Blitz Luminate Reporting with Some Helpful Tips

Keeping your eye on the ball 👀

Greetings, Vendorville 👋

Sometimes being a supplier at Walmart is like being on the receiving end of a last second audible. Learning how to keep up with retailer updates requires a thorough knowledge of the playbook and a readiness to adapt.

Picture this: there’s a cold front coming in, the trees are changing colors, there’s cider in your mug, and… a hundred unread emails in your inbox. All you can think about is your fantasy football starting lineup. Your buyer, on the other hand, has other things in mind.

Keeping up with reporting is the big fundamental of retailer success. It helps to align your goals with your buyer, and it brings insight that can drive insights even beyond a company’s retailer business.

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Safety Blitz: Know Your Options with Luminate 💪

Sometimes a risky blitz is the safest option. Staying ahead of the competition means being willing to commit players to the blitz, and special teams know that that starts with data analysis. Frustrating as it may be, paying for Luminate Charter will give suppliers more incisive visibility into omnichannel performance.

Luminate Basic’s .com reporting is much more limited than Charter’s. In short, Luminate Basic’s .com reporting is based on the inventory. Charter’s .com reporting actually breaks down .com based on the customer’s point of sale (i.e. pickup, delivery, etc.).

With Charter, some suppliers have the ability to read the offense of competition and blitz omnichannel performance.

O-ma-hawsh: Stay Flexible with an Audible 🗣️

Charter isn’t right for every Walmart business, but being aware of it as an option is key to staying adaptable in the supplier game. The expense for Charter is taken from in-store sales, not sales to Walmart. This makes it a somewhat unpredictable cost for smaller suppliers.

For some suppliers, the insights available only through Charter may be the difference between and first and ten and getting sacked.

In Other Retailer News 📰

Supply Chain & CPG News

Hasbro streamlines supply chain amid slumping physical toy sales

“...amid this transition from battle bots to bits, Hasbro is also starting to see higher profits, which have more to do with actions the company is taking behind the scenes than the composition of its sales.”

International Business & Artificial Intelligence

Amazon announces the launch of Rufus, a new generative AI-powered conversational shopping assistant, in the UK

“Rufus, an AI-powered shopping assistant trained on Amazon’s product catalogue and information from across the web, can answer customer questions on shopping needs, products and comparisons, make recommendations based on this, and facilitate product discovery in the same Amazon shopping experience that customers use regularly.”

Rick’s Tips 💘

In this season of change, Rick—an avid fantasy football fan—loves to keep an eye on the waiver wire 👀 for free agents to strengthen his already impressive team. Similarly, he stays on top of Retail Link updates for all things important to his full time job (disputing deductions).

“Recently in Retail Link, Walmart announced an important update for U. S. suppliers regarding item setup, Item 360, and Supplier One. As of September 18, 2024 all inventory workflows will only be available through Supplier One (i.e. no longer in Item 360).

Most U. S. suppliers in Walmart no longer have access to Item 360. As is the case with any big shift in the supplier process, it has been long and complicated.”

Walmart also published a much longer article on forthcoming Supplier One updates that may be helpful and impactful for a variety of suppliers.

Let's Circle Back ⭕

It’s common knowledge that special teams, special plays, and special players win games. The surest way to great retailer performance is cross-team communication. The most special teams share insights with other teams to create single-source-of-truth clarity throughout the whole org.

SupplierWiki’s Cross-Team Functionality Pick Six:

Root Cause Analysis: digging into the root of an issue, whether deductions related or otherwise, will usually have a positive impact on other teams.
Supply Chain Visibility: similarly, one kink in the supply chain can have consequences across a wide variety of teams.
Forecasting 🔮: the dark art of forecasting, when done perfectly (okay that never happens), makes every other aspect of the supply chain process more manageable.
Sussing out Phantom Inventory 👻: if forecasting is impossible, then ghost-hunting for phantom inventory is unheard of; but if you can get a within a reasonable range of accuracy, cost planning is much more helpful across the organization.
3PL Visibility and Collaboration: a lot of the time supply chain mishaps happen because there are simply so many cooks in the kitchen; maintaining constant communication with third party partners is key to maintaining cross-team functionality in an individual organization.
Awareness around Stacking Fines: in the deductions space, we like to talk about the habit that deductions have of stacking up and multiplying; a simple issue on the supplier or the retailer side could result in a shortage, a SQEP fine, and an OTIF fine; awareness of this can help to get cross-functionality going in your org.

❤️ Until next week, Your Friends in Vendorville

SupplierWiki