RETAILERS
Services: EDI
Industry: Specialty Apparel Retailer
Case Study: Appleseed’s
Appleseed’s offers specialty apparel through distinct catalogs, retail
stores and the internet. The merchandise sold through retail channels are
primarily private label, and 70% of its items are imported from Asia, using
both sourcing agents and direct factories.
Improving Appleseed’s Trading
Partner Relationships
RETAILERS
Connecting with its International Sourcing Agents & Factories
Several years ago, Appleseeds launched a strategic initiative to improve
visibility of inbound orders using Advance Ship Notices (ASNs) sent
directly from the factory where the goods were made. Connecting to
global partners was required, but they lacked the internal systems
and resources needed. Appleseed’s quickly decided that this type of
integration was not their core competency.
“Appleseeds has achieved what
many thought was impossible —
SUPPLIERS
3PLS
Based on the recommendation of one of their partners, Appleseed’s contacted
SPS Commerce and learned how its outsourced EDI service could provide a direct
link between Appleseed’s, their agents and their factories.
connecting with our international
sourcing agents and factories
via EDI. Today, we have reduced
receiving times by 50% and more
than 99% of POs are processed
error-free.”
In 2005, Appleseed’s began live testing using SPS’ WebForms service to
communicate with Parklane, a direct factory in China. It went well, and the
company is now able to receive ASNs directly from this factory. Six months later,
sourcing agent Li & Fung performed similar testing with its factories, and within a
month, Appleseeds was submitting all purchase orders to Li & Fung via EDI.
— Jack Lally, Distribution Center
Manager, Appleseed’s
At that time, Appleseed’s was the first company to use SPS’ new forwarding
function with international sourcing agents. This capability enabled their agents
to send Appleseed’s POs directly to the selected factory, removing all sensitive information. Using only a
browser, these remote factories could receive their orders, print their labels and send the corresponding
ASN.
On-Site Meetings & Trainings in China Build Trust
Recently one of Appleseeds’ other sourcing companies, Cheung Brothers, shipped their first shipments
using its ASN program. Today, all shipping and order communications with Appleseeds’ international supply
chain partners are done electronically using SPS Commerce’s outsourced services.
SPS COMMERCE, INC. | P. 612-435-9400
|
333 South 7th St., Suite 1000 Minneapolis, MN 55402 | spscommerce.com
Appleseed’s
This final step in their program was accelerated by meetings and trainings in China with representatives
from SPS’ Minneapolis and Beijing offices. These meetings enabled Cheung Brothers to understand the
entire process, how they would benefit from the automated solution, and the requirements of both agents
and factories. Appleseed’s knew that agents had a more direct relationship with the factories; SPS needed
to build the agents’ trust in the program in order to gain factory cooperation. SPS needed the agents to
understand and trust SPS’ solution. This was accomplished, and the program is running smoothly.
Barcode Labels Decrease Receiving Time by 50%
Using the barcode label service
from SPS, Appleseeds’ warehouse
staff can process 600-650
units per hour. Previously, only
300 units per hours could be
processed as they needed to open
all cases to verify content.
In addition to ASNs, Appleseed’s worked with their agents and factories to
incorporate SPS’ labeling service into their shipping process. Using this online
solution, factories in Asia can now create and affix a label for every case that ships
from their factory. When its cases arrive at the Appleseed’s distribution center, they
can be quickly scanned and sent directly to their appropriate location within the
warehouse. With this change, the company has greatly increased their throughput
and ability to process receipts, with only a small number of cases needing to be
unpacked and re-packaged.
Next Step: Targeting the Domestic Supply Chain
With their international supply chain running smoothly, Appleseed’s plans to reach out to their larger
domestic vendors (responsible for ~30% of its inventory) in 2008 and add them to the ASN program.
About SPS Commerce
SPS Commerce perfects the power of your trading partner relationships with the industry’s most broadly
adopted, enterprise retail cloud services platform. As a leader in on-demand supply chain management
solutions, we provide prewired, proven integrations and comprehensive retail performance analytics to
thousands of customers worldwide. With a singular focus on the retail marketplace, we revolutionized
traditional EDI systems by developing a platform that enables highly cost-effective and reliable trading
partner collaboration. SPS Commerce has achieved 48 consecutive quarters of revenue growth and is
headquartered in Minneapolis.
SPS COMMERCE, INC. | P. 612-435-9400
|
333 South 7th St., Suite 1000 Minneapolis, MN 55402 | spscommerce.com