Local chains are undoubtedly the most valuable intermediaries for brands to reach consumers in a wider geography.
Thanks to their prevalence, they reach a significant number of consumers every day in many different locations.
In addition, with the advantage of being local, they can establish a closer and sincere relationship of trust with their customers.
On the other hand, national chains continue to grow with new stores and internet applications every day.
“Fast delivery” companies, which have become increasingly popular in the last 5 years, have also become an important competitor with their different business models.
Local chains, on the other hand, need to keep up with these changes in the industry. One of the steps to be taken is to develop stronger cooperation with their suppliers.
To accelerate and improve commercial relations with the help of technology. To reduce sales losses by communicating with business partners through information systems, while reducing manual paper-based transactions and reducing the costs there. In this way, to increase the turnover and profitability of both himself and his business partner.
In recent years, we see that local chains have already made the necessary technological investments for themselves. They are closer than ever to today's technology and its applications.
EDI, that is, electronic data interchnage with business partners, emerges at this point.
We can say that EDI technology, which is used extensively in Turkey today, is the most basic application in which retailers manage their order processes with their suppliers in Europe and the US.
Document exchange between chains and their suppliers happens directly between systems (ERPs). Manual data entry is disappearing.
There are 4 main benefits of following the procurement process that starts with the order with EDI.
Speed advantage – Since data moves between systems, it reaches the other party within seconds, in the expected format and without errors.
Cost advantage –Personnel used for data entry can be directed to different and value-added jobs. Paper usage and related costs such as archiving, printing and mailing are minimized.
Higher revenue advantage – The transfer of data between systems increases order fulfilment rates, and "stock out" is reduced. Both revenue and customer satisfaction increase.
Collaboration Advantage – As suppliers see similar benefits in their sales, their cooperation with chains develops and becomes stronger. With their increasing turnover, they become more supportive.