Being the two largest retailers, Amazon and Walmart have incredibly detailed and sophisticated systems built in-house for dealing with supplier compliance. These programs sometimes even differ internally, affecting some suppliers more than others.
When it comes to ASNs, even though they are designed to unite business under a common language, their approach to ASN varieties, practices, and compliance are significantly different in some areas.
This table demonstrates some of the crucial information regarding major ASN subjects at the two retailers:
ASN Subject | Walmart | Amazon |
Platform | Retail Link | Vendor Central |
Compliance Program | Supplier Quality Excellence Program (SQEP) | ASN Accuracy Chargebacks |
Penalty Structure | Flat $25 fine per PO. | Highly detailed, tiered percentage of product cost based on a rolling 4-week compliance rate. |
Labeling | ASN Shipping Labels must be GS1-128 with an SSCC-18 segment. | Mandatory Dual-Label System: Requires both a carton-level label (AMZNCC/SSCC) and a shipment-level label. |
Editing Rules | ASN corrections are largely done through WM feedback via EDI 824s. | Extremely strict. Manual edits only to decrease quantity. EDI ASNs can only be corrected via a replacement EDI file. |
EDI Hierarchy | Utilizes SOTPI, SOPI, SOTI, and SOI hierarchies for ASNs. | Requires specific SOTPI and SOTI structures for palletized shipments. |
High-Level Similarities in Walmart and ASN Usage
At both Walmart and Amazon, ASNs are:
Mandatory for doing business
Primarily sent through EDI
Regulated through performance KPIs in compliance programs with fine structures
Highly time-sensitive
The general best practice across the industry for suppliers sending ASNs is to send them to the retailer at around the time the shipment leaves the supplier’s facility. As mentioned above, Amazon requires that these be sent within the 30-minute window before or after the shipment is sent. Walmart suppliers should consider this timeline as a good practice as well.
All-in-all, ASNs function similarly in Walmart and Amazon at a high level, communicating all that’s necessary for accurate receiving on the retailer’s side. It’s only in the
Some Key Differences in ASN Practices for Walmart and Amazon
One major difference between Amazon and Walmart when it comes to measuring their suppliers’ ASN accuracy is the kinds of defects that are measured.
Walmart has a more elaborate system of ASN errors enumerated in their ASN Dashboard. Whereas Amazon suppliers follow up on their ASN errors by checking their compliance performance in their Vendor Operational Performance program (Vendor Central > Reports > Operational Performance).
In this dashboard, suppliers can see their ASN errors broken down by six sub-types:
On time non-compliance (OTNC)
Invalid or missing ARN for TL or LTL (Collect shipments only)
Unit count mismatch
PRO or BOL mismatch for TL or LTL (Prepaid shipments only)
Missing expiration date
Invalid expiration date
Across most major retailers, a lot of the same issues will be addressed by ASN defect errors, warnings, and fines, but they inevitably go by different names internally. If these can be connected and cross-referenced, suppliers can improve their own internal compliance and shipping processes.
At most major retailers, and with Walmart especially, some deductions and chargebacks are easier to win back than others. Common and costly deductions like shortages and overages are generally easier to win back than compliance fines.
It’s helpful to think about compliance fines more as signposts for areas of improvement than as disputable deductions. Similarly, ASN defects should be treated as symptoms of an illness in compliance, and from there to work towards prevention.
