4 Things Top Retailers Want To See Before They’ll Sell Your Products

Australia’s supermarket sector is highly competitive. Shelf space is limited, and increasingly, independent brands are forced to compete against supermarkets’ ‘own brands’ for market share.

When it comes to selling your food products to major supermarket retailers, both the quality of your products – and the way in which you manage and control your supply chain – needs to impress. You need to make it as easy as possible for retailers to engage with you while ensuring the overall relationship is mutually beneficial; financially and logistically.

Doing so, of course, requires having the right technology in place.

Selling your products through Australia’s top retailers: what to have in place

At Leverage Technologies, we specialise in helping Australian manufacturers and distributors gain a unique competitive advantage through implementing overarching solutions based on SAP Business One. This integrated solution can help you streamline and manage every aspect of your manufacturing and supply business – including finance & accounting, production, supply chain management, purchasing, reporting and even customer relationship management (CRM).

Based on our experience in implementing electronic data interchange (EDI) systems for major retailers like Coles, Woolworths and David Jones, these are the five key things we believe the major supermarket retailers look for when it comes to selecting suppliers.

#1. Streamlined, robust processes

To be appealing to a large-scale buyer, perhaps the most important thing your business can do is demonstrate your ability to effectively manage your inventory, cash flow and product volume.

Brett Mundell, Leverage Technologies’ Managing Director, believes that being able to provide buyers with a streamlined, sophisticated ordering process is vitally important – particularly when it comes to the supply of food.

“For buyers, the entire arrangement needs to be straightforward and hassle-free. As a supplier, you need to prove that your warehousing management, logistics, replenishment, delivery and reporting is as automated and effective as possible. And this can be achieved through SAP Business One, which empowers businesses to meet buyers’ requirements, and enables scale through automation,” he says.

Importantly, SAP Business One also integrates smart reporting and business intelligence features – so your employees can easily access the information they need to make smart, confident decisions that further optimise your supply chain.

#2. Ease of integration

When it comes to providing a seamless, hassle-free experience, it’s important to demonstrate that you understand your buyers’ terms of trade and ways of working – and that you can integrate seamlessly with their EDI systems.

As Mundell explains, Leverage Technologies is ideally placed to help in this regard. “We have extensive experience implementing EDI solutions for major Australian retailers, like Woolworths, Coles and David Jones. We understand the nature of these systems and exactly what’s required in terms of integration,” he says.

“When you operate with SAP Business One, you can rest assured that your data is compatible with most major EDI systems, and therefore you can get up and running as a supplier very quickly, easily and affordably.”

#3. Reliable, transparent, supply

For a supermarket, being able to guarantee supply is vitally important. As such, any buyer will need to know that your business is able to fulfil its supply commitments – regardless of their scale.

This means having robust supply chain management in place, and also being able to demonstrate how you will follow through with product recalls if they are ever required.

With SAP Business One, you and your team can access very accurate information about inbound and outbound shipments, inventory, and item location – at any time, and from any device.

#4. Sound, financial management

Not unsurprisingly, buyers also expect you to have sound and proven financial management when it comes to your product/s.

With SAP Business One, you receive a complete set of tools to help you manage and streamline your company’s finances. The software automates everyday accounting tasks such as maintaining ledger and journal entries, supporting tax calculations, and enabling multi-currency transactions.

By integrating your financial operation in real time with other business processes, such as purchasing and sales, you can speed transactions and improve visibility into cash flow.

How can Leverage Technologies help?

We have extensive experience in helping mid-size businesses evolve their supply chains, CRM and financial management through SAP Business One. We understand exactly what is required, and what the integration process looks like – in detail.

To find out if SAP Business One is right for your business, call us on 1300 045 046 or email info@leveragetech.com.au today.