain perspective on process improvement as well as where you are getting it right. Thinking strategically includes taking in stories of success and struggle, then learning from the experience of others in similar situations within the retail industry.

RVCF provides industry leadership

RVCF works with our membership and network to collect, analyze, and share retail industry data that can be used in your strategic planning.

Deduction Policy Review (members only access, contact RVCF): Retailers requested a reference point for their own expense offset policies so RVCF compiled a cross-section of policies for 50+ Retailers to normalize deduction types, violation description, and penalty charges. With all of this data, the Deduction Policy Review is an eye-opening study that will have you looking at your own processes.

All About Retail Compliance (and more) - A Supplier's Guide to the Retail Supply  (free for RVCF members):  We've combined retailer requirements with industry standards and decades of experience to develop this all-encompassing training and reference resource that is a "go to" guide for anyone connected to compliance in the retail supply chain.  Users will be able to quickly and easily:

• locate standards and prioritize those needing special attention

• decipher industry terms and acronyms

• understand the order fulfillment process - step by step

Error Code Matrix for the EDI 856 Ship Notice and GS1 Logistics Labels (available to all): This matrix is a list of errors for the EDI Ship Notice (ASN), the GS1 Logistics Barcode Label and shipping cartons. It is a combination of error lists from several retailers, a survey of both the retailers and suppliers where the biggest issues were identified, and the relevant codes from the list of qualifiers for the EDI 824 Application Advice. The 824 is the EDI transaction used to communicate errors for all other EDI transactions. RVCF is working with ANSI X12 to add the codes in the right most column of the matrix. Even though many retailers use email reports rather than EDI for error notification, we wanted to insure there were codes available for all the listed errors whether communicated in EDI or email.

PO Change Best Practices (currently the subject of the Business Process Workgroup to be published later): PO Changes are sited as one of the most common, time consuming, and consistent issues that trading partners face. The Business Process Workgroup is currently looking at the best practices to minimize situations where the Purchase Order in each system does not match. If you are interested in this topic, please contact RVCF.

RFID FAQ’s - Retail Basic for Business Operations (available to all): This is a business based guide to answering  your questions about utilizing RFID in your company’s processing. The technology can be used at different points in the supply chain and should be viewed as a business advantage that provides insight and data to be used through your business.

[1] Best practice - Wikipedia

Marketplaces: Thriving in a Different Channel

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Consumers now face more options than ever regarding how to purchase the merchandise they seek. Moving past brick & mortar, store websites, brand websites, and unified commerce, the marketplace is another option for both retailers and brands to present their products to another audience for consideration. The marketplace is really a technology platform that allows sellers of all sizes as well as the marketplace owner to offer merchandise for sale.

In some cases, the marketplace owns and fulfills merchandise, but increasingly brands and retailer are providing another option for the consumer. This process differs from e-commerce in that the third-party marketplace must be in constant communication and there are different partnership expectations that exist in the relationship. The existing supplier expectations from a retailer are often very different and the retailer is often new at being on the receiving end of expectations.

Three major aspects of selling on a marketplace are inventory visibility, returns, and relationships. Inventory decisions are essential to the fulfillment process and must be accurate, updated continuously. To achieve this the right APIs or other communication methods must be reliable and updated at the speed of business, decrementing the available stock. In addition, the owner of the stock must decide if the marketplace quantities are shared or separate from other fulfillment obligations- there are costs and benefits to each method that must be considered.  A new scenario has also emerged where the marketplace holds the inventory and charges the seller in a variety of ways for that service. Again, this requires cost analysis to be done to determine the best business solution.

Any marketplace purchase is a potential return transaction, and this presents itself with issues that should be discussed in advance. The seller should plan how the returns will be processed- physical returns, shipping back to a central location, shipping back to the seller, or establishing a threshold at which the return makes financial ‘sense’. NRF reports that 18.1% of online purchases are returned and the number is higher in clothing. A practical approach with realistic implementation expectations is essential for success.

One common thread through any retail scenario is building relationships. In some cases, the associates that work in the marketplace have not been exposed to trading partners in the same way the seller has and don’t have the same level of experience. If a retailer has marketplace, it is likely a completely separate entity from the traditional buyer/salesperson model, where years of working together have resulted in trust. Thriving here relies on clear expectations and a well-defined dispute resolution process.

For over twenty-five years, RVCF has brought together trading partners to build partnerships in all areas of retail operations. Moving to address challenges in the marketplace space, we have created a workgroup for supplier members that deep dives into the concerns businesses are facing and share experiences on resolution. One of the values of our membership is gathering with peers to collaborate on topics that are at the forefront of retail today. If you are interested in the Doing Business in the On-Line Marketplace Workgroup, please click here to register on the member site and  join  us on March 13^th at 3 PM ET.

A/R Deduction Management and Retailer Portals

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth& Carixa

RVCF Business Process Implementation Guide Work Group - PO Changes

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Purchase orders are at the center of retail, whether it’s for store replenishment or marketplace. RVCF membership asked us to look at the PO Change Process to identify best business practice and to discuss ways to optimize PO Changes.

We will look at ways to communicate PO Changes and verify that PO’s are synchronized in the retailer and supplier’s systems. We will also discuss PO Changes versus PO Replacements and/or cancelling a PO and sending a new one.

Our first meeting was in January. We provided a background on the Business Process Implementation Guide Work Group, including the importance of identifying the current practices through two surveys – one to the retailers and one for the suppliers. If you have not filled out your survey, please do so, as it will provide the foundation for our guideline. If you didn’t receive a survey, kindly notify Susan Haupt (shaupt@rvcf.com). We encourage participation from several people in the same company, as PO Changes can affect many business teams. 

Our next meeting is February 15^th at 2:00 Eastern. Anyone can attend, but registration is needed. Calendar of Events - RVCF

Chargebacks: Turning Challenge into Upside Opportunity

By Courtney Folk, Founder and CEO, Renewal Logistics       
                           

Merchants in the B2B world are often overwhelmed with the requirements retailers have in place. Seemingly small errors related to a retailer’s compliance guidelines can cause delays and chargebacks costing merchants valuable time and profit. In addition to this, retailers often assign a quality rating to the merchants on a fluctuating scale. As more errors occur, this rating drops and fees related to errors increase. Reversing this trend provides a significant upside opportunity.

How do chargebacks work?

When working with big box retailers, each brand is assigned a quality rating that plays a key role in what chargebacks and fees are acquired by brands. This rating is used to determine how much product must be inspected when it is received. The better the rating, the less inspection is required, the lower the rating the more inspection is required before products are accepted. If you are a brand with an A rating your inspection rate might be 1% whereas a brand with an F rating might have a 100% inspection rate.  

When a brand has a lower rating each shipment is looked at more thoroughly, and often this reveals more flaws and errors resulting in even more chargebacks. Making this problem even more painful and expensive, once these errors hit a certain threshold set by the retailers, brands are charged even more per chargeback. Small errors add up quickly especially when the costs per chargeback go up.

Retailers implement these chargeback fees and standards based on what their automated systems need for goods to flow. Errors with the goods shipped from brands causes a chain reaction that costs both the retailer and brand time and money, and results in delayed sales as product is delayed hitting the retail floor.

When a brand’s items are received to the retailer’s distribution center, the goals is that  they are immediately cross docked. The ideal way this works is that received products are scanned and put onto a conveyor as they’re being unloaded from the truck. The conveyer takes the scanned case label information and directs the product to the correct truck dock to be loaded. When the items arrive from the brand and have an issue such as a misprinted barcode, this stops the entire automated process for that case. A warehouse employee must instead get involved and  try to ascertain the error and input the product into the system manually, and then they must walk the product to the correct loading dock. This manual process then starts again at the final destination when the items are unloaded and must be manually entered into the system.  

The Economic impact of chargebacks

Retailers have entire departments dedicated to dealing with these chargebacks and enforcing their standards. For a brand, having bad quality on the labeling and packaging requirements can have devastating effects of chargebacks that quickly add up and impact overall profitability. The good news is that small improvements can lead to better things for brands. As the retailers’ standards are met, the brands ratings will increase, inspection rates decrease, and the amount of chargebacks and fees per chargeback will decrease.

Working with an experienced 3PL can help brands start off on the right foot with retailers and can also help brands improve existing low quality ratings. Brands that are already well established but struggling with retail chargebacks often face the decision to work with a new company to help resolve the compliance issues, or continue to try to tackle the compliance issues in house, and a common barrier to outsourcing is the freight cost.

If a brand is paying a chargeback of $800 for one case with a barcode issue, and this contributes to their quality rating dropping,  an option would be to work with a 3PL to ensure your products are being prepared for the retailer properly. This solution might require freight costs to have the products sent to and from the 3PL that are often seen as costly on their own, but compared to the potential chargebacks, let alone brand reputation, they are minimal in the long term.

Example        

A brand with a high quality rating has one barcode error may be paying $100 for that case, but as their rating drops closer to an F rating, suddenly they’'re paying $800 for the same barcode error.

If it costs $3,000 for freight for a brand to roundtrip ship 1500 cases,  of products to a 3PL to be prepared for the big box retailer, they are potentially saving themselves $5,000 -$40,000 in chargebacks. With the right 3PL partner, the brand’s quality rating will also improve, over time, and profitability will then also increase.

Additionally, with a brand’s products prepared and packaged correctly they will be available in the retailer’s inventory nearly upon arrival. Which means a shortened order to cash cycle time for the brand as well as the retailer. Starting with the right processes in place helps keep the supply chain fully functioning and ultimately goods will be purchased by consumers faster.

Recent Compliance Case Study                              

A top 5 global apparel fashion house was doing a large amount of business with a big box retailer, and struggled with their ability to manage the compliance and quality of their Value Added Services effectively. They slowly fell to a 'D rating' and then on track to an ‘F Rating', where they were paying up to $800 per case label or bag tag that was out of compliance.

For this big box retailer, this was a major issue, because their distribution centers are all cross dock operations, meaning that as soon as product arrived, if it was compliantly labeled, within 15 minutes it was loaded on a truck that was headed for a store. When there were compliance issues, this slowed down product sales because the retailer was not set up to 'fix' product in house. Product that should have taken a day to arrive, could be 10 days late due to issues like these. This decreased their order to cash cycle time and at times resulted in not enough merchandise on the sales floor.

They hired Renewal Logistics to execute all of their Value Added Services programs, as well as manage the compliance inspection for their wholesale accounts. In a period less than 1 year, the client had gone from an 'D Rating" to a 'B Rating' with this one big box retailer, and was on track to become an 'A Rated’' brand. Renewal Logistics received the goods daily for all of their wholesale orders that had to ship that week, and Renewal Logistics was tasked to review the compliance manuals for all of their retailer accounts, and meticulously manage the Value Added Services processing of all of the wholesale goods that needed additional handling. This included ensuring the items were folded and  polybagged properly, with hang tags properly placed and labeled, the polybags had the proper bag tags, in the proper location, the case inventories matched the Advanced Shipping Notice exactly, and the case labels were all printed and applied correctly.

This was a meticulous process that involved constant training and a high level of attention to detail in the inspection process.

For this one large program where we helped this one brand go from a ‘D Rating’ to a ‘B Rating’,                                                     

Renewal Logistics Processed Total Units For This Program: 3,946,590

Renewal Logistics Accuracy: 99.996%

Reduced Chargebacks: 97%

As a financial leader in the industry, it is worth taking  a look at your total chargeback expenses and seeing if there is a better way. We can provide an audit of how you are doing today and provide you an analysis of where your upside opportunities are.

Can We Extract More Value from the OTC Cycle?

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth & Carixa

The Art of Salary Negotiation: A Guide for Executives

By Aaron Cleavinger, MBA, CPSM, C.P.M., Managing Partner, Murdoch Mason Executive Search Group

Does the thought of salary negotiation make you break out in a cold sweat? Are you unsure how to approach the negotiation process without damaging relationships?

Although a crucial aspect of the job search process, salary negotiation can be intimidating for many executives. But it doesn't have to be. In fact, according to a survey by Robert Half, a whopping 70% of hiring managers expect candidates to negotiate their salary. Moreover, 55% of them are more willing to negotiate salary now than a year ago. In many cases, it's not only acceptable, but expected!

As an elite executive recruiter and negotiation expert, I have seen firsthand the impact of effective salary negotiation for executives and companies. When planned and executed well, compensation negotiations solidify commitment on both sides, and allow executives and companies to start working together while focused on the right things.

In this article, we will explore the key aspects of salary negotiation and why it's essential to approach it with a well-informed and strategic mindset. I will also share some insights and advice to help both sides confidently navigate the negotiation process.

Let’s dive in!

Step 1: Preparing For a Successful Salary Negotiation

Before entering a salary negotiation, it's essential to do your research and prepare accordingly. One of the biggest mistakes executives make is not understanding their worth in the current job market.

Do Your Research

First and foremost, research industry benchmarks for executive salaries in your desired role and region. This will give you a general idea of what the market is paying for someone with your skills and experience. Sites like Glassdoor, PayScale, and Salary.com offer salary data specific to job titles, industries, and locations.

But don't stop there – dig deeper into your specific field and company to better understand the market value for your role. Talk to colleagues in similar positions, consult with industry experts, and utilize resources such as professional associations or recruiters for insider insights. As a recruiter, I regularly provide current market pay insights to company clients and CEOs as they recruit leaders for their teams. Reach out to people you know.

Quantify Your Unique Value Proposition

Now that you better understand the market value for your role, it's time to identify and quantify your unique value proposition. What makes you stand out from other candidates? What specific skills and experiences do you bring to the table? How have you contributed to the success of your previous companies?

Be sure to highlight these accomplishments and back them up with tangible examples (in your discussions, in your resume, and on LinkedIn). Numbers speak louder than words, so be prepared to share specific metrics that showcase your impact on the company's bottom line.

Also consider using precise figures. In a series of experiments, researchers found that receiving a precise first offer (i.e. $42,500) versus a round one (i.e. $40,000) led to greater counteroffer adjustments in favor of the offerer. In addition, recipients of precise offers were more likely to perceive the offerer as knowledgeable and well-informed. This is a strategy I use in my negotiation workshops and when facilitating complex negotiations.

Consider the Full Compensation Package

Negotiations shouldn't solely focus on base salary. Consider the total compensation package, including bonuses, benefits, equity offerings, and work location. These can add significant value to executives’ overall compensation and job satisfaction, and they should not be overlooked.

Additionally, think about non-monetary benefits. For hiring managers, highlight the company's strengths and offerings, such as a great company culture, opportunities for growth, or unique perks. Identify your priorities and potential trade-offs for executive candidates, such as work-life balance, location flexibility, or professional development opportunities.

Step 2: Understand Your Options

Now that you've researched and clearly understand your value proposition and desired compensation package, it's time to put on your negotiation hat. While effective negotiations have many different aspects, one key factor is having a strong BATNA.

Understand Your BATNA

BATNA stands for Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. In other words, it's your fallback plan if the current negotiation fails. A strong BATNA gives you leverage and boundaries for the negotiation process.

Leverage Your BATNA

Knowing and leveraging your BATNA can help you set realistic expectations for the negotiation. For example, suppose you have multiple job offers or know other companies are interested in hiring you. You may feel more confident negotiating a higher salary or better benefits, knowing that if you don’t achieve your negotiation aims, you’ll have other offers to fall back on.

It's important to remember that your BATNA should not be used as a threat during negotiations. Instead, it should be seen as a tool to help you make informed decisions and set boundaries.

Examples of Potential BATNAs

For hiring managers, potential BATNAs could include:

• Considering other external candidates who may be a better fit for the role
• Promoting an existing employee to fill the position
• Outsourcing or automating work instead of hiring for the role

For executive candidates, potential BATNAs could include:

• Seeking job offers from other companies
• Remaining with your current employer and discussing options for advancement or development opportunities
• Pursuing additional education or skill development to make yourself more marketable

Whether you're a hiring manager or an executive candidate, it's crucial to continually assess your BATNA. This will give you more confidence in the negotiation process and increase your chances of achieving a favorable outcome.

Step 3: Use Negotiation Strategies to Close the Deal

Negotiations are all about finding a mutually beneficial agreement. It's not about one side winning and the other losing, but rather, both sides feeling like they emerge with a positive outcome. Especially when it comes to compensation negotiations. Don’t lose sight of the goal: to start work in the new role. Here are some strategies to keep in mind during negotiations:

The Power of Anchoring

Anchoring is a powerful negotiation tactic where the first offer sets the tone for the rest of the conversation. As an executive candidate, it's essential to anchor with a solid and well-informed initial salary request. This will set the bar higher and give you more room to negotiate. You don’t have to say your current salary or pay history (in fact, it’s illegal for companies to ask for that information in some places).

The Strategic Use of Pauses

Despite what you may see in movies, effective negotiations involve a lot of listening and strategic pauses. Pausing after making an offer or counteroffer allows the other party to respond and gives you time to assess their reaction. It also prevents you from negotiating against yourself by offering more concessions too soon.

Expanding Value for Both Parties

Negotiations should not be seen as a battle but rather an opportunity to find a win-win solution. This means expanding the value for both parties involved. As a hiring manager, this may mean offering additional benefits or flexibility to an executive candidate to secure their acceptance of a lower salary. As an executive candidate, this could mean being open to non-monetary benefits or finding creative solutions that benefit you and the company. The key is to think outside the box and find ways to create a mutually beneficial agreement.

Step 4: Consider the Company’s Perspective

It's vital to understand and consider the company's perspective in negotiations. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

Recognize Financial Limitations

Every company has a budget and financial limitations. However, this doesn't mean they can't make competitive offers or offer attractive compensation packages. It's important to recognize and work within these limitations while advocating for your value.

Consider Long-Term Value

While focusing on short-term gains during negotiations may be tempting, consider the long-term value for both parties.

As a hiring manager, offering a competitive salary and benefits package may mean investing more upfront. Still, retaining top talent and avoiding costly turnover can save the company money in the long run. And speed to hire can save (or earn) the company much more than any nitpicking in a salary negotiation. As an executive candidate, accepting a slightly lower salary for additional development opportunities or unique perks may bring long-term career growth and satisfaction.

Internal Equity

Most companies strive to maintain internal equity, where employees with similar positions, skill sets, and experience are paid similarly. This means they may have salary bands or guidelines for certain positions. While advocating for yourself is crucial, executives must also understand and respect these considerations. Here are some creative ways to balance internal equity with competitive salaries:

• Negotiate for additional benefits or perks instead of a higher base salary
• Discuss potential opportunities for advancement or development within the company
• Propose a different title or team structure that can align with candidates’ experience and compensation requirements
• Consider a shorter-term contract with performance-based bonuses that can lead to a higher overall compensation package.

Step 5: Keep Emotions In Check

During negotiations, despite our best efforts to remain professional and objective, things can sometimes get heated, and emotions may come into play. It's essential to acknowledge the role of emotions in negotiations. After all, no one wants to feel like they have been mistreated.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Encourage openness to flexible compensation structures. This means being open to discussing different options and finding a solution that works for both parties.
• Highlight the importance of professionalism in negotiations. It's OK to be assertive, but it's important to remain respectful and factual.
• Customize benefit packages for senior executives. Executive candidates may have unique needs that require more flexibility in benefits offerings.
• Remember that rational negotiations can go out the window if either party feels offended. (This happens surprisingly often during the executive recruiting process.) Strive for a feeling of partnership, focused on the common goal of coming to agreement, while maintaining a level head.

Step 6: Effective Communication and Conflict Resolution

As discussed throughout this article, salary negotiations can sometimes stir intense emotions and potential conflicts. So, how do we handle these situations and reach a mutually beneficial agreement?

1. A knowledgeable and experienced executive recruiter can serve as a neutral third party and facilitate communication between the hiring company and the executive candidate.
2. Transparent and explicit communication is key to avoiding conflicts down the road. Be upfront about job responsibilities, expectations, and performance metrics to ensure everyone is on the same page.
3. Clarity is crucial in mitigating conflicts. Ensure both parties understand the terms of the agreement and clearly understand their roles and responsibilities.
4. Use humor. According to research led by Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock at the University of Amsterdam, humor induces positive emotions, which triggers positive communication!

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this article has given you some good food for thought regarding salary negotiations. Remember, the key is striving for an outcome that benefits both parties, and gets everyone excited about onboarding. If you'd like to discuss this topic in more detail, I'm more than happy to chat. Feel free to message me on LinkedIn or email aaron@murdochmason.com.

P.S. If you haven't already, you can get my insights delivered straight to your inbox. All you need to do is click on the subscribe button on the LinkedIn article.

Thanks for reading, and happy negotiating!

Retail's New Horizon: A Call to Action for Online Marketplace Best Practices

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Can you imagine the world without marketplaces? High school and college students have never experienced shopping without them- with the establishment of Amazon.com in 1995, followed by eBay.com (originally Auction Web), these destinations have been present their entire lives[i]. As we have come to embrace these channels in our shopping behavior, sellers have had to navigate a largely new process to prosper in the blended environment. Retailers are even moving to presenting their offerings on marketplace sites- you can find Land’s End merchandise on Macys.com and Chico’s clothing or accessories on Amazon.com. The reach these channels have is astonishing- Walmart.com states that there are 120 million visitors per month and over 1.2 billion people used Asian site Alibaba.com in 2022.

Traversing the new landscape of retail for suppliers is especially challenging. They are in a unique position as they sell to retailers, run their own websites, and sell on marketplaces and face completely different requirements and processes for each channel. How do they create the most efficient supply chain where there are different rules, requirements, and standards? Decisions include determining the right platform that matches their vision, as well as what fulfillment path to take (Third Party Logistics providers, Direct to Consumer, or marketplace fulfillment).

Consumers often do not look at the supplier’s website but go right to marketplaces and suppliers must take advantage of the opportunity to market their product. Within that decision the supplier must manage the process to overcome the challenges and make the physical and virtual experience indistinguishable. The methods of reaching the consumer do not replace each other but maximize the opportunity to reach consumers.

RVCF will begin an open forum for Merchandise Supplier members in January 2024 to bring clarity to this issue. Working together in community, this is a call to action to establish gold standard operations and benchmark efficiencies, maximizing speed to market, and managing the customer return practice.

Connecting in these sessions will be a valuable tool to strategize your marketplace experience. Registration for suppliers can be found at Doing Business in the On-line Marketplace and we hope that you will join us.

[i] A Brief History of Online Shopping - ODM World

Retail Giant Transforms Deduction Management with Robotic Processing Automation

By iNymbus

Summary

This large organization, with established brands in beauty, health & wellness, and home & outdoor, wanted to improve their deductions management capabilities using technology. With over $2B in annual revenue, the importance of streamlining the way deductions and disputes were handled was paramount. When considering solutions, the team wanted to find a solution to increase the processing speed of the deductions processing workflow, reduce the direct cost of recovering revenue, and add visibility into deductions across all their retail partners.

The Challenge

Deductions at the organization were managed by a team of nearly 40 full time employees that were split between Vendor Compliance and Accounts Receivable. The team manually managed deductions tied to multiple key retailers especially Amazon and Walmart. The research and dispute workload were split between the two departments with accounts receivables spending 15-20% of their time coding claims before passing to the Vendor Compliance team for claim validation and dispute submission. 

In addition to the separate teams handling the process of manually gathering documents, another challenge that caused downstream inefficiencies came from supporting documentation coming from multiple sources in different file formats at unpredictable intervals. This manual, multi-step process led the two teams to collaborate using many massive Excel spreadsheets, information in portals, and information deep within the ERP. An internal study at the company found that gathering and matching supporting documentation took 3-4 weeks to completely compile and 3-4 hours for a claim to be resolved.

The cumbersome process had inherent inefficiencies and errors that required multiple touchpoints before another team could even begin validating and disputing retailer deductions. Eventually a backlog of claims grew while their dispute windows closed. It was clear that a technology solution needed to be added to ramp up the processing volume of deductions that were being received daily.

The Solution

After quickly seeing the benefits RPA could provide, developing a clear implementation plan was crucial. With the size and complexity of the organization, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) needed to be clearly identified before introducing any type of automation into the deductions management process for each of their retailers. Critical to the success of the automation was identifying what documentation was needed, where it would be pulled from, and how iNymbus would have access.

Having well defined SOPs was key to the development of the RPA automation. Process documents outlining and mapping where specific documents and data would be found enabled the team at the organization to accelerate implementation for each of the customer accounts that were onboarded.

The Results

Once fully launched, the RPA solution resulted in the organization dramatically reducing deductions processing time from 3-4 weeks to mere minutes. iNymbus automated the retrieval of supporting documentation from EDI, carrier portals, retailer portals, and cloud file storage. Matching, validating, and the submission of disputes into retailer portals was cut down to minutes. The once tedious process was transformed into a handsfree process that only required two staff members to manage exceptions.

With their supporting documentation, deduction statuses, and pertinent data including dollars outstanding, the organization switched from a reactive organization to being able to conduct root cause analysis and add new capabilities within their teams. Reporting and visibility into their deductions across multiple retailers was also simplified as the iNymbus DeductionXchange RPA Solution provides simplified dashboards and exportable data.

“Visibility has been improved without a doubt thanks to iNymbus. Now with all data and documents being funneled into a centralized iNymbus dashboard, visibility, and reporting on deductions across a variety of retailers is simplified.

 The iNymbus dashboard gives a fuller picture of the status and dollar value of deductions per retailer because it sits between the retailer and organizations Order-to-Cash processes and systems.

We're now able to see deductions that normally would have been written off due to different rules in our ERP for each of our business units. We're able to see every single claim regardless of the claim amount.”

Conclusion

Through careful planning, and clear and accurate SOPs, the organization successfully transformed their deductions management process. RPA solutions improved processing time, reduced errors, and enabled cost savings by reducing staff requirements.

About iNymbus

Since 2011 iNymbus DeductionsXchange has provided retail manufacturers with robotic process automation (RPA) solutions to help eliminate the manual workload of shortage, pricing, and compliance claims to over 20 retailers.

Return to Vendor (RTV) and Vendor Compliance Solutions

By Quality Corrections & Inspections

Seeing is Relieving Precision Supply Chain Planning with Integrated Real Time E2E Visibility Data

By Ben Barras, Advisory Business Development and Partner Management Lead - Retail/Consumer Goods/Global Supply Chain Line of Business at SAS Institute, Inc.

From Settlement to Individual Deductions: Automating Walmart Shortage, Pricing and Compliance Claims

By Kim Motika, VP Sales, iNymbus

Customer-Centric Supply Chain - What Does That Mean?

By Richard Wilhjelm, VP, Sales & Marketing, Traverse Systems

Coming soon to your conference agenda.

Those of you heading to conferences this fall will no doubt encounter a session emphasizing the need for a “Customer-Centric Supply Chain.” Given the recent disruptions and the continually evolving dynamics of the retail supply chain, it has become an accepted truth you either need or should start thinking about installing one. Despite the ubiquitous term, if you ask most retail professionals exactly what a customer-centric supply chain is, don’t be surprised if your responses vary. To be honest, I had to look it up myself.

It starts with the customer.

A quick search reveals the simplest definition of a customer-centric supply chain: a supply chain that starts with the customer or guest in mind. With the ever-empowered but time-constrained and stressed consumer who can buy in-store, on the curb, online, or by carrier pigeon, customer-centric supply chains support their experience in the time and place they choose. While the processes and the technologies that support them have changed dramatically in the last 20 years I have enjoyed working in retail, the desired outcome is essentially the same: a delighted and brand-loyal customer.

Is there a magic bullet, like AI?

I couldn't resist. My inbox is filled daily with how AI is making my life easier, and I am sure yours is no different. Getting that supply chain closer to the customer experience requires execution across all platforms, from PO management, forecasting, replenishment, and then on to a high-performing supply chain to get it to the customer, wherever they may be. At every step in the Purchase Order Lifecycle, decisions are centered on what's best for the customer experience. There is no silver bullet, just simple, consistent execution.

What is the so-what in all of this?

In a 2020 white paper titled, A License For Growth, Customer-Centric Supply Chains, Accenture concludes that companies who have invested time and money to transform their supply chains realize their investments in these ways relative to their peers.

• 13% Revenue Growth Rate
• 2.5% Higher EBITDA Margin
• 3X Higher Contribution to Total Revenue

While your results may vary, these are compelling metrics to at least start a conversation around improving supply chain performance.

How Does Traverse Systems Support Customer-Centric Supply Chains?

As former retail operators, we witnessed firsthand million-dollar investments made to create can’t-lose merchandising plans only to see them derailed by poor OTIF, inaccurate ASNs, and $.20 labels that won't correctly scan.  Everything we do as a company across our solutions is centered on improving supply chain performance to ensure customer satisfaction. We would love the opportunity to share with you how.  To learn more, please download our whitepaper, Creating a Customer-Centric Supply Chain in the Age of Disruption, or call today.

Speaking of Conferences

We look forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks in Scottsdale. If you would like to learn more about how we can support your customer-centric supply chain, please stop by for a visit. We will be in our usual locations, booth # 1, or at the firepits after hours.

Accelerating Time-To-Market: The Power of EDI in Supply Chain Efficiency

By Linda Comito Moore, Sales & Marketing Director, ECGrid.com

Call to Action: PO Change Business Process Implementation Guideline

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

It might be said that nothing affects both the supplier and the retailer more than the inability to effectively implement a PO change request process. A PO change that is not successfully synchronized between buyer and seller can cause a ripple effect for manufacturing, marketing, sales, shipping, receiving, accounts payable / receivable, inventory planning, open to buy dollars, and most importantly, customer satisfaction.

A year ago RVCF put together a Business Process Implementation Guideline Work Group. Please see the article in this Newsletter on the work we have completed on error prevention and notification, primarily around the EDI Ship Notice and barcode shipping label, for more information about the Work Group. We have identified the PO change process as our next topic and we will have our first meeting at the Annual Fall Conference in November. We will start by identifying the different types of PO’s, the best business practices around creating a purchase order and then gather a list of the issues with the current PO change process.

We will document both the As-Is condition and then brainstorm all of the possibilities for an improved To-Be state. We seem to have a effective process for vetting a new PO. Can it be as simple as canceling a purchase order and sending a replacement? Can we do that at the line level? Is it still true that when a retailer does that, they go “to the end of the line” for product procurement? If most of the PO changes are to reduce the quantity, can we exchange multiple PO’s, each for a smaller quantity of an item? Timing is critical for changes and cancellations. Can we indicate a ‘may not cancel / change after’ date in the PO or PO Acknowledgement process?  It will be a blue sky, green light discussion where all ideas will be heard.

We will have the first of our virtual meetings the third Thursday of January, 2024, and repeat the process for those who could not join us at the Fall Conference. Meetings are monthly and take less than an hour. Anyone can join the RVCF Business Process Guidelines for Digital Communications / EDI  Work Group. Your input is needed! Please contact Susan Haupt (shaupt@rvcf.com) to get your name on the Work Group list.

RVCF Business Process Guidelines for Digital Communications / EDI Document (PDF)

What's Your Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio?

By Tom Materasso, Director of Solutions Development, Smyyth/Carixa

Tackle Retailer and Carrier Portals with Ease

By Frank Buck, Director of Product, Carixa

A Simple Way to Reduce Returns, Increase Revenue, and Streamline Inventory Management

By Brion Carroll, CEO & Principal Consultant, Digital Solution Group, LLC. and Dann Gershon, Founder & CEO, zenColor Company LLC.

If we told you that there was a way to get lower return rates on your products, increase sales and do all this while improving your inventory flow then you would say “how is this possible?”. If we also told you that each seasonal set of products would become incrementally aligned with your target market and bring even higher revenue, lower returns, and a better profiling of where to place products so inventory would become less of a post-season burden, then you would say “where do we sign?”.

This is made possible by empowering the most influential characteristic of the purchase of fashion, home, and beauty products that is under your control. This is done by exacting decisions made by merchandizers and product managers during product assortment planning, that feeds design and technical development, material selection, lab dips, bulk fabric approvals, and the production process.

This key characteristic enriches product placement in the retail marketplace and influences over 85% of the reason consumers purchase products. Awareness of this key characteristic is as old as is the market of purchasing analysis. That characteristic is Color.

If we asked you how important the influence of Color is on product decisions and for the consumer market, you would reply that “it is critical”. However, if we asked you how much importance your company places on Color in the overall management of the products you sell, you would probably say “I have no idea”.

What if we told you that there was a way to track a specific Color by assigning it a universal data mapping color code and maintaining that identity throughout a product’s lifecycle? This new color language would not only enhance material development, but it would also remain a constant factor throughout sampling and production, as well as providing studios with the tools to accurately match the color of an image to the color of a product.

What if you could finally maintain digital fluidity and color consistency from Mind to Market?  You should say, “let’s do it.”

What if this new Color language model could be used to perform analysis of market acceptance (or rejection) of a product and that the process of tracking and defining this data could be achieved with almost no technological disruption. Wouldn’t you say, “Tell me how this is done.”

Today’s treatment of Color is a matrix of names and numbers delegated to a series of isolated silos. Trend analysis by color experts suggest Color forecasts based on little to no data, described by subjective names and ambiguous numbers.  Let’s use the color name “Steel Blue” as an example. “The market is trending toward Steel Blue. It’s the new gray; a must have in your 2026 Color Palette,” claims the color expert that your company pays and relies upon to forecast such critical market information.

Upon adoption in Assortment Planning, the Color called “Steel Blue” is assigned an internal color number. This naming and numbering convention looks like it has finite definition, but it doesn’t. It’s merely an ID of sorts that you can put into your Assortment Planning or PLM system to ensure that it doesn’t get mixed up with the fifty other blue or gray colors that have already been placed there during prior forecasts. It’s this season’s “in” color with no means to define the data or give it value. The color data will not just get lost in time; it will be impossible to accurately track in real-time.

To display a Color on a digital device it must be converted from a print specification to an sRGB (Red, Green, Blue) value. This enables the use of CAD programs to digitally design products and colorize them using that specific Color. Note that there are over 16 million possible sRGB coordinates that are too redundant to be discerned by the human eye.  This truly complicates the possibility of doing any analysis once that product hits the market to determine “how is the Steel Blue doing? Is it truly a market winner – or loser?”.

That Steel Blue is likely assigned an identification number by the color expert, which is replaced by the merchandising team with an internal identification number. This does not include the color specification number from the color book or the approximation to the sRGB coordinate value used by CAD tools in product design. The product has not left the gate and it already has a myriad of color numbers and subjective color names.

Unfortunately, these numbers remain embedded in your systems. Even more unfortunate, other than the color name, which is useless, no one else in the supply chain can use the various color numbers. All of your material supplier’s other customers have their own numbers representing their Steel Blue, and each has slightly different sRGB numbers to catalog the spectral data.

It should be noted that none of the Color attributes that were applied to the product, other than the subjective color name, are used for lab dips or bulk fabric approvals. This is all done with spectral data, which is never relayed back to the PLM system.

It’s truly Color chaos.

As a final step in this process your company assigns a GS1 code that performs no function other than making it unique among all other products you have in market. It doesn’t reflect that Steel Blue Color nor support analysis of the market interest in the actual Color that should be used (or not) upstream in subsequent seasons. It’s another random number that actually adds to the chaos.

Now let’s replace all of this chaos by assigning a universal identification code through a mathematically engineered data mapping Color language model.

The code it provides identifies the color name and will live on from its initial assortment planning, through the CAD coloration of the design using virtual fabrics, to the PLM system, material supplier, and finally into market. The color data continues to be tracked and analyzed in market, providing invaluable data to you, the brand or retailer.

What if you could make more of what is selling and less of what is not selling? Would this be of interest?

The patented zenColor® data mapping language model merges sRGB into the model, removing the redundancies without removing a single color coordinate. This creates a means to track and communicate color data.

The zenColor® Code ( ZCC) can uniquely define Steel Blue (or any other Color) in Assortment Planning, implemented in CAD tools, maintained in the PLM system, passed through to market, analytically measured, and relayed back as to that Color’s effectiveness in market.

A simple Color identifier that reduces returns, increases revenue, and enables full digital fluidity from Mind to Market.

For more information about the zenColor® Code and how it can bring immediate and long-term value to you business, contact Brian Carroll at brion@digitalsolutiongroup.net or Dann Gershon at dg@zencolor.com.

CPG Revenue Growth and Trade Promotion Management

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth LLC.

RFID FAQs - Retail Basics for Business Operations

Co-Authored By AIM, Inc and Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

RVCF and AIM, Inc. have co-authored a list of RFID Frequently Asked Questions in Retail. It is intended to convey basic terms and concepts for those in retail business operations tasked with understanding RFID and helping with its implementation, maintenance and success. RVCF worked with several retailers to identify the questions most often asked by their trading partners. Answers were provided by the AIM RFID Experts Group, RVCF, and the retailers.

AIM is an organization which advocates for all forms of Automatic Identification and Data Capture. For the last fifty years they have been active in global standards. Their mission statement is, “as the unbiased resource for networking, education, advocacy and standards, AIM will help its members grow their businesses by fostering the effective use of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) solutions. AIM’s Vision is advancing the effective use of automatic identification and data capture.”

Here is the introduction to the document, which can be found here…

In its simplest form, radio frequency identification (RFID) is a microchip which contains a unique identification number, attached to an antenna. Each chip must have a unique identifier to be singled out and “seen” by the reader which also has an antenna. Chip IDs and reader locations can be identified, which allows the system to capture and record an event (what, when, where).

In retail the unique identifier is the well-established Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) for the product and a serial number (SN) assigned by the brand owner so, for example, if there are twenty-four items with the same GTIN in a carton, because they also have a unique SN, they can each be read and counted while still in the box. RFID is currently used in retail for inventory, picking, packing, shipping and receiving.

Of course, there are many technical details and terms which need to be understood to implement RFID successfully. They include information about tags, data structures, memory locations, frequencies, readers, standards, readability issues, and business process applications.

Supply Chain Careers - Sharing What I Have Seen

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

I have been working in the supply chain for more than 35 years, but for the longest time, I did not know there was a supply chain. I was just doing work I enjoyed, improving processes at the companies I worked for, and learning things as I went along. Keyword highlights on my resume include department management, store management, buyer, Quick Response, EDI, product databases, product images & attributes, pricing systems, marketing, and standards- it’s almost as if I had a very short attention span!

I realized that all those things built on the last thing, allowing me to have amazing chances and opportunities that I would not have had if my path had been straightforward. I began to think about what I would tell someone entering today’s supply chain if I could share my experience.

• Take chances!
  • Try a new type of position that will teach you a skill that needs building. Often this does not mean changing companies but only focus. It could mean learning an older system or something on the cutting edge- both have value in an organization. Risk is invigorating for your spirit and pays off in unexpected ways. Sometimes you will meet resistance but hold on to the goal of learning and growing.
• Meet your peers, as well as your customers
  • Collaborate with all types of jobs and companies. The phrase collaborate to compete became popular a few years ago and it has great merit, as learning best practices and industry advancements benefit an individual as well as an organization. This is not sharing your secret sauce but benefiting from the wisdom shared among peers. Getting out to events, conferences, symposiums, or meetings jump-starts your ability to view situations with a new lens.
  • Build a meaningful network of diverse individuals, not just in your direct industry. This is not racking up a high number of connections on networking sites, but people you can bounce ideas off, examine roadblocks, and share professional accomplishments. Nothing replaces genuine conversations with other people, and nothing ever will.
  • Work across teams within your company to look at the good, the bad, and the frustrating. Communicating regularly prepares everyone to move towards perfecting processes like shipping on time and in full, order creation, inventory visibility, or data enrichment.
• Develop the skill of simple explanation
  • More than the 1-minute elevator pitch, this is a skill that distills projects or systems into a foundation of basic understanding: why is this a problem, who is impacted by this issue, how are we going to fix/manage it, and how are we going to measure our progress or success. Being too far in the minutia or too high level is equally detrimental to C-Suite, management, associates, or customers grasping what you are trying to accomplish.
  • Jargon can be great shorthand when you are in the midst of a process but remember it can alienate those that are new or learning (many times people are self-conscious about asking for an explanation). Take the time to make sure others know what you are talking about when you use acronyms or abbreviations and welcome their curiosity.
• Respect the past, embrace the future
  • Understanding how the supply chain got to where it is today is a great foundation for seeing where it will move to in the future. The use of EDI for business document sharing is widespread and entrenched but it is also open to the use of API and new technology to connect and expand capabilities within a company’s enterprise architecture. Embracing RFID, software that consolidates performance, changing identification standards, and looking at the responsible use of AI and machine learning are the future of retail.

Supply Chain Careers - Sharing What I Have Seen

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

I have been working in the supply chain for more than 35 years, but for the longest time, I did not know there was a supply chain. I was just doing work I enjoyed, improving processes at the companies I worked for, and learning things as I went along. Keyword highlights on my resume include department management, store management, buyer, Quick Response, EDI, product databases, product images & attributes, pricing systems, marketing, and standards- it’s almost as if I had a very short attention span!

I realized that all those things built on the last thing, allowing me to have amazing chances and opportunities that I would not have had if my path had been straightforward. I began to think about what I would tell someone entering today’s supply chain if I could share my experience.

• Take chances!
  • Try a new type of position that will teach you a skill that needs building. Often this does not mean changing companies but only focus. It could mean learning an older system or something on the cutting edge- both have value in an organization. Risk is invigorating for your spirit and pays off in unexpected ways. Sometimes you will meet resistance but hold on to the goal of learning and growing.
• Meet your peers, as well as your customers
  • Collaborate with all types of jobs and companies. The phrase collaborate to compete became popular a few years ago and it has great merit, as learning best practices and industry advancements benefit an individual as well as an organization. This is not sharing your secret sauce but benefiting from the wisdom shared among peers. Getting out to events, conferences, symposiums, or meetings jump-starts your ability to view situations with a new lens.
  • Build a meaningful network of diverse individuals, not just in your direct industry. This is not racking up a high number of connections on networking sites, but people you can bounce ideas off, examine roadblocks, and share professional accomplishments. Nothing replaces genuine conversations with other people, and nothing ever will.
  • Work across teams within your company to look at the good, the bad, and the frustrating. Communicating regularly prepares everyone to move towards perfecting processes like shipping on time and in full, order creation, inventory visibility, or data enrichment.
• Develop the skill of simple explanation
  • More than the 1-minute elevator pitch, this is a skill that distills projects or systems into a foundation of basic understanding: why is this a problem, who is impacted by this issue, how are we going to fix/manage it, and how are we going to measure our progress or success. Being too far in the minutia or too high level is equally detrimental to C-Suite, management, associates, or customers grasping what you are trying to accomplish.
  • Jargon can be great shorthand when you are in the midst of a process but remember it can alienate those that are new or learning (many times people are self-conscious about asking for an explanation). Take the time to make sure others know what you are talking about when you use acronyms or abbreviations and welcome their curiosity.
• Respect the past, embrace the future
  • Understanding how the supply chain got to where it is today is a great foundation for seeing where it will move to in the future. The use of EDI for business document sharing is widespread and entrenched but it is also open to the use of API and new technology to connect and expand capabilities within a company’s enterprise architecture. Embracing RFID, software that consolidates performance, changing identification standards, and looking at the responsible use of AI and machine learning are the future of retail.

Retailer Post-Audit Deductions Demand Closer Attention

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth LLC.

Supercharging Your ERP With Bolt-On SaaS Software

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth LLC.

Hey, It's So Good To See You!

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Sometimes in life, circumstances conspire to make us change the way we do things. Over the past few years, we have seen this play out through our businesses- remote work, virtual meetings, video-based conferences. Even with necessary changes, we thrive and grow via in-person interactions and RVCF continues this tradition through our conferences.

RVCF believes in the value of coming together to solve common problems in industry, as well as specific trading partner challenges. Our events facilitate 1:1 meetings, scorecard reviews, and allow attendees to develop and strengthen business relationships that build trust and transparency between companies. With a small investment of time and resources, companies can also learn about industry trends, future focuses, and benchmarks of performance of retail processes.  We also supplement these events with open forum calls and other events throughout the year, so members don’t lose touch with each other.

Over the years, I have personally seen the difference it makes to meet and work with my colleagues at in-person gatherings. I recall meeting a fellow retailer many years ago – I had a question about a process that was common in the industry and felt that through getting to know her at that forum, I could call and have a chat. That relationship has continued and deepened, as well as many others that started by sitting at lunch or dinner together or sharing a story with someone that I would have not been able to connect with otherwise. Being in the same room with my trading partners also helped us resolve issues that just were not getting fixed over the phone or via email.

I would like to invite you to join us at our Fall Conference Information Session on Wednesday May 17^th to learn more about what happens at our RVCF conferences and how you can make the most of the experience. We have several tools that can help you outline our offerings and explain the value to your management.

Retail is a people business- sure we trade in merchandise, but we are successful when we connect and gain insight from each other face-to-face.

10 Reasons Why Purchase Order Compliance in Important

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth LLC.

From the Desk of Kim Zablocky ... Retail Evolution to Circular Supply Chains

Sitting here over the last three years, watching the evolution of retail which has taken place in what would normally be a 10-year cycle, who would have guessed that a thing called a Circular Supply Chain would ever be uttered out of the mouths of retail operation executives or would be the focus of discussion at industry group events?

When you think about it in terms of costs, sustainability and allowing consumers with a limited budget to be able to wear items that would normally be outside their reach it makes perfect sense.  Yet, what effect does this have on the manufacturers? Reduced sales, greater competition with their own products.  Plus, think about product images and attributes, a photo of worn jeans extra holes, torn bottoms, mark it up! Sounds more like the ‘60’s.

I guess I’ve gotten old. I have a closet full of such items and need to start pulling them out, take a picture and post on any of the on-line resale sites.  They’re probably worth more than when I bought them for 20 years ago!

OK, now a little less satire from me. RVCF has two events already in the works for 2023. Our Spring event is underway, taking place in sunny Clearwater Beach, Florida April 30th to May 3rd at the Clearwater Marriott at Sand Key. For more information, click here.

The RVCF Fall Conference will once again be at the JW Marriott Camelback Inn & Spa, November 5-8 2023, (our 21st year hosting events there). Click here for more information.

So, what’s RVCF going to focus on at these events? For brands, many retailers have initiated RFID requirements which has brands scrambling. RVCF will explore all aspects of both accommodating their retail customers requirements and how they can best use RF tags in their own supply chain. Next, we will explore all EDI transaction sets, deep diving in the most used, and focus on the operation side on managing guidelines.

For retailers, the core focus this year will be on best practices of managing the issue of Shortages, (prevention, look at root causes, work with suppliers to better understand why their shipment was short), on vendor score carding, freight/supply chain visibility and vendor performance dashboards.

RVCF also plans more joint (retail/brands) open forum sessions allowing for common issue discussions. Finally, issues all our members and participants are sharing, is labor management, retention, working remote, performance reviews etc.

Hopefully, we’ll see in Clearwater Beach this Spring!

~ Kim

Accounts Receivable Deductions - Still a Plague on Profits

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth/Carixa

Compliance Advisory Board: Vendor Sales Agreements Findings

By Jessica Butler, Principal, Attain Consulting Group

Deduction Reduction in Tight Times

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

With a new year comes new concerns in our business lives. Well, maybe they are not even new concerns, but lingering ones that have we have been seeing for the past couple of years. JP Morgan’s outlook for 2023 predicts the housing market will continue to slow on 7% mortgage interest rates and slowing inflation (but still above the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2%), thus impacting spending for most American families.[1] Forrester sees a future of pre-pandemic retail customer behavior but not necessarily at the same level, requiring a pivot in-store and on-line.[2] How do companies anticipate, react, and plan to an ever-changing retail environment? One strategy is to look at high result/low risk actions that can be easily undertaken.

From the supplier’s point of view, deductions from retailers average .3-1.5% of gross invoice dollars. When companies focus on reducing these costs, it can have a direct impact on profitability and the bottom line. Working together with retailers, suppliers can find and resolve the root issue that leads to expense offsets and deepen partnerships that benefit each side.  One small company took action in a retailer relationship, finding a cost effective and simple way to reduce shipping errors in their distribution center. This brought their deductions down 98%- thus allowing them to hire another full-time person for their warehouse team to manage increased sales.

As a retailer, speed to market is essential to meeting/exceeding the consumer’s expectations- harking back to the adage of the right product in the right place at the right time. Also with increased receiving automation, the workforce available at retailers is focused on activities other than error resolution or shipment audit. Additionally with unified commerce, the strength of the relationship between suppliers and the retailer has tangible effects on customer satisfaction and exceeding their expectations. When both sides of the retail equation are focused on the same goal, the alliance between parties results in mutualism where benefit is realized for all.

At RVCF, we believe that building the relationships between retailers and suppliers is realized through collaboration on common issues. Through our monthly membership calls, studies, research, and in-person conferences, business relationships are developed and strengthened. Investing in a membership opens the opportunity for retailers to effectively meet with multiple suppliers to find solutions for specific problems, review new initiatives, and examine scorecard results. For suppliers the membership can often pay for itself quickly in deduction resolution and profit margin improvements.

If you would like more information about membership, please contact Susan Haupt at shaupt@rvcf.com.

[1] JPMorgan 2023 Outlook

[2] Chain Store Age Forrester

Supply Chain Challenges to look out for in 2023

By PartnerLinq

The COVID chaos highlighted supply chain problems that have been visible in the transportation space for some time. Transportation is, as we all know by now, a fragmented industry with hundreds, perhaps thousands of individual service suppliers. Efficiency issues have been surfacing across diverse industries for decades. We've seen warehouses in close proximity to large cities stumbling to keep up with demand—inventories beyond physical capacity strain from impeding deliveries, thus impacting shipments. We've seen next-generation e-commerce struggling with the ability to make timely deliveries and ships waiting for days and weeks to access ports and unload containers at terminals around the globe.

These issues have all been with us for some time. However, instead of seeing what's happening in the real world, we have been subject to focus on political fodder combined with the news. And what we have been missing is the focus on the supply chains, stressed to the breaking point, for decades.

Although we’re living in a world of transformative technologies, where products are ordered online and deliveries are made the same day, many businesses still struggle with supply chain challenges. Challenges such as long lead times and siloed supply chains are two subjects that fit nicely into today’s discussion paper. 

Long Lead Times

According to research by the Institute for Supply Management, manufacturing lead times in the US averaged 100 days, and the average commitment time rose to 173 days, which are the highest numbers recorded.

Why does lead time matter?

Lead times matter, particularly when lead time is broadly defined. When lead time is defined as the period between starting and finishing the production process for a given product, the supply chain process also broadens to include locating materials, placing orders, producing products, and delivering finished goods. 

Additionally, lead times play a critical role across supply chain processes. For instance, when acquiring raw materials from a far-off location, during order entry*, while having a product manufactured or prepared for shipment, and when transportation is involved.

Simply put, the duration, or the time it takes to move the product between points, becomes essential, as delays such as slow order processing or shipping holds can lengthen lead times.

Longer lead times invoke many implications for both buyers and sellers. Therefore, managers must take proactive measures to minimize lead times and the underlying factors impacting the supply chain.

*Order cycle times – the time it takes to process an order, including the time it takes to send or respond to a PO or PO Change.

 Why is shortening lead time important?

Numerous advantages come with shorter lead times; customer experience is the most significant. If you are able to deliver a superior customer experience, your customers are more likely to return, and a returning customer means two things, a reduction in the cost of customer acquisition (cost savings) and recurring revenue. The delivery of a superior customer experience also contributes directly to gaining a competitive advantage while saving you more for high-value business initiatives, such as advertising, warehouse expansion, and digital enhancements.

Siloed Supply Chains

Silos happen when individuals or whole departments cannot or are unable to share information with others. As a result, communication among individuals and departments gets confined, entangled, and impaired, resulting in information gaps between your suppliers and your business teams.

How do supply chain silos develop?

Supply chain silos develop when systems, departments, and vendors are unable to share vital data across supply chains operationally. In simple terms, they lack or lose the ability to share information in near real-time.  Supply chain silos develop organically as an organization grows. The company’s growth hinders supply chain innovation and interferes with additional development due to the constraints on information within the supply chain.  In other words, without a proper flow of information between trading partners and stakeholders, sustaining growth becomes a challenge.

According to an analysis by Bain & Company, cost-savings from a silo-free supply chain are twice that of a siloed one, i.e., 10% - 20% compared to 5% - 10%. This suggests that recognizing the power of a truly connected silo-free supply chain will help one achieve the desired business outcomes efficiently.

Why is removing supply chain silos important?

Close cooperation with suppliers and partners is crucial, considering the ever-growing complexities of today's fragmented supply chains. There are many data, system, and organizational hurdles to overcome to ensure a "single source of truth." True collaboration requires end-to-end visibility, which cannot take place when individuals or whole departments are unable to share information. The result is today's fragmented supply chain is nothing short of late, unsuccessful, or missed deliveries and an inability to deliver customer value. Supply chain managers, therefore, must have access to timely information in order to execute seamless deliveries based on informed decisions and deliver superior customer experiences to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

PartnerLinQ: Delivering Unified Digital Connectivity and Visibility Across Your Supply Chain

PartnerLinQ delivers complete visibility, control, and unrestricted flexibility and can help you gain total control over your supply chain connectivity. This end-to-end supply chain solution boosts operational effectiveness and provides insights throughout your value chain for better decision-making and business expansion.

Seamless Connectivity

Efficiently onboard partners and suppliers while maintaining data accuracy amongst your systems, including ERP, PoS, CRM, and more – enabling outstanding consumer experiences via seamless connectivity across channels, including e-commerce, social media, and third-party apps.

End-to-End Visibility

Get a comprehensive view of your B2B and B2C transactions with an intelligent supply chain solution. It proactively alerts you to potential supply chain leaks helping you maintain complete control over your company procedures – enabling access to real-time data on the order process, inventory, delivery, and potential supply chain disruptions. 

Transparency

Utilize real-time data from all supply chain points to ensure continuous operations. Through a tightly knit supply chain network, this end-to-end supply chain visibility solution leverages integrated AI, machine learning, and pattern recognition to help you discover anomalies, assure traceability, and improve cooperation inside and outside your firm. As a result, it empowers you to confidently set actionable goals, visualize processes via real-time insights, access valuable information on demand, and proactively engage and rectify issues.

Control

Identify and address current and potential major supply chain issues through comprehensive supply chain visibility. With data-driven network intelligence, you can pinpoint crucial procedures that require automation for increased operational efficiencies.

With complete control of your supply chain, you get:

• Improved collaboration with the stakeholders
• Business agility
• Proactive decision-making
• Increased cash flow
• Enhanced quality assurance

Just like every other aspect of the business, intelligent tech-driven supply chains are vital to sustaining growth and generating high ROI. As long as organizations continuously innovate and invest in trending supply chain solutions, overcoming disruptions will become more seamless than ever before.

References:

https://www.bain.com/insights/supply-chain-cost-inflation-infographic/

Supply Chain Latest: Labor, Long Lead Times a One-Two Punch for U.S. Factories - Bloomberg

From the Desk of Kim Zablocky ... A Look Ahead to 2023

RVCF will return to hosting two in-person conferences in the New Year.  We will be back in Clearwater Florida this Spring and in Scottsdale Arizona in the Fall.  Both the Spring and Fall Conferences will focus on flow of goods in what we believe to be a continued constrained supply chain, especially for brands importing goods from China where COVID shutdowns persist.  The Spring agenda will be available early to mid-January so reserve your rooms, book your flights and plan on warming up after a long winter.

Other initiatives for 2023 RVCF will include once again partnering with Auburn University’s School of Logistics, promoting their online Certificate program, we will also offer our monthly Open Forum sessions for Retailers and Suppliers along with a session dedicated to EDI and will continue our work in creating Business Process Guidelines for Electronic Communications and EDI (See related article for details).  Additionally, we will continue to explore best in class business processes to improve speed and reduce costs in serving the consumer via E-Commerce channels. 

Unfortunately, as with the majority of US businesses, the inflation bug has affected RVCF and we have instituted a modest increase in Membership pricing – our first in over four years.  2023 pricing will take affect with our January membership renewals and is available on our site.  That said, with participation from more than 40 leading U.S. retailers and 260 branded manufacturers, RVCF continues to bring both sides of the trading partnerships together to reduce or eliminate order fulfillment/compliance errors leading to monetary deductions and after 20+ years, we remain the driving force in collaboration.

I’ll leave you with my New Year’s Wish…

I wish in 2023 that Global Supply Chain constraints will ease, Covid will be a thing of the past, Inventory issues will work themselves out, Inflation returns to 2% and the consumer continuing to be financially healthy….and most of all, I wish everyone of you a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Increase Profits by Improving Your Deduction Processing

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth/Carixa

RVCF Fall 2022 Conference Recap

By Susan Haupt, VP Operations and Member Services, Retail Value Chain Federation

Blue skies and a beautiful view once again created the perfect backdrop for RVCF’s Fall Conference held October 30 – November 2 at the JW Marriott Camelback Inn at Scottsdale.   This was our second post-pandemic in-person event, our 13^th conference hosted at this location and our 21^st Fall Conference overall!  

This year’s agenda featured our traditionally popular sessions such as the Retailer and Supplier Open Forums and Retailer/Supplier 1:1 meetings along with a number new offerings including: 

• A half-day EDI Training series on Sunday afternoon hosted by EDI Academy.
• A workshop hosted by Auburn University on Wednesday morning on managing a Constrained Supply Chain.
• An Open Forum Session designed just for Service Providers.

Other notable presentations included:

Our Keynote, Kristen Brown of Kristen Brown Presents engaged the audience with “Energy Bingo” which had us laughing, reflecting and feeling re-charged and motivated.

Retailers reviewed the results of the newly updated Deduction Policy Review, a benchmark study by RVCF that presents data from 41 retailer entities showing their focus on processes from ordering through receipt of merchandise and payments. We also talked about how to clearly share policies with suppliers, using technology to make your business customer centric, and methods to most effectively utilize resources in supplier collaboration. 

Retailers and Merchandise Suppliers participated in a round table peer-led session that focused on employee on-boarding, training and retention, which is already slated to return to next year’s agenda as an extended session.

The “Business Process Guidelines for Digital Communications / EDI” work group gathered for a session open to all which attracted many first time attendees.   The Group’s mission is twofold. The first is to provide guidelines for a specific retail business process relative to EDI and other digital workflow. This gives business operations the information needed to understand capabilities and communicate requirements to intra-company business partners, inter-company trading partners and solution providers. In the process we will identify best business practices. The second goal is to streamline and harmonize the language used, including standardizing terms, codes, definitions and actions expected for the data qualifiers used, whether in EDI or other forms of digital communications.

The first guideline is “Error Prevention, Notification and Root Cause Analysis for Shipping and Receiving”, based on the work we did last year on ship notice errors and problems with the shipping label. Our goal is to have the guideline published for the RVCF Spring conference in May, 2023.

Looking ahead for 2023, RVCF Announced 2 upcoming events for the new year featuring a Spring Conference (April 30 – May 3^nd) in Clearwater Florida and a Fall Conference (November 5^th – 8th)  in Scottsdale, AZ.

On behalf of the entire RVCF Team, we thank all of the attendees, sponsors and presenters for their continued support.

RVCF Business Process Guidelines Update

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

The “Business Process Guidelines for Digital Communications / EDI” work group gathered for a session at the Fall RVCF Conference in Scottsdale. The session was open to all and we had many first time attendees at the meeting. For those of you who are not familiar with the workgroup, please see our Mission Statement, below. Our first guideline is “Error Prevention, Notification and Root Cause Analysis for Shipping and Receiving”, based on the work we did last year on ship notice errors and problems with the shipping label. Our goal is to have the guideline published for the RVCF Spring conference in May, 2023.

The group discussed the need for guidelines for those in business operations who have not had EDI or other digital communication training, plus the need for standardizing the error codes used by various retailers. There were several suggestions around points relevant to shipping and receiving, including getting Standard Carrier Alpha Codes in a timely manner and the need for a better PO Change process.

This lead to an active discussion on PO Changes and the need to improve that business process, which will be the topic of the next RVCF Business Process Guideline.

For a copy of the presentation, please contact shaupt@rvcf.com.

The work group meets the first Thursday of each month at 2:00 Eastern. If you are interested in joining us for our December meeting, please click HERE

Following is a summary of the group’s mission:  The mission of the RVCF Business Process Guidelines for Digital Communications / EDI is twofold. The first is to provide guidelines for a specific retail business process relative to EDI and other digital workflow. This gives business operations the information needed to understand capabilities and communicate requirements to intra-company business partners, inter-company trading partners and solution providers. In the process we will identify best business practices. The second goal is to streamline and harmonize the language used, including standardizing terms, codes, definitions and actions expected for the data qualifiers used, whether in EDI or other forms of digital communications.

Energy Mastery for Workplace Wellness

By Kristen Brown, Keynote Speaker and Energy Expert

How Kristen Brown spun a personal tragedy into a cutting-edge career helping organizations use holistic strategies to drive employee leadership, sales, engagement, and happiness.

Why does energy matter?

Energy matters because it impacts everything and everyone we interact with at work and at home. When we feel sad or bad it shows up on our faces, in how our bodies feel, and in how we communicate and engage with others. When we are in a lower energetic state it impacts how others perceive us and that can hurt our careers and relationships in a big way. When you learn to master your energy centers you charge up all dimensions of you so you can lead and live with awareness, confidence, and impact.

Energy is critical AT WORK because when you turn it on and turn it up it does several things:

1. You will be a more relatable and powerful leader.
2. You will get in-the-zone faster when selling and negotiating.
3. You can tap into creativity and innovation when you need it most.
4. You will make better decisions with greater clarity.
5. You will have less stress and burnout when you get stuck.
6. You will deal with change and challenge more effectively.
7. You will have more motivation to go after your goals and dreams.
8. Many more!

What is energy mastery?

I describe energy as emotion in action. I’ll say that again so you really hear that – energy is emotion in action. Any emotion you can experience can show up as an energy that you bring to your work and life. Often people think energy is just some high-intensity, positive, and active way of being but you can have stressed or sad energy just like you can have happy or excited energy. Energy mastery is all about awareness of that flow of emotions throughout your day and ensuring you are showing up how you intend to show up to your colleagues, clients, and loved ones. It’s all about knowing how to interrupt a negative emotional state on the fly so you can bring your best self as a leader, performer, partner, parent, friend, and human even when you’re stressed, burnt out, or dealing with change. This can be done through body, mind, and spirit activities (I call them Energy Hacks) that change the way you are functioning down to the cellular level and at a highly-metaphysical level and high workplace performance level too.

Who is Kristen Brown?

Well that’s me…and that’s a big question! I’m a hippie nerd who loves hardcore data and research and all things metaphysical. I’ve been able to take my diverse expertise and experience and turn it into a full-time career as a professional speaker on how to tap into your energy centers for success even when you’re stressed or overloaded. I spent 15 years in traditional corporate leadership roles in the retail vendor space working with some of the biggest brands on the planet before a personal tragedy nudged me in a new direction so I guess you could say that I’m a resilient as heck riser who can spin any situation into an opportunity for growth.

What happened?

I was widowed 15 years ago when my 30-year-old husband died of a heart attack in his sleep. He was the picture of health and had just been given a clean bill of health at his annual physical. We had a 10-month-old daughter when he died and I was in a high-pressure job with a challenging boss followed months later by the economic crash so it was quite a journey going through that phase of my life. I didn’t know anything about self-help back then so it was a massive time of experimentation, learning, and opening my mind to trying new things to heal and move forward.

How did you get into speaking on energy?

I started on the side while still in corporate a few years after my husband died. A couple of organizations around Minnesota asked me to share my story at their wellness expos and the first several events I cried the whole time! But as I saw that regular people like me had actual jobs as speakers I knew it was my path. I loved my career in corporate espionage (Okay it was market research but corporate espionage sounds cooler! haha) but I was being called to share my message in a different way. I was in speech and drama all through high school and into college and much of my corporate career was delivering high-stakes sales and marketing presentations to huge groups of high-level executives. Plus I love to talk even though I’m an introvert! To amp up my knowledge, I got my Master’s in Integral Theory which I describe as the art and science of multiple perspectives and human growth. I also did several certifications on holistic wellness including a 200-hour RYT yoga teacher certificate, Crystal Reiki Practitioner, Holistic Health Coach, Yoga Nidra, and several more to ensure I was seeing how work and life play together. (I am in a 500-RYT and Yoga Therapy program right now too!) Over the course of five years I left my secure and well-paying corporate job and went back three times as I built my speaking business and wrote a couple books. I finally left for good (knock on wood) eight or nine years ago…but I’m still in it since most of my clients are corporate and traditional workplaces. But it’s on my terms and I absolutely love being able to use my background and stories to connect with the audiences I know so well whether it’s at a convention or conference, company meeting, association event, or on TV!

How does someone get started?

Hire me to come speak for your organization! haha Seriously though – it begins with the willingness to acknowledge you have growth opportunities…and then to open your mind to new ways of thinking. I tell my audiences that with the cutting-edge ideas I will share with them they will need to unclench their butts when they feel nervous, triggered, or think something sounds weird or a little (or a lot) too hippie for them. My audiences are VERY diverse in terms of levels of spiritual and emotional development so I have to be sensitive to all types of people. I explain how my early journey after being widowed was all about experimentation and it was filled with things that made my butt clench. But some of the scariest and “weirdest” things were also some of the most pivotal in my healing journey. Once you’ve opened up to the idea of energy mastery then it’s all about awareness. I use several frameworks to help organizations and individuals navigate their growth path. We pick the one that’s best based on worldwide and industry trends, corporate culture, employee work/life dynamics, what their goals are, and the overall event theme.

How do you make energy and the holistic theories you teach applicable and approachable for organizations?

I give audiences Energy Hacks which are instant, practical, researched, and actionable tools they can use right there in the room and when they get back to their work and home. These Energy Hacks are easy and fun but super powerful in changing your physical and mental well-being so you can have the influence, impact, and fulfillment you want to have as a leader and human being…no matter what. They interrupt the stress response that is creating the negative energetic state. Your body, mind, and spirit need to be hacked so you can quickly get back on track and into a positive state whether you’re dealing with difficult or different people, you have too much on your to-do list, you’re struggling with nerves over an upcoming presentation, or any of the other thousands of workplace stressors. These Energy Hacks range from mindset tools and tricks like to-do list makeovers and reflective exercises to physical things like yoga and movement to spiritually-based activities like meditation and visualization. I ensure I share a variety of ideas during my sessions so anyone can resonate with at least one no matter where they are at on their self-help journey or what they need to elevate their workplace performance and goals.

What makes your speaking programs on energy mastery so powerful?

First – they are fun and entertaining. That is by design. When we laugh and smile we are flooded with endorphins and other feel-good chemicals that open our minds to new ideas. Everyone loves to laugh…EVERYONE. So I always make sure my speaking programs are filled with laughing. I have even taken standup comedy and improv classes over the years. Second - they are high-energy and actionable. I don’t read bullet points off a PowerPoint slide and drone on with boring data for an hour. I tell stories, weave in relevant industry research, and ensure that the audience feels like I’m talking just to them. They do activities right there in the room tied to their exact challenges so there is instant change and instant energy activation right away. Finally – I make the audience the star of the show. I am just the guide who is there to make them feel safe and comfortable so they feel excited to stretch their limits and drive the change they need to be the best version of themselves.

What can someone do to start shifting their energy?

There are thousands of ways to shift your seven success energy centers of Motivation, Creativity, Confidence, Relationships, Communication, Strategy, and Vision. As a big data and research junkie it’s important to first know where you’re blocked or need a little recharge, so we always start with an assessment. In all of my speaking sessions I give several ideas to target each Energy Center so everyone leaves with specific ideas just for their areas of opportunity.

This is such important work for individuals to dig into after the stress and burnout of the last couple of years. How can an organization bring this information to their employees?

I have several options depending on their goals, budget, time commitment, size of company, event type, and employee demographics. We can create a customized program that ranges from one-time speaking sessions to ongoing trainings over time to one-on-one mentoring to executive masterminds to drive culture and change and so much more. Because I spent so many years in corporate leadership roles I always seek to understand the challenges and goals and then dig deeper to get to the heart of what’s truly driving the desire to change. Then we create the perfect program with the organization’s forward momentum in mind.

Visit KristenBrownPresents.com, call/text 612-618-1808, or email Kristen@KristenBrownPresents.com to learn more or submit a speaker inquiry. And be sure to follow Kristen on LinkedIn, Facebook (@Kristen Brown Presents), and Instagram (@SpeakerKristen) for daily energy hacks and ideas for work/life impact.

Exposing the Real Value of Trade and Channel Promotion

By Rob Hand, Hand Promotion Management, LLC, Author of “The Invisible Economy of Consumer Engagement”

The first book on modern trade promotion has won over thousands of executives worldwide who have struggled with making trade promotion management, execution and analytics (TPx) successful.

We recently sat down with Rob Hand, longtime consumer products industry analyst who is the author of the successful book, “The Invisible Economy of Consumer Engagement.” Rob is a 35-year industry veteran who is often called upon to deliver advice and counsel to CPG manufacturers and retailers and is a well-known columnist and speaker on TPx globally. He was a presenter at the recent RVCF Fall 2022 Conference in Scottsdale, AZ.

For CPG manufacturers, trade promotion spending represents upwards of 30% of gross revenues and is most often the second highest line item in the corporate financials. Globally, trade spending is approaching one trillion dollars, and even in a down economy, typically increases with the critical necessity of attracting consumers to stores and ecommerce sites.

RVCF: Rob, your book has been well received globally, and recognized as the best primer for a CPG manufacturer/supplier for trade promotion. Have you any insights on how the retail and wholesale/distribution industries are finding the book?

Hand: “Great question, and yes, I do. I have heard from many executives in the retail industry, predominantly those in marketing and merchandising. The majority of email and calls I get from the channels revolve around how they can better collaborate and gain advantage from their suppliers to increase the success of their promotions. I recently attended a retail conference where I was leading a workshop on collaboration. It was amazing how little the retail channel teams actually collaborate with their suppliers. There seems to be a reluctance to share their own sensitive customer data such as loyalty activities, credit card spending data, and so on…and I get that. But we worked on ways they can enrich the collaboration by looking at real data, including not just the top line POS data, but working with their supplier counterparts to get THEM to share the promotional success data they have. A good example is asking the supplier to provide analyses of general POS-related intelligence they have on what tactical activity such as a temporary price action, type of display or advertisement that seems to have more effect on the sale of product.”

RVCF: Do the manufacturer/suppliers actually have that type of data they can share?

Hand: “Some do, and that is one of the problems that currently exist for so many CPGs, even the largest global companies. My book shows the manufacturer/supplier what type of analytics to provide and how that works in a collaborative environment. They should read that! But virtually all consumer products companies will have some compilation of data showing how their products do for certain types of tactics in a promotion, timeframes, and so on. One thing I would certainly recommend is that the retailer, wholesale/distributor or reseller strongly request that meetings be held with both the sales reps and key account managers who actually create the promotion plans and their own internal corporate marketing counterparts to ensure alignment between trade promotions and corporate advertising, coupon marketing events and promotions. This simple request often ensures a clear path during a period of time where the product is exclusively promoted and does not get caught up in the maelstrom of all of the other similar categories being promoted.”

RVCF: Let’s talk about your book, “The Invisible Economy of Consumer Engagement.” How did you select that title, and how does it connect the reader to trade and channel promotion?

Hand: “Ah, yes. Well, first of all, explaining what trade promotion is to most people requires more than a casual conversation over a drink, doesn’t it? I do have a subtitle in the book cover that gives a bit more explanation. But, most people do not know what it is, and even those in the industry often widen their eyes when I say “one trillion dollars” annually. That’s a big number. I’ve had seasoned industry executives in key areas like supply chain, logistics, procurement and finance who had no idea the amount of money spent was as high as it was as a percentage of gross revenues or that this economic system is often the second highest line item on the financials after cost of goods. So, that’s the “invisible economy” part. It’s the “Consumer Engagement” that has been lost in the historical perception of trade spending. To the typical consumer products key account manager or sales rep, their focus on this money has always been as an incentive to close the sell-in deal—using the money to subsidize the retailer’s margins for a major volume purchase. Most sales people understand the importance of promotion and work hard to configure a promotional plan that will hopefully generate retail sales. But now, it’s time to focus the power and strength of this money to better achieve the objective of motivating the shopper to walk to the shelf, put the product in the basket and buy it. As an industry, we have a lot to learn and improve in the areas of engaging today’s consumer.”

RVCF: You quickly state in the book that trade promotions typically fail, even more than 50% of the time. So, what is the metric that indicates failure?

Hand: “Failure, as I state throughout the book, is a consolidation of potential metrics, but the most common and simple is volume. If a sales rep and buyer closes a deal for 100,000 units of a product to be shipped to the retail locations in support of a promotion, and only 90,000 units are bought by the shoppers, that is a failed promotion. The sales rep may achieve his or her forecast volume in the deal, and they may consider it a success because of that. But the retailer cannot. There is an excess inventory of 10,000 units the retailer now has to deal with. This is a simple equation that can be easily measured, and, most likely, often ends up being the barometer for other failures such as loss of share, cannibalization of another product, and so on; but it is still a failed promotion.”

RVCF: What are the causes of failure?

Hand: “There are four main reasons why a promotion fails. The first is the lack of good data from which the key account manager, sales rep or even retail buyer can establish a historical precedent and basis for predicting a future result. Data is a key problem for everybody, plain and simple. The second is inventory related—out-of-stock conditions occurring at least one day during a promotion. If the product is not on the shelf, the consumer/shopper can’t buy it, right? Here we are in 2022 and we still don’t’ seem capable of completely solving that problem. The third is poor promotion planning capability, or more appropriately these days, the lack of effective predictive modeling. Trade promotion optimization is a growing function of planning tools, and the intent is to increase the likelihood of repeating a successful promotion based on historical data. We mentioned that in the first problem, but most consumer products companies do not yet have this level of sophistication in promotion planning, so it’s still pretty manual and often based on what the rep recalls or thinks might work. And it most often doesn’t. The fourth reason is the lack of alignment between trade promotions and corporate marketing. Surveys continue to show that there are still conflicts between the trade promotion tactical activities and the themes, messaging and positioning done in corporate consumer campaigns, promotions, and advertising. With better analytics, we are seeing this now more than we were in the past.”

RVCF: You devote an entire chapter to “The Consumer Chain.” Can you explain what this is and how you worked this into the book?

Hand:  “Going back to the title, I needed to make the connection between trade promotion tactic and strategy and consumer engagement. The beauty of trade promotion is that it provides the opportunity to connect directly with the consumer at the point of sale, right? But we know from tons of research now that the modern shopper, whether they be millennials, gen X, Y or Z, or us Baby Boomers, go through a series of thoughts and actions to determine what we want and how we intend to get it. What trade promotions can do is tied specifically to the consumer’s chain of thought from the point at which they think they NEED something through the process of deciding, purchasing, consuming and determining value of that something. The entire chapter is based on taking each point in that chain and showing how trade promotions can specifically address and target those points to generate not only a one time purchase, but ongoing loyalty. This is the very purpose of engaging with the consumer, isn’t it? And everything in the book that follows this chapter shows how to ensure that the trade promotion management, execution and analytics focuses on and achieves this level of consumer engagement.”

RVCF: One more question. What’s next for Rob Hand? Another book?

Hand:  “My goal has always been to help consumer products companies improve their revenues through the excellence that can be achieved in trade promotion management, execution, and analysis of performance. I continue to work with consumer products companies, and some retailers, wholesalers and distributors to help them identify where and how they can achieve this level of success. As for another book, we’ll see. My book has generated interest among the global academic community and I would like nothing more than to help aspiring students in business become future leaders in consumer products and retail.”

“The Invisible Economy of Consumer Engagement” is available everywhere books are sold online and now a new ePublication version is available as well. Rob Hand is based in Austin, Texas and can be reached at, rob@handpromotion.com. Hand Promotion Management, LLC www.handpromotion.com

Building Supply Chain Networks that Scale

By Ahmed Raza, Vice President & Head of Products Engineering and Strategy at Visionet

Today’s retail supply chains are under intense pressure due to challenges like manufacturing, operational and warehouse capacity issues caused by labor shortages fuel prices, inflation resulting in shipping delays and even outages. Retailers are facing unprecedented friction in terms of disruption to their supply chains among the frictions, changing consumer buying behavior.  Behavior is changing in part due to the availability of goods and in part due to geopolitical uncertainty. Given the level of uncertainty supply chain professionals need to re-think their approach to “network” and re-focus attention on building supply chain networks that are agile, scalable, and redundant.

There are several key considerations for supply chain professionals when it comes to building a supply chain network that scales. First, supply chain professionals need to ensure that the entire network enables visibility; in short, end-to-end visibility comes first, last, and always.  Partners who cannot provide visibility or have no plans on improving visibility have to go.  This new level of visibility means having visibility into all aspects of the supply chain, from raw materials to finished goods in such a way that inferences can be made into the manufacturing process.

Next, supply chain professionals need to ensure that their network is highly automated, automation will improve operational efficiency and allow for faster response times when changes in demand are detected. Automation also goes a long way in overcoming labor shortages brought about by the breakdowns in supply chain operations over the past few years.

Third, supply chain professionals need to make sure that the network can withstand aggressive change and continue to provide insights across the value chain. This takes flexibility and allows for better decision-making and business growth.

The Modern Supply Chain Network

The way consumers shop, and the way businesses operate have changed dramatically in the past two to three years and as a result, the supply chain network needs to be viewed differently. In the past, retail supply chains were designed for stability and efficiency, they were not built for speed or visibility.  Slow and steady as in the “Tortoise and the Hare" from Aesop's Fables. However, in today’s environment, retail supply chains need to be designed for agility and scalability.

There are several key differences between traditional and modern supply chain networks. Traditional supply chain networks are typically linear, designed to move goods from point A to point B, and in an efficient manner. Modern supply chain networks, on the other hand, are more complex designed to be agile and responsive to changes in demand.

Another key difference between traditional and modern supply chain networks is the role of technology. Where traditional supply chains rely heavily on mixed manual, electronic, and paper-based processing; Modern supply chains, make more use of advanced technologies such as EDI, cloud computing, Barcodes, and EPCIS. These technologies help improve visibility and allow for more accurate tracking of products from the factory floor to the consumer’s doorstep.  While Traditional supply chains are focused on efficiencies and cost-savings. Modern supply chains are focused differently, focusing on creating value, and the ability to predict where and when an item will be delivered thus keeping the end customer informed and comfortable with the delivery process, especially important in these trying times.

By taking these differences into account, retail supply chain professionals can build a retail supply chain network that is agile and scalable. In doing so, they will be better equipped to survive and thrive in the current environment.

3 Factors to focus on While building Retail Value Chain

Technology: One of the most important investments a company can make is in technology. By automating processes and utilizing technologies such as EDI retailers can improve their inventory management and order fulfillment. In addition, integrating EDI technologies Transportation Management Systems (TMS) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) supply chain companies can optimize shipping and reduce their overall freight costs, investing in technology make operations more efficient, and allows for improved scalability.

Data Analytics: Another way to build a scalable supply chain network is to optimize analytics. Data analytics can help companies track customer behavior and demand trends and leveraging electronic transactions certainly makes this possible.  Electronic transactions data can be used to forecast future needs and make necessary changes to the supply chain network as the end-to-end processing becomes visible. Additionally, data analytics can help identify areas of waste and inefficiency driving better decision making and improving overall performance.

Strategic Partnerships: Choosing the right strategic partner is essential for building a retail supply chain network that scales. Industry expertise can lower the cost of infrastructure and create new efficiencies. For example, partnering with suppliers to improve electronic communication and coordination throughout the supply chain helps both parties and strengthens the relationship. By forming partnerships, retailers will be better equipped to handle growth, meet, and exceed customer demands.

Gain Visibility through PartnerLinQ.

PartnerLinQ is the result of Visionet’s decade’s long industry expertise and technology leadership. Hosted on Microsoft Azure, PartnerLINQ is an innovative, process-centric, easy-to-use EDI platform solution that enables API-led, cloud native integrations.  A simplified B2B communication engine that includes EDI, AS2, SFTP and real-time APIs, PartnerLINQ is a fully integrated platform and easily handles both standard and proprietary file-based formats including custom integrations. PartnerLINQ is well suited for retail supply chains, e-commerce, wholesale, transportation, 3PL, distribution, digital and analog partner ecosystems helping your team achieve operational efficiency and gain real-time visibility.

The PartnerLinQ team has more than 30 years of experience in providing industry-focused leadership in technology, consulting, and in the development of innovative solutions that drive global supply chain transformation from the factory floor to the consumer’s doorstep.

https://www.partnerlinq.com

6 Ways Retailers Can Rebalance Inventories As Consumers Shift Spending

By Charlie Chase, Executive Industry Consultant/Trusted Advisor, SAS Retail/CPG Global Practice

RVCF Business Process Guidelines Work Group Update

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

The Business Process Guideline Work Group had their third meeting this week and we are making good progress on documenting best business practices for digital communication error prevention, notification, and root cause analysis for shipping and receiving.

Our next meeting will be at the RVCF Fall Conference in Scottsdale where all conference attendees are invited to learn more about our work.

The mission of the RVCF Business Process Guidelines for Digital Communications / EDI is twofold. The first is to provide guidelines for a specific retail business process relative to EDI and other digital workflow. This gives business operations the information needed to understand capabilities and communicate their requirements to intra-company business partners, inter-company trading partners and solution providers. In the process we will identify best business practices. The second goal is to streamline and harmonize the language used, including standardizing terms, codes, definitions and actions expected for the data qualifiers used, whether in EDI or other forms of digital communications.

The current initiative will cover error prevention and notification for shipping and receiving, specifically for the EDI 856 Ship Notice and shipping labels. Topics for future Business Process Guidelines include the PO Change process, Item Setup, and Reason Codes for the Deduction Process. Retailers, suppliers and solution providers are invited to participate in the Business Process Work Group. Contact Susan Haupt for information on joining (shaupt@rvcf.com).

As mentioned, above, the guidelines are meant for use by Business Operations associates to effectively troubleshoot a specific process, in this case shipping and receiving. Because the EDI 856 Ship Notice is widely used in retail, we focus on EDI translators, error prevention best practices and acknowledgements. We provide the basic EDI information needed by the business to better communicate within their company and with their trading partners.

The error reports sent to suppliers come in various digital forms. EDI is not widely used in this part of the process. We are currently gathering error codes from our suppliers and retailers to create a harmonized list with definitions and ways to fix the issues. We are also getting sample error report formats. Both the error code lists and report formats are redacted and won’t identify a location, retailer, or supplier. Ship Notice error reports are communicated via email, portals, scorecards, deductions and EDI. The code list we identify can be used in any of these forms of digital communication.

Once a supplier can compile data using harmonized codes, they can analyze the information to determine root cause. The real value in this work will be, perhaps for the first time, to give all parties the tools they need to fix the problems that so severely effect supply chain efficiency.

EDI - The Foundation of Digital Communication

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has been in use in U.S. companies for decades, successfully processing millions of business documents each week. These documents are the core of any enterprise- purchase orders, invoices, bills of lading, shipment notices, etc… and the flow of these transactions between trading partners is the foundation of commerce worldwide. So why does this workhorse get labeled as ‘old technology’?

EDI is digital structured communication between companies that allows businesses to share purchasing, receiving, transportation, financial, and regulatory data quickly via standardized transaction sets. By sharing this data digitally via a schedule or on-demand transmission, companies eliminate manual processing and improve data accuracy that increases efficiency and reduces cost.

Let’s look at a couple of predictions on the imminent demise of EDI:

XML will make EDI irrelevant- XML (Extensible Markup Language) is very flexible and perhaps that is why it didn’t take hold. The process of setting up trading partners proved to be more difficult than expected and didn’t have the uniformity seen in establishing EDI relationships. Often the size of the transactions also proved to be too large.

EDI will be replaced by blockchain- though blockchain has many uses and benefits, the permissions involved may not be appropriate for many business-to-business transactions that make up the volume of traded documents. In cases of financial or traceability, it’s more likely that these technologies will compliment each other versus one replace another.

When looking at flow and configuration of the EDI process, many benefits consistently stand out. These factors validate the value found in this technology, making it an essential piece of an enterprise’s toolkit.

Consistent and standards based- EDI transaction sets or documents are based on globally developed data standards that employ input from countries around the globe. By agreeing on and adopting these standards, any business can utilize them to share critical information in their relationships with customers. Information within transaction sets follows consistent placement and format that enables the reuse of the mapping over and over with a variety of trading partners.

Reliable- The EDI process through translators and value-added networks (VANS) or direct interface has proven to be one of the most reliable computer-to-computer based processes. With timestamps, control numbers, functional acknowledgements, and trading partner specific identification, companies have the peace of mind and data tracking to ensure their documents are delivered securely to the correct party and the ability to implement traceability for their own data retention.

Cost effective- The overall cost of EDI has declined over the years, specifically the cost of individual transmissions and interconnections between VANS. Batch and on-demand access to an EDI mailbox now co-exist as a business identifies its needs in an omnichannel world. The need for immediate updates in stock positions or delivery status can be satisfied by determining the right time and frequency to pull or push data to trading partners.

Adaptive- The expectations between companies have evolved, just as consumer expectations have grown. EDI is not stagnant- it has changed to include customer address and delivery data for direct-to-consumer purchases, government regulatory required data, and healthcare/insurance specifics. For example, as the apparel and general merchandise community worked to develop additional best practices related to product attributes, these were added to the EDI 832 document (Price/Sales Catalog transaction set) so that trading partners could share information on over 200 attributes from collar type to water repellant.

World-Wide- Though there are several formats in EDI, two are the most commonly used based on geographic area. In the United States, the primary format is ANSI X12 and Europe utilizes EDIFACT. Both are similar in the types of transactions they provide for the most common business needs like purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notices.

In every aspect of its structure, EDI is digital communication and it makes fast and accurate exchanges with other companies possible in a consistent and affordable way. Its evolution is much like that of automobiles… though there is a huge distinction between a Tesla and a Model T but over time the basic purpose and form has remained: getting us to work, the store, or the airport by sitting in a seat behind the wheel. Technology and engineering have made that journey more efficient, comfortable, cost-effective, faster, and powerful. Digital transmission has seen a similar path and emerged as a winner for companies and consumers by allowing goods and services to move through the supply chain at the speed of business.

With its speed, accuracy, detail, and low cost, Electronic Data Interchange continues to help businesses each and every day. Connecting to other enterprises and fueling the supply chain proves that OLD SCHOOL IS STILL COOL!

From the Desk of Kim Zablocky ... Now More Than Ever, Focus On Retail Trading Partner Collaboration

For 22 plus years RVCF has been in the forefront of trading partner collaboration.  Bringing you best practices that helps our member achieve the “perfect order” philosophy, i.e. on time, in full, damage free and error free documentation. Unfortunately, the last few years has brought challenges that no one planned for, in fact it has changed how both retailers and brands have faced the consumer.

Thus, the thrust to digitalize the sales channel. E-commerce is expected to hit $1.03 trillion by the end of 2022, approximately 22% of sales. The prediction is that by the end of the decade it will reach 31%. The process and considerations with this process are very different from in-store selling. RVCF plans to look at how you can balance the customer experience while reducing costs and creating a smooth operational process.

What’s that mean? New ways of strategizing how to maximize the digital experience, whether its click speed, viewer experience, product packaging, images & attributes, speed of delivery at no cost mind you and returns.

I know you say, that RVCF is about reducing Compliance Deductions, that’s true, and we will continue in that effort, but right now all concerned in the retail space want and need to increase sales. Confronted with managing a constrained supply chain, still dealing with disruptions/lock downs in China, truck driver issues suppliers are still challenged with the ability of shipping on-time in-full, on the other side of the aisle retailers have a glut of goods, out of season, that were freed up from warehouses unable to move till now. Tough times for sure.

Now more than ever retail trading partners need to collaborate. RVCF Conferences is where Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) meets Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Looking to improve that retail/brand partnership? Come join us in Scottsdale, AZ October 30-November 2, 2022.

You Need a Deduction Policy

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth/Carixa

RVCF Business Process Guidelines for Digital Communications / EDI Group Update

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

As announced in our last issue RVCF has formed a working group to create business guidelines for common digital communications and EDI transactions in use today. The mission of this group is twofold. The first is to provide guidelines for a specific retail business process relative to EDI and other digital workflow. This gives business operations the information needed to understand capabilities and communicate requirements to intra-company business partners, inter-company trading partners and solution providers. In the process we will identify best business practices. The second goal is to streamline and harmonize the language used, including standardizing terms, codes, definitions and actions expected for the data qualifiers used, whether in EDI or other forms of digital communications.

A group of 20+ Retailers, Merchandise Suppliers and Service Providers met for the first time on 8/4 and along with adopting the Group’s mission, we agreed that Error Notification, focusing on the 856 Ship Notice should be the first area of focus followed by Debit / Credit Notification, PO Change and Item Setup. 

Future work sessions will take place via video-conference on September 1st, October 6th and December 1st.  An in-person session will take place at the RVCF Fall 2022 conference where we hope to present our first guideline.  Registration for future calls is open to Retailers, Merchandise Suppliers and Service Providers regardless of RVCF Membership status.  There is no cost to participate, however, pre-registration is required.

Minutes from all group sessions along with reference documents and ultimately our completed guidelines will be housed in a private group within rvcf.com.  Those that register for the working sessions will automatically be assigned Group access.

From the Desk of Kim Zablocky ... Dust Off Your Suitcases

What a strange year it’s been…The entire retail industry is in a race to digitalize commerce. In fact retail e-com sales for 2022 are expected to reach $1.07 trillion, which is what some analyst expected (pre-pandemic) for 2025. So, the race is on, same day delivery, sub day delivery and maybe soon, we’ll all have 3D printers that have multiple fabricating capabilities to make many products off a piece of software you buy online. Maybe in 2030 we’ll strap on our meta-verse googles and never leave our homes, and we’ll experience a three-dimensional office space where we converse with staff parading as avatars.

Now, back to reality, people are leaving their home in droves to travel domestically as well as internationally.  They are tired of being trapped at home over the last two years and they want out!

This brings me to the 2022 RVCF Fall Conference. Yes, folks increasingly want to buy online, though many want back into the brick-and-mortar stores as well. They want to feel the product, converse with others, maybe ask a salesperson for help. Leaving Retailers with the decision of whether or not to shrink their store footprint.

Either way, retailers and their merchandise suppliers need to collaborate. It’s been too long. Plus, we have a host of sessions helping to keep attendees (both retailers and suppliers) on top of their game.  See highlights below:

• EDI Training session, hosted by EDI Academy
• EDI Guidelines for operations
• Data management
• Purchase Order handling and work flow best practices
• ASN workflow avoiding mistakes that cost everyone money
• Same day and sub day delivery concepts & best practices
• Staff training, new and seasoned team members
• Staff retention
• DTC best practices from both a brand and retailer perspective
• Logistics training, managing a constrained supply chain-Hosted by Auburn University
• Open forums, One on ones and a whole lot more 

So, get out of those sweats, dust off that travel bag, and get out to Scottsdale, AZ this Fall! We’ll be looking for you to say hello.

CA Senate Bill 62

By Bryan Hawkins, Partner, Stoel Rives LLP

In response to questions from our membership regarding California Senate Bill 62 and it's potential implications for the apparel industry, we offer the following response prepared by Bryan Hawkins, Partner,  STOEL RIVES LLP bryan.hawkins@stoel.com. ... Read more in the PDF file attached.

RVCF and Auburn University Announce Program for Supply Chain Professionals

RVCF and Drs. Brian Gibson and Glenn Richey of Auburn University's Harbert College of Business & Center for Supply Chain Innovation have combined resources to create a timely talent development program focusing on critical supply chain issues. 

This three (3) - part offering will kick off this summer with a webinar "Managing a Constrained Supply Chain" on August 23, 2022, followed by the launch of a self-study Global Supply Chain Fundamentals certificate course and a half-day workshop taking place on November 1, 2022, and offered as an add on session to the RVCF Fall Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  

 These programs will benefit those who are:

• Entering supply chain roles from another business function
• Experienced in some aspects of Supply Chain Management and want to broaden their knowledge base
• New hires and recently promoted associates with limited supply chain knowledge

Participants in 1, 2, or all 3 of these offerings will gain a unique perspective from content unavailable elsewhere. 

"The RVCF team is committed to helping its members through trading partner collaboration, sharing best practices, and educating the people responsible for the movement of goods through the Retail Value Chain. Over the past two and a half years, the retail industry has experienced Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, port closings, container shortages, high container costs, and a lack of chassis and drivers. The recent years have surely been a challenging time. Through our partnership with Auburn University, we can better prepare our members for future challenges by providing supply chain practical business know-how presented in an academic setting." – Kim Zablocky, Founder of RVCF.

“Join us for innovative and interactive sessions as we examine supply chain strategies and solutions for managing operations in the highly complex global environment. Through the RVCF/Auburn program, you will investigate traditional and emerging best practices, engage with supply chain executives and educators, and learn via in-person and independent self-study formats. Participating in the program will give you the skills to better manage constrained supply chain.” Brian and Glenn

About Our Presenters – 

Brian Gibson serves as the Wilson Family Professor of Supply Chain Management, Executive Director of the Center for Supply Chain Innovation at Auburn University. He recently completed a Fulbright Finland professorship at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki. His 30-plus years of research and teaching is complimented by ten years of retail logistics management experience with Meijer and Dayton-Hudson (Target). Gibson is very active in association leadership, serving as an officer for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and on the supply chain steering committee for the Retail Industry Leaders Association. 

Glenn Richey is a Harbert Eminent Scholar and the Supply Chain Management Department chair at Auburn University. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the elite Journal of Business Logistics. Richey engages in industry-based supply chain strategy and international business research and has published over 100 research articles since 2002. Richey taught supply chain and global business logic in 26 countries. Before academia, Richey worked for a decade in managerial positions, including procurement, retail consulting, sales, and logistics & supply chain operations for Scott Paper Company and Genuine Parts Company. He continues to work in these areas through research, consulting, and expert opinion.  

About RVCF - The Retail Value Chain Federation (RVCF) provides platforms and opportunities for communication between retail industry stakeholders. We promote education through live events, teleconferences, webinars, and research. We offer a benchmark of best practices, technology solutions, and strategic initiatives. RVCF is the driving force that enables retailers and suppliers to streamline operations, improve supply chain execution and accelerate time to market to become more profitable. We are committed to the advancement of the retail industry as a whole.

From the Desk of Kim Zablocky ... A One-of-a-Kind Solutions Organization

RVCF is about forming partnership and collaboration between retailers and their suppliers which result in improved speed to market and increased profit for all.  From industry research to technology solutions and hosting both virtual and in-person events, we are a one-of-a-kind solutions organization that encourages trading partners to work together to address the challenges that impact their supply chain performance.   

I encourage you to attend this year's RVCF Fall Conference. RVCF events are not trade shows!  Everyone that attends leaves with key takeaways which, when instituted, will lead to improve overall order to cash performance.  No other organization offers a mix of education & training sessions, opportunities to explore best in class business processes and brings retailers together with their merchandise suppliers to address individual disconnects leading to shipment delay's, miss-picks, label and packaging, all leading to unwanted compliance deductions.

Take a look at the Conference agenda and you'll see we touch on all aspects of the order fulfillment cycle. 

The Global Supply Chain Disruptions and Challenges

By Scott Weiss, Vice-President, Technical Sales for Performance Team-A Maersk Company

From the average consumer to the CEO’s office, the global supply chain has never been more competitive or at the forefront of all our minds.  A global pandemic, a continued zero tolerance policy and lockdowns in parts of China, record import demand, a war in Ukraine, increasing inflationary environment, labor shortage, and real estate shortages means global supply chains are knotting up from China to Denmark, sparking re-examinations of things as macro as globalization itself and micro as trucking around the American ports.  The intertwined world economy took decades to stitch together and will take years to play out.  

Let’s take a quick look at the some of the top domino effects of our global supply chain we have seen in the past year and the headwinds facing us today:  

COVID Lockdowns.  We know all about the lockdowns in the United States in 2020. China’s zero tolerance COVID policy has caused factories to continue to shut down in parts of China.  This has all created a great bottle neck in our global supply chain that we are still seeing today.

Record consumer spending has led to record Imports as a result of government stimulus, record low interest rates, and spending on products versus services or events since fewer consumers were traveling or attending outside events.  

Record Imports lead to Record Congestion-Importers and retailers are increasingly dependent on other countries to manufacture product. For example, in 2008, approximately 13 million TEU’s (20-foot container equivalents) were brought into our U.S. ports. In 2022, we will get to close to 30 million. 

Today, nearly all vessels from Asia are sailing at full capacity.  The result of this record demand has been congestion at nearly all U.S. ports.  In a perfect world, an ocean vessel would depart from its origin and arrive at its destination on the published time give or take a day or two.  There would be zero ocean vessels parked in the water with no place to dock.  In Q4, 2021, the Ports of LA/LB, our nation’s two busiest ports, had up to 125 ocean vessels anchored in the water with no place to dock.  Today that number is around 30 ocean vessels parked in the water with no place to dock. This number is expected to escalate very soon as the most recent China lockdowns end and volume picks up for the second half of the year. 

The current timeframe for a vessel to dock is around 15 days from arriving at the Ports of LA/LB to being able to dock.  A further challenge is the ocean vessels keep getting bigger and bigger, holding up to 22,000 TEU’s on one vessel. Once arrived at the dock, the time to unload these mega ships can take as long as 8 days!   This has been a similar story playing at all nearly all other Ports around North America.

Record Port Congestion leads to Record Port Drayage Challenges-Picking up a container at the Ports can be super challenging once the container is discharged from the vessel. The terminals operate on an appointment system these days. However, many factors make the appointment system a real challenge such as chassis availability, customs, hours of operation, closed yards, and record volume and lines.  As a result, a drayage driver attempting to pick-up a container at the Ports will often have to wait for hours upon hours to pick up a container and sometimes the driver will go home empty handed even if they had an appointment. 

Record Port Drayage Challenges leads to record inventory-Because the congestion was so bad last year and demand so high, importers and retailers have brought in more inventory this year in order to avoid all the loss of sales. These factors, combined with vessels all being full, has led importers and retailers to get their product on a ship sooner than later to make sure they have a slot and that it arrives to our country before their shipping window. Importers are also super anxious as the 29 West Coast Ports are also in active every 6-year negotiations on a contract that expires this July.  Historically, these contract negotiations have led to delays and even lockouts over the past 20 years.

Record Inventory leads to Chassis Shortage- More inventory leads to more real estate space needed which leads to many warehouses at full capacity. As a result, many warehouses must store inbound containers in their yard for days, weeks, and even months. This contributes to a huge chassis shortage since the chassis are not returned back to the port in a timely manner. This problem is compounded by the record high import/export differential of about 90-10 these days. If there are no chassis available at the terminals when a port driver goes to pick up a container, the container cannot be picked up and moved out.

Record ecom growth, demand, inventory, and chassis shortage leads to Record Real Estate Occupancy—We have touched on record demand, inventory, and chassis shortages.  ecommerce requires that inventory be stored on lower levels and more spread out since there is so much each picking.  A company cannot take as much advantage of high ceiling height. All of these factors lead to more space needs. These days, real estate is at a huge premium all over the country.   For example, the national real estate average of availability is about 3%. Many parts of Southern California, the king of industrial real estate, have a record low of under 1% vacancy.    

And there you have just some of the domino effects we are seeing in the global supply chain these days. All of this has created drastic lead times, higher costs, and substantial uncertainty in the global supply chain. What used to take 14-17 days from China to LA/LB now can easily take 45 or more days to get product from China to a Southern California warehouse.  The lead time gets even longer when factoring in the uncertainty from China and vessels moving to other ports around the country. 

Scott Weiss has over 25 years of logistics experience and is Vice-President, Technical Sales for Performance Team-A Maersk Company.  Performance Team operates 60+ omni-channel and ecom distribution and fulfillment centers in North America. Scott can be reached at  scott.weiss@performanceteam.net

Call to Action: Digital Communications Business Ops Guideline

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

This RVCF Call to Action is to create business guidelines for common digital communications and EDI transactions in use today. We need input from business operations associates (who may not necessarily be familiar with the technical aspects of EDI), to better understand current business requirements and best practice. Those with digital communications and EDI experience can help define those practices in the context of existing functionality.

The purpose of the guidelines is:

• Continuing education for the business side on standardized digital communications to take advantage of its capabilities and optimize business processes;
• Provide talking points for the business side when communicating within the company, with their trading partners and with EDI service providers;
• Brainstorm various digital communications for today’s business ops challenges;
• Harmonize, where practical, the various methods different retailers use to accomplish the same thing, to improve data quality and make it more cost efficient for their suppliers.

The Call to Action kick off will be the RVCF July EDI Open Forum taking place on Wednesday, July 13^th at 1:00 pm (Eastern).   All are invited to participate, whether or not you have expertise specifically in EDI. Sign up here  there is no cost to participate.

Background - Electronic Data Interchange is a standardized form of digital communication using a structured language to convey information about business objects between buyers and sellers. It has been used successfully for years and is likely to be used for many more. As a metaphor, we may send text messages rather than hand written letters. i.e. sending and receiving EDI has improved, but the language itself remains foundational. Additionally, we have other forms of digital communications that can provide solutions.

In the early days of EDI, companies had well-staffed EDI departments. Those teams are not common today and there are some companies who do not have a dedicated EDI person. The use of third party service bureaus is common and the practice is effective. But companies still need someone who understands EDI so they can convey business objectives and requirements to their EDI solution providers. They also need to communicate with EDI representatives from their trading partners. Outsourcing EDI does not mean outsourcing that business relationship.

RVCF proposes creating Digital Communications Business Ops Guidelines which will address business processes enabled with digital communication. Not the technical “what is it” but the more practical “how do we use it” information needed today. By coming together as a community we can make much needed improvements in several areas. The guidelines are for business operation specialists so they can insure their requirements are met. These guidelines will include best business practices and use case scenarios, as determined by RVCF participants, in a number of EDI and digital communication areas:

• Insure transactions sent will not fail based on technical specifications;
• Actionable error notification for failed transactions;
• Well defined code lists for common transactions;
• PO Change capability.

The guidelines are intended for use by those associates working in supply chain, transportation, ordering, shipping, receiving, accounts payable/receivable, master data and EDI, including EDI solution providers.

If the output of the RVCF guidelines requires updates to EDI, change requests will be submitted through the proper channels (ANSI X12). And, as always, as we engage in conversation about the guidelines, we must remember that EDI standards are voluntary in North America.

The reason traditional EDI is still used successfully today is because the user community came together to determine requirements and best business practices to the benefit of the retail industry. We hope you will join us for this important work.

The following provides more details about the four initiatives that have been identified as areas of concern.

1. Using the tools already available to insure that an outbound electronic transaction will never fail based on technical specifications.

    

   1. Whether it is an in-house EDI system or a 3^rd party, EDI translators should interrogate the data to make sure all technical specifications are met. A transaction should never leave the sender if there are fatal technical errors. Translators may also be configured to look for retailer-specific requirements. In addition, pre-processing routines can be set up to insure data quality. The guideline will also define the role of solution providers, where applicable.

       

   2. Understand the use of the EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgement which indicates whether or not a transaction was received and successfully translated. Transactions may still fail if the data in the transaction is wrong. A 997 in “Accepted” status indicates that the EDI structure was correct, including the presence of mandatory and conditional data. If a 997 is not received for every transaction, the sender knows they must follow up. Most importantly, what is the best business practice for fixing a transaction that is not acknowledged, or is “Accepted with Errors” or “Rejected”?

    

2. Creating effective and actionable error notifications for bad data or missing optional data.

    

   1. Even though an EDI transaction is technically correct (mandatory and conditional data elements are present) there can still be errors in the data. More effective error notification is needed, including the ability to determine root cause through reporting and analytics. The 856 Ship Notice provides an example. If we analyze months of failed ship notice data is there a pattern? Is it a certain Ship-to or Ship-from location, product category, time of year, carrier, etc.?

       

   2. There is an EDI transaction for Error Notification (824 EDI Application Advice) which is not widely used. Many trading partners are sending error reports attached to emails. Due to current financial constraints deploying a new EDI transaction seems unlikely but we may be able to adopt the code list from the 824. Is there guidance we can provide regarding the format and coding of the email error reports to make them more harmonized, understood and actionable? Can these reports provide the data needed for root cause analysis?

    

3. Narrow the number of Data Qualifiers and define their meaning and use in retail.

    

   1. We have too many qualifiers (codes used to define business objects) and insufficient definitions, use cases and best business practices for actions needed based on the information. Error codes in the above email error notification report are an example.

       

   2. Another example is the code set for the 812 Credit / Debit Memo used to indicate chargebacks. Can we limit the number of codes normally used and define their meaning? Are the codes used in the 812 harmonized with the data sent in the 820 Payment Order / Remittance Advice? A business operations guideline can provide valuable information on how the 812 Credit / Debit transaction can be used to the benefit of trading partners.

    

4. There has been discussion for years on our inability in retail to convey PO Changes.

    

   1. The 860 PO Change is not widely used and we continue to talk about the need for an effective PO change routine. It is needed to make necessary changes to order information and for successful ship notice and invoice matching. Should that be a separate document or is it time to rethink the EDI 850 PO? Can EDI be less static and more conversational and responsive?

RVCF will work with its member companies to identify additional areas for discussion.

Amazon Chargeback Best Practices ... Take Control and Increase Profits

By the Chargeback Consultants at SMYYTH+CARIXA

This paper by the chargeback consultants at Smyyth addresses the detailed and specific policies, rules, and requirements that must be followed if you want to have a profitable relationship and avoid excessive chargebacks. 

From the Desk of Kim Zablocky ...Feeling the Spring!

Spring is finally here, the birds are chirping, the air is warming up and the pandemic is waning.

RVCF is preparing to launch the following initiatives:

A three-year trend analysis (2019-21) by product line for our Merchandise Supplier members.  This study will analyze suppliers’ order fulfillment performance and how their retail customers have measured that performance.

For our retail members, we’re in the mist of refocusing our annual Deduction Policy Review to provide a more streamlined comparison and analysis of retailer compliance deductions across the product spectrum.  The report will allow retailers to better understand industry trends and brings greater alignment so both sides of the trading partner relationship can be fair and objective in their business practices. 

Next, a look ahead to the RVCF Fall Conference; members have asked for more training type sessions.   We’d like to thank Mike Kotoyan Principle of EDI Academy who will conduct a series of EDI focused session beginning at 9:00 am on Sunday October 30^th, Interested parties should plan to arrive on Saturday October 29^th.  Participation is included with your conference registration at no additional cost.

Other training sessions on the agenda will focus on both Excel & Tableau an ASN workshop,  plus sessions on PO Change workflow, Supply Chain Labor Issues and Staff Retention Practices a Global Ports Report which will including risk assessment, and a whole lot more!

Details are available on our site.

Finally, are you aware that member companies can request a customized industry survey? Have a pressing issue that you would like feedback from you peers? Let us know and we’ll prepare a survey that meets your expectations, of course all results are anonymous, and results are always shared with survey participants.

Have a healthy and safe Spring!

KZ

Reliable and Accurate Automated Receiving Using Logistics Labels

By Paula Giovannetti, Supply Chain Best Practices Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

Retailers and suppliers in North America have had the tools needed for automated receiving since the 1990s when the VICS EDI Ship Notice Industry Guideline was published, along with the UCC Application Standard for Shipping Container Codes. The organizations behind these tools have changed over the years and standards are now maintained by GS1-US, GS1-Globe and ANSI X.12, but the concept is the same. Put a license plate on a logistics unit (carton, pallet load, tote, etc.) with a unique serial number in a barcode and send that same GS1-formatted Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) in an EDI 856 Ship Notice. Match the SSCC in the ship notice with the physical logistics unit and the retailer knows what they need to know about the shipment, purchase order and item. In a fraction of a second, with one scan, they have automatically and accurately received the goods.

It sounds so simple, but unfortunately execution has not always been successful. Recently the retail members of the Retail Value Chain Federation (RVCF.com) asked RVCF to take a deep dive into issues surrounding both the ship notice and the logistics label. Separate surveys were conducted for EDI and labels. In total, 79 supplier and 20 retailer responses were received.  EDI Ship Notice failures center around late or missing transactions and insufficient master data accuracy and synchronization. The industry also needs more robust practices for error trapping and notification. Due to its various hierarchical levels (shipment/order/tare/carton/item), the ship notice is one of the more complex EDI transactions exchanged in retail.

The survey response on label problems also indicated serious issues. Even when the ship notice is perfect, it is not effective if the SSCC barcode doesn’t read. The good news is that, most of the time, barcode issues are easier to prevent. See a list of resources (consultants, products and documents) at the end of this article. A companion presentation can be found in the RVCF Thought Leadership Store: White Papers & Studies here: https://www.rvcf.com/store/viewproduct.aspx?id=19859121.

The GS1 Logistics Label – Information about the GS1 prescribed label format can be found at GS1.org by searching for the “GS1 Logistics Label Guideline”, ratified July, 2019. The document provides guidance for logistics labels worldwide. The concept behind the structure is to provide flexibility and functionality while still adhering to convention. The label has various zones or building blocks which can be mandatory or optional. Within the zones, data attributes may also be mandatory or optional. Blocks of information commonly requested by US retailers include From, To, Carrier, Store, Contents, and the mandatory SSCC at the bottom of the label. There are guidelines about font size, placement of the Human Readable Interpretation (HRI) and Zone Titles. Retailers in the US have settled on a fairly common format. However, it is unlikely that one label format will work for all retailers and all channels. Good label printing software provides for retailer-specific templates and the ability to create, modify and save formats. A quick word about placing the HRI above or below the barcode. The standards say the HRI should go below, but in standards parlance, “should” means, while it is highly suggested, it is acceptable to put the HRI above the barcode if there is a good reason. Just make sure it’s obvious that the human readable data goes with the correct barcode.

GS1-128 Symbology. The barcode symbology on the GS1 Logistics Label is GS1-128. Keep reading for exciting news on future capability using an additional two dimensional barcode. There are several flavors of 128 symbology. GS1-128 is used because it can encode multiple data attributes in a barcode, each identified with a GS1 Application Identifier (AI). AI’s are explained and listed in the GS1 General Specifications, found on the GS1.org website. When decoding any barcode, be sure to read in and process the barcode Symbology Identifier and, if applicable, the AI’s used within the barcode. For instance on the shipping label, there is a code in the beginning of the barcode that indicates this is a GS1-128 symbol and the “00” in the barcode is the application identifier for the Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC).

Barcode Quality – Printers, Ink and Label Stock. For a high first-pass read rate on any barcode it is important to select the right printer for the application. Read the manual. Printers must be maintained, cleaned and calibrated. It’s imperative that recommendations are followed for the type of ink or ribbon, heat settings, and using the correct label stock. Labels should be stored in a dry place; moisture can cause the barcode to feather when printed. Labels should be clean and white. If using recycled labels make sure they are not gray or speckled. The whiter the white, the blacker the black and the sharper the edges on the bars, the better they read. The biggest barcode label issue, based on the RVCF survey, is torn or missing labels. In the past shipping labels were seen as a relatively temporary piece of paper, taking a truck ride from one part of the country to another. But with today’s supply chain, often starting off-shore, going through multiple consolidation / deconsolidation steps, and using more than one intermodal method, consideration must be given to more durable print methods and label stock.

Barcode Quality – Label Application. There are general guidelines about the minimum distance between a label and a carton edge. Retailers may have more specific guidelines on label placement. Labels too close to an edge can be effected by carton crush. If a carton is overpacked with soft goods, the label may be subjected to abrasion if the sides bulge. There are common sense rules about not placing the label so the barcode goes around the edge of the carton and not placing another label over the logistics label.

Barcode Quality – Technical Specifications. GS1, in concert with ISO, maintains technical specifications for each barcode type. They can be found in the GS1 General Specifications. Technical specs include using the right symbology, Start/Stop Digits, Guard Bars, Symbology Identifiers, Check Digits, and Application Identifiers. Barcode dimensions are also critical. The width of the bars and spaces, the height, magnification, contrast, reflectivity, and quiet space (white space before and after a linear barcode) must be within spec for a quality barcode. Again, good label printing software, a well maintained printer and the right label stock will insure high quality. As does using a barcode verifier which measures and grades these requirements. Verification should be used at regular intervals in the printing process to catch problems before the shipment is out the door. Scanning a stationary barcode with an image scanner (i.e. a mobile phone) doesn’t “prove” the barcode is acceptable. It doesn’t replicate the environment in which a moving barcode will be scanned, including ambient light, dirt, speed, type of scanner used, and so on. An original barcode must be verified – not a photographed copy.

Troubleshooting Barcode Errors. Fortunately many linear barcode issues can be identified with a trained eye. They include voids or feathered edges in the black bars or specs in the white spaces. Labels which are torn or wrinkled when applied, or printed with a wrinkled ribbon are obvious, as are those going around the carton edge or too close to the edge. Insufficient quiet space and bars that are not dark enough are relatively easy to identify. But all too often we do not encourage associates to stop the line and fix the problem. They see it, and it’s not that they don’t care, it’s that a larger emphasis is placed on keeping the line moving. Encourage and reward employees when they spot and correct issues. Create appropriate processes and give them the needed resources. Invest in barcode training for employees so they can become valuable internal consultants to your business.

The future - GS1 Scan4Transport! GS1 has developed and piloted an addition to the GS1 Logistic Label in the form of a two-dimensional barcode (e.g., QR or Data Matrix) which can carry critical information for all parties along the supply chain, especially the transportation carriers. The information can be available with or without internet access. Even with internet access, transportation partners don’t always have access to the shipper or receiver’s systems to get the information they need. Scan4Transport is not a new barcode type, but a new application standard for existing 2D barcodes. Currently, there are no plans to use it as a replacement for GS1-128 barcodes on the label. Some examples of the data include measurement and weight for that logistics unit, authority to leave, do not deliver before / after, hazardous materials, and deliver-to phone number.  It can include a machine readable Ship-to name and address so it can be automatically transferred to the carrier’s GPS system. Provisions are being made to include latitude, longitude and altitude for drone delivery. For more information go to GS1.org and search for Scan4Transport.

And of course the first data element in Scan4Transport is the Serial Shipping Container Code. Since a 2D code contains redundant data and error correction, it can often be read, even when damaged. So as a bonus, it gives the receiver a second chance to successfully read the all-important SSCC.

RVCF (RVCF.com) continues to work with its members to foster collaboration and improve efficiency in every facet of the supply chain. 

Resources:

Barcode Consultants and Products:

• Automatic Identification Systems – Manufacturer of SCANALYST Barcode Verification Compliance Systems; label inspection services; consulting for large and small supply chains. Contact Mike or Jeff Nolan.
• Bar Code Test, LLC – barcode consulting, troubleshooting, testing and verification. Contact John Nachtrieb
• California Label Products* – shipping labels, thermal ribbons, thermal printers, repair and maintenance of thermal printers, software for label printing. Contact California Label.
• JWH Enterprises – Sell barcode verifiers; verification services for individual shipping labels. Contact Jack Householder

  Documents:

• Barcode quality and verification see the RVCF All AboutRetail Compliance (AARC) document found at RVCF.com
• The GS1 Logistic Label Guideline can be found in found at GS1.org
• An Introduction to the Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) can be found at GS1US.org
• The most comprehensive GS1 guide to their standards, including a Glossary of Terms, can be found in the GS1 General Specifications which is updated annually and can be found at GS1.org
• For more information on print quality and verification see the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM) document The Layman’s Guide to ANSI, CEN and ISO/IEC Linear Bar Code Print Quality at AIMGlobal.org

Inventory Visibility is a Disrupted Supply Chain

By Susan Pichoff, Retail Executive Adviser, Retail Value Chain Federation

The ability to see where merchandise is in the supply chain has never been more important than today- in the midst of one of the biggest disruptions we have ever seen that knowledge is a competitive advantage to your business. Bringing together data and relationships can make a substantial impact on your company’s ability to plan, forecast, and fulfill orders, as well as making pivots smoother when you need to course correct.

Suppliers are directly affected by delays in the delivery or sourcing of raw materials used in product manufacturing, factory labor challenges, shipping delays, and the demands of customers for On Time In Full delivery. Retailers feel a similar pressure with changes in supplier abilities, shipping shortfalls, unexpected fluctuations with forecasting/planning needs, and consumer expectations from e-Commerce fulfillment. Although each has slightly different hurdles, retailers and suppliers are trying to keep the supply chain moving as smoothly as possible by utilizing all the tools available.

There are three focus areas that can help you to maximize your visibility into your inventory:

• Communication Collaboration- growing and deepening you trading partner relationships is one of the best ways to share and receive information that may impact your supply chain. This can be accomplished by setting up regular calls with your trading partners or participating in industry groups like RVCF. By taking advantage of conferences or industry calls, you can set up a 1:1 meeting and discuss the most pressing issues or learn what others are doing in light of common challenges. The ability to share data between companies strengthens partnerships and enables adjustments to expectations or deadlines based on the most current information.
• Digital Data- there are several EDI documents available to communicate order status between retailers and suppliers. The 869 Order Status Inquiry, 870 Order Status Report, and 855 PO Acknowledgement are tools that help trading partners understand order status and if there are any issues, they need to be aware of as they are planning receipts, shipping, or labor scheduling. By communicating digitally, this data can be consumed directly into your company’s systems or shared immediately with your partners.
• Accuracy Action- modifications of shipments are common but the question is are you making adjustments all the way up and down the supply chain? By making Advance Ship Notice and Purchase Order accuracy a priority in your company, you are ensuring that all levels of the organization understand the impact of errors. A supplier’s accuracy can reduce deductions and improve the speed to market, making their product flow through the receiving process smoothly and quickly. By correcting errors, a retailer can have a significant impact on consumer confidence by reflecting accurate on-hand quantities for Buy Online Pickup In Store or Store fulfillment of e-Commerce orders.

While 69% of companies do not have total visibility into their supply chain[1] and 84% of Chief Supply Chain Officers say lack of visibility is their greatest concern[2], these steps can help your company improve its data view with benefits for your trading partners and your customers by helping to minimize future supply chain disruptions.

[1] https://financesonline.com/supply-chain-statistics/

[2] https://supplychainmanagement.utk.edu/research/white-papers/2018-04-a-savvy-guide-to-the-digital-supply-chain/

RVCF's Partnership Groups - A Resource for Document Hosting and Trading Partner Communication

By Susan Haupt, VP Operations and Member Services, Retail Value Chain Federation

If you are a retailer or supplier in need of a platform to house business requirements and communicate with trading partners or overseas factories - RVCF Partnership Groups provide an ideal solution.  

Whether you are looking for a “quick fix” solution or something more long term, the “Groups” functionality provides a private, secure on-line community and is housed within RVCF’s interactive website.  Think of it as your “site within a site”, accessible only by your team and the trading partner or factory contacts that you approve.  

This simple, streamlined solution provides:

• A branded “Home Page” that is fully customizable with your logo and messaging that can be updated quickly and easily
• Storage for an unlimited number of files and documents
• Private and secure group or individual messaging capabilities

Plus…. optional features such as a calendar, blog, forum board and image storage included at no extra cost.

The RVCF Team will help you set up and maintain your group, ensure it’s integrity and even validate and on-board your users.  We provide a quick turnaround (most groups launch in 30 days or less) at a cost far less than what you would pay for in-house development or outsourced IT support.   A number of our members are already utilizing this service and we would be happy to provide references upon request.  To learn more, contact info@rvcf.com. 

Post Audit Deductions Best Practices

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth LLC

You can reduce post-audit deduction losses by using best practices.

Adapting to the New Retail Customer

By Edward Kowalski, AVP Retail Strategy, Sutherland

Article Link: Adapting to the New Retail Customer | Sutherland

Today’s retail consumer is demonstrating different needs, preferences and purchase behaviors than they did just 18 months ago. But brands are responding—and fast. Learn some of the ways retail leaders are adapting their businesses to serve the post-pandemic customer. And explore how you might too.

www.sutherlandglobal.com  Contact: Chris Rellaford, Sutherland, Head of Sales - Business Process Transformation, 719-351-6230

Managing Your Current Biggest Asset

By John Metzger, Chairman, Smyyth LLC

Product Sourcing Leaders are Digitizing Operations to Prepare for Future Disruptions

By Don Mabry, COO, ClearTrack Information Network 

From the Desk of Kim Zablocky ... What Will 2022 Bring Us?

Omicron cases are decreasing, markets are getting back engaged, and hopefully an easing of travel restrictions will soon follow.   Our 2022 Calendar once again includes a Spring Conference at the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key, Clearwater Beach, FL., May 1-4. The focus this Spring will be on how we use and manage data. In addition, we’ll take a deep dive in both Advanced Ship Notices, ASN Accuracy, and Purchase Order Change workflow, from both an EDI and Business Process on the Brand side.

As we recently announced the RVCF 2022 Fall Conference is scheduled for October 30^th -November 2^nd at the JW Marriott Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, AZ.  Along with being an easy trip from anywhere in the U.S. this is a special place to enjoy the event, the splendor of the facility and everything else that Scottsdale has to offer.

RVCF surveys and studies for the near future will focus on; Supplier Segmentation various theories and practices, Compliance Deductions, percentage breakdown of Allowable, Disputed, Resolved, Days Deduction Outstanding DDO, and benchmark damaged goods handling.

Our membership remains strong, and we are pleased to continue to welcome new members to the group proving that trading partner communication and peer-to-peer collaboration is still en vogue and our value prop remains as relevant today as it was when we began 22 years ago. 

Last but not least, I offer “Kudos” to all of the supply chain professionals who kept things moving during our challenging times because you can’t sell what you don’t have. Thank you to all who touched their respective supply chains over the past two (2) years!

Goal Setting Guide: Improving Supply Chain Freight Performance

By EPA Smartway

Do you need new goals for the new year? Check out the EPA Smartway “Goal Setting Guide: Improving Supply Chain Freight Performance” for info on how you can integrate your transportation & logistics operations into your sustainability goals & plans. Learn more: epa.gov/smartway

New Methodology to Manage OTIF Shipments

By Gali Katz, IDAS

Saving Time, Reducing Costs and Mitigating Risks with Straight-Through Processing for B2B Payments

By the Business Payments Coalition

In today’s current business-to-business (B2B) payments environment, the buyer and supplier must complete a manual action at one or more points in the payment process. The great news is that the BPC and the Federal Reserve are working to drive more efficient B2B payment processes and ultimately achieve straight-through processing (STP), or an entirely automated payment process from start to finish.

Alleviating the pain points that result from manual processes, this automated continuum yields multiple benefits for businesses. Learn more about the benefits of leveraging modernized payment processes in a new article: “Saving Time, Reducing Costs and Mitigating Risks with Straight-Through Processing for B2B Payments”.

Read more, continue to visit the Business Payments Coalition website and explore FedPaymentsImprovement.org for updates on B2B payments modernization.

Want to learn more?

Email us at business.payments.smb@mpls.frb.org with any questions.