Retail Link Essentials for Walmart Suppliers

In this article, learn about: 

• What Retail Link is and how to use it 

• How Retail Link supports suppliers 

• Essential Retail Link apps 

• The challenges of Retail Link 

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Retail Link is a central source for the information, documents, reports, and applications used to manage your business with Walmart. Retail Link is also a way in which Walmart monitors its suppliers.

With Retail Link, suppliers can manage their products by tracking their supplier data, such as sales and inventory volume, percentage of stock, trade margin, inventory turnover, etc. Consequently, they can reduce their inventory risk and related expenditure.

What Does Retail Link Offer? 

Merchandising Tools 

Retail Link offers many apps to help suppliers better merchandise their goods online, in stores, or at Sam's Club. With category planning, data on customer preferences and sales trends can be used to strategically position products in the right categories, optimizing their visibility and sales potential. 

For pricing, Retail Link makes it easy to submit cost changes while staying in line with Walmart's Everyday Low Price (EDLP) strategy. This keeps pricing competitive and on-point while adhering to Walmart's guidelines.

Related Reading: What Is Everyday Low Price (EDLP)?

Modular planning tools provide the ability to design layouts and shelving setups that make products stand out in stores. Digital merchandising is also a key feature, with tools to manage product samples, images, and online product pages. The better the presentation, the higher the sales---and that's the ultimate goal.

Of course, there are also tools for removing products from Walmart stores and online, changing product categories, and managing payment options (such as Flexible Spending Account eligibility).

Replenishment and Supply Plan

Keeping products flowing smoothly to Walmart shelves is no small task, and Retail Link has plenty of tools to help suppliers stay on top of it all.

Purchase Orders (POs):
Retail Link provides complete visibility into purchase orders, helping suppliers track and manage every PO to ensure inventory levels are where they need to be. Staying on top of POs is key to making sure products are always available for customers when they need them.

MABD (Must Arrive by Date):
Retail Link helps suppliers stay on top of Must Arrive by Date (MABD) requirements by giving real-time visibility into purchase orders and delivery windows. Suppliers can easily track each PO's specific MABD, so they know exactly when and how shipments need to arrive based on the delivery type, network, and transportation mode.

When combining multiple POs into one shipment, Retail Link's tools make it simple to monitor and coordinate timing, ensuring that every part of the shipment hits its MABD window without a hitch. This keeps everything running smoothly and helps avoid any compliance headaches.

For example, for live appointment POs, the delivery windows are as follows:

Source: Retail Link > Academy > Analysis and Reporting > Walmart On Time In Full > Stores OTIF FAQ updated 5.2024

Related Reading: What is a Walmart Distribution Center?

Supplier Closings:
Retail Link makes it easy for suppliers to keep Walmart updated on planned or unplanned store closures. If Walmart doesn't know about a closure, it'll keep generating orders which can mess with inventory flow and hurt OTIF performance.

By using Retail Link to stay in touch about any closings, suppliers can pause or adjust orders before any issues arise. This keeps things running smoothly and avoids unnecessary complications, making sure there are no surprises in the supply chain.

Related Reading: How to Report Store Closures to Walmart

Retail Link simplifies supply planning by providing suppliers with the tools to accurately forecast how much product is needed on Walmart's shelves and the steps required to get it there. A supply plan is like a roadmap that forecasts exactly how much product is needed on shelves and breaks down every step to get it there, from production to shipping to stocking. It helps ensure that the right amount of product is always available to meet demand, avoiding costly overstock or stockouts.

Retail Link's forecasting tools give suppliers a clear heads-up on future demand, allowing for smarter inventory decisions. By tapping into these insights, suppliers can anticipate customer needs and plan accordingly, making sure products hit the shelves at the perfect time, all while keeping the supply chain running smoothly.

Manage Transportation and Track Orders

Retail Link is the go-to hub for handling all things transportation and OTIF compliance. Suppliers can easily schedule pickups, check out their OTIF scorecard, and even use the "Where's My Stuff?" app to track orders in real-time. For Sam's Club online suppliers, there's even the option to track SamsClub.com orders, allowing for quick decisions on fulfilling or canceling them.

Related Reading: OTIF -- How To Meet Delivery Appointments

Logistical tools within Retail Link have features like transit time queries, routing status updates, and late pickup notifications. Suppliers can also access detailed ship point information, keeping everyone on the same page and helping ensure OTIF compliance.

On top of that, suppliers can view both domestic and import purchase orders, including PO revisions, in real time. WebEDI gives quick access to all the relevant order documents, making it easy to track everything from shipments to invoices without missing a beat.

Related Reading: EDI for Retail Supply Chains Cheat Sheet

Essential Retail Link Apps  

Supplier One 

Supplier One has replaced Item 360 as Walmart's go-to tool for item setup and management. Walmart adopted Supplier One to bring a bunch of different tools together into one place, making it easier for suppliers to manage their business without needing as much help from third-party specialists. On top of that, it enhances omnichannel functionality in some apps, helping suppliers streamline operations across multiple channels.

Walmart summarizes Supplier One's core features as covering Items and Inventory, the Returns and Claims Scorecard, Demand and Forecasts, Order Management, and Payments and Charges---all in one place for smoother, more efficient management.

Related Reading: Supplier One: Step-by-Step Item Setup

The Accounts Payable Disputes Portal (APDP)

The Accounts Payable Disputes Portal (APDP) is where suppliers dispute deductions, track the status of their claims, and dig into all the details of any payment discrepancies. At the top of the portal are the Key Metrics, followed by the list of all disputes.

Draft disputes are those that the user has begun but not submitted. Users have 14 days to submit or cancel a dispute request before the app deletes the dispute.

Supplier Action disputes are those that a Dispute Analyst at Walmart has reviewed and provided comments on. These disputes require action, and the user must respond to these comments within seven days. Otherwise, the dispute will be canceled or denied.

Walmart Research disputes are those that the user has submitted successfully, and the claim is in the dispute queue.

Approved disputes are those that the Dispute Analyst has reviewed and ruled in the supplier's favor. Walmart, in turn, has since reimbursed the supplier for these disputes.

Denied disputes are those that the Dispute Analyst has reviewed and denied reimbursement.

Related Reading: Walmart Deduction Codes Explained Guide

NOVA

NOVA is an application within Retail Link used for purchase order creation and edits. The purpose of the app is to reduce the need for manual emails to and from Replenishment Managers, allowing suppliers to use this self-serve application for all manual PO Creation and PO Edits. 

You can use NOVA to find your PO, get your PO status, or pull all your POs for a specific period. You can pull a quick view of one PO or do an Advanced Search.

Related Reading: Introduction to Walmart's NOVA PO Management

On Time In Full (OTIF) Scorecard

Walmart's OTIF program measures how well suppliers are meeting delivery expectations, and the OTIF Scorecard app is where Walmart reports each supplier's performance. Over the years, Walmart's OTIF goals have fluctuated up and down. The current OTIF standards are: 

• Prepaid On Time: 90%

• Collect Ready: 98%

• In-Full: 95%

OTIF fines are sometimes layered on top of other deductions, making tracking and disputing invalid deductions difficult. One of the primary features of the OTIF Scorecard is the ability to drill into fines on the PO level. 

Related Reading: How to Dispute Walmart OTIF Chargebacks

The Challenges of Retail Link

Although Retail Link is an amazing tool, working with it can be tricky because of the following issues:

• Complex navigation

• Not easy to learn

• Hard to identify the right data

• Near infinite reporting options

A user is required to browse through the system, search for the right data, download it, and then prepare an actionable report. This is tedious, more so if there are many other retail customers are providing the same data. 

SupplyPike and Retail Link

One of the features of SupplyPike that we are most proud of is our Retail Link integration. Let our software do all of the time-consuming searching for the right shipping documents, so you can focus on what really matters: growing your business!

Curious about this solution? Schedule a meeting with the team today!