The Challenge
As the supplier's distribution footprint grew from a single regional retailer to a national presence across Walmart, Costco, and several other major chains, its internal operations team was overwhelmed by the complexity of managing each retailer's unique requirements:
- Fragmented EDI systems — Walmart, Costco, and other retailers each required different EDI transaction sets (850, 810, 856, 820, etc.), formats, and compliance rules, with no unified system to manage them.
- Chargebacks and compliance penalties — Manual errors in ASNs, labeling, and routing guides led to recurring chargebacks, cutting into already thin margins.
- Inconsistent forecasting — Disconnected order data from each retailer made demand planning and inventory allocation difficult, resulting in both stockouts and excess inventory.
- Retailer-specific portals — Walmart Retail Link, Costco's supplier portal, and other systems required separate logins, manual data entry, and duplicate reporting efforts.
- Limited visibility — Leadership lacked a single dashboard to track order status, fill rates, and performance scorecards across all retail partners simultaneously.
The supplier's operations team was spending upwards of 30+ hours per week on manual data entry, order reconciliation, and compliance troubleshooting — time that could have been spent on growth and retailer relationship management.
The SBSA Solution
SBSA Technology partnered with the supplier to design and implement a unified retail management infrastructure, tailored specifically to the demands of large-format retailers like Walmart and Costco alongside the company's broader retail network.
1. Centralized EDI Integration
SBSA consolidated all retailer EDI connections — including Walmart and Costco's distinct specifications — into a single, automated EDI hub. This eliminated manual re-entry and ensured every purchase order, invoice, and shipping notice was formatted correctly the first time.
2. Automated Compliance Management
SBSA configured automated checks against each retailer's routing guides and compliance requirements (labeling, ASN timing, carton marking, etc.), catching errors before shipment rather than after a chargeback was issued.
3. Unified Order & Inventory Dashboard
A single, real-time dashboard was built to give the supplier's leadership team visibility into order volume, fill rates, and inventory levels across Walmart, Costco, and all other retail partners — replacing the need to log into multiple retailer portals daily.
4. Demand Forecasting Support
By aggregating historical order data across all retailers, SBSA helped the supplier build more accurate demand forecasts, reducing both overstock and stockout incidents.
5. Scorecard & Performance Monitoring
SBSA implemented ongoing monitoring of retailer scorecards (Walmart OTIF, Costco fill rate requirements, etc.), giving the team early warning of performance issues before they escalated into penalties or reduced allocations.
6. Dedicated Support & Onboarding
SBSA's team provided hands-on onboarding for new retailer relationships, managing the technical setup (EDI trading partner testing, portal registration, etc.) so the supplier's staff didn't have to become experts in each retailer's systems.
Implementation Timeline
Results
- Reduced chargebacks — Compliance-related chargebacks dropped significantly within the first two quarters after implementation.
- Time savings — Manual order processing time was cut dramatically, freeing the operations team to focus on strategic retailer relationships.
- Improved fill rates — More accurate forecasting and inventory visibility led to improved OTIF (On-Time-In-Full) performance with Walmart and consistent fill-rate compliance with Costco.
- Faster retailer onboarding — New retailer relationships were brought online in a fraction of the time previously required.
- Single source of truth — Leadership gained real-time, cross-retailer visibility for the first time, supporting faster and better-informed decision-making.
Why It Matters
Managing multiple major retail partners — each with distinct EDI formats, compliance standards, and portal systems — is one of the biggest operational hurdles for growing suppliers. SBSA Technology's approach shows how the right combination of EDI automation, compliance monitoring, and unified reporting can transform a fragmented, manual process into a scalable, retailer-ready operation — enabling suppliers to grow their retail footprint without growing their overhead at the same rate.