5 things Walmart suppliers need to know about Walmart

Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores and grocery stores. It operates under the name Walmart all throughout US and Canada, as Walmart de México y Centroamérica in Mexico and Central America, Asda in the UK, Seiyu in Japan and Best Price in India. Also provides wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. To manage the global operations of Walmart it is mandatory to have a broad base of suppliers in contact. Those businesses are called Walmart suppliers. These suppliers are burdened with the major task of distributing the retail products to worldwide customers. Being a retailer and that too for a company like Walmart requires precision and detailed analysis.

5 things that Walmart wants its suppliers to know about:

Make the suppliers use the Walmart Retail Link – Nowadays the valuable data in the Walmart retail link is used by the sales team and supply chain management system but not by the suppliers who take care of the wholesale after its distribution. So, Walmart urges its suppliers to use the retail link software. The use of data by the suppliers helps in reduction of the costs.

Redesigning scorecards to enhance the performance – Most of the suppliers keep one scorecard that is based on supply chain but Walmart urges its suppliers to have more than 1 scorecard to keep a check on the supply as well as on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The lack of a single scorecard confuses suppliers. A single scorecard that balances cost, customer service and CSR which ties to buying behavior is needed.

Collaborative Logistics – Customers want their product to be delivered to them within a few weeks but sometimes the products are not delivered on time. Suppliers who take the charge of delivering them also are not present in the requisite time to have the item delivered. While oil prices have fallen, the cost of transportation has not, and will not, due to the shortage of drivers.

Walmart says that we need to stop the old buyers and sellers relationship –

In order to make it big in the world of suppliers the first thing that you need to do stop depending on the supply chain management and directly deal with the main man. Break down the barriers within the supplier and broaden the discussion.

Responsible Sourcing requirements and expectations –

All suppliers and their facilities – including subcontracting and packaging facilities – are expected to uphold Walmart’s Standards for Suppliers. Learn more about Walmart’s Responsible Sourcing program, our expectations for suppliers and requirements for facilities that include Factor visibility and Disclosure, Company representatives, Line and Fire safety requirements.