What Is Walmart’s Supplier One?

Walmart recently announced a trial period with select suppliers for a new platform, Supplier One. This platform is designed to contain some of the functionality of a few Retail Link apps, namely, Item 360 and NOVA.

Some suppliers have been invited to an early adopter program, designed to introduce the platform to suppliers ahead of time and to sniff out any bugs or issues. 

What Are Supplier One's Main Features? 

Supplier One has been adopted as a means to concentrate a lot of different tools into one place and to reduce supplier dependence on third party specialists. It also has the benefit of improving omnichannel functionality in some apps. Walmart summarizes the features condensed in the app as Items and Inventory, the Returns and Claims Scorecard, Order Management, and Payments and Charges, though these headers are subject to change in this early trial period. 

Items and Inventory

The Items and Inventory tab is meant to function as a duplicate of Item 360's functionality. The tab is broken down further into four subcategories: Catalog, Set Up Hub, Maintenance Hub, Submissions Manager. 

1. Catalog-this tab lists out all of the supplier's products by GTIN/UPC and configurations and hierarchies by Walmart Item Number (WIN).

2. Setup Hub-this tab allows for suppliers to add item proposals, items, shippers, and multiboxes (eComm items that ship in multiple boxes). 

3. Maintenance Hub-this tab is the central hub for item maintenance, including product content & site experience details, item configuration and supply chain, DSV inventory, imagery, and rich media. 

4. Submissions Manager-the submissions manager tab contains the tickets for all of the submission types (i.e. Maintenance, Setup). They are organized by usual Statuses: Complete, Supplier Action Required, Walmart Action Required, etc. 

Claims and Returns Scorecard

This dashboard displays a variety of metrics meant to communicate a general sense of the state of returns. This is broken down by Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), Units, and Return Reasons.

• GMV is broken down into Return $ and GMV Return Rate, both of which are compared with the previous period.

• Units is broken down into Return Units and Units Return Rate, both of which are similarly broken down by comparison with the previous period.

• Return Reasons is comprised of a ring graph breaking down the most common return reasons out of a select list. These include, but are not necessarily limited to:

  • Changed Mind

  • Damaged

  • Does Not Work

  • Didn't Meet Expectations

  • Incorrect or Missing Items

  • Poor Quality

  • Other

Another section of the dashboard contains Top Returned Items, which can be broken down by any number of factors (Item Number, Return $, Return $ Rate, and others). 

Order Management

The Order Management tab is designed to replicate and improve upon some of the functionality of Retail Link's NOVA. Order management is designed to keep track of orders by a number of filters:

• Past Due

• Ship Today

• New

• Cancellation Requested

• Closed Orders

Payments and Charges

This section tracks payments to the supplier by Supplier ID, Distribution Center and Report Date as well as some deductions data. They can only be pulled by including one of each of those pieces of information. These reports include a variety of sortable columns including but not limited to:

• PO #

• Distribution Center ID

• DC Name

• Date Marked as Shipped

• Amount Paid to Vendor

This data can be tricky to organize, but it is important for gathering information for dispute creation and regular sales tracking. 

The Future of Supplier One

Although the platform is just in an early stage, it does appear that Walmart may want to use Supplier One as a replacement for some Retail Link apps, as a consolidation of a variety of apps' functionalities, and as a means of more clearly allowing for omnichannel insight and action.

Even still, Item 360 and NOVA, as well as other apps that have functionality overlap with Supplier One, are not going to be replaced by Supplier One "as of now," Walmart says. Notably, ASPEN will eventually be integrated into Supplier One in some capacity — either in a similar way to Item 360 and NOVA, where it's just the functionality that is carried over, or integrated wholesale into the platform.

Walmart has also announced that Supplier One will go live to all suppliers in early 2024 after a brief trial period. They also said that Supplier One is only for the continental USA.

Conclusion

This recent update, as well as Walmart's announcement about DSS being replaced by Luminate, seem to indicate a united front to "reduce supplier dependence on third party specialists," as well as to make a more omnichannel-friendly supplier experience.

What remains to be seen is the future of Retail Link. Are these changes small steps towards sunsetting Retail Link entirely? Or are these simply updated alternatives designed to make certain aspects of the supplier user experience less tangled? Walmart's assurance that apps like Item 360 and NOVA will remain functional "as of now" seems to imply that changes are on the horizon. 

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