As a supplier to giant retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, you may experience significant benefits for your business. However, it also poses various challenges related to quality and compliance. These retailers have come up with their own portals where a supplier can manage almost every aspect of their business with them.
Retail Link is Walmart's proprietary supplier portal. It was designed to provide suppliers with access to detailed sales data, inventory levels, and collaborative planning tools. While it offers significant benefits for suppliers, it also presents various challenges. Due to its extensive nature, it can be challenging to navigate and find specific information, especially for new employees who are not yet familiar with it.
In this article, we will dive deep into Retail Link, and discuss the major functionalities that it has to offer. We’ll then talk more about navigating deductions on Retail Link and its specific app APDP.
On Retail Link, there are multiple apps, each tagged with a category. Since it's not possible to discuss every app, we'll briefly talk about commonly used apps in a few categories that every vendor should know about. Here are the commonly used apps in each category:
In this category, suppliers can find tools for handling financial transactions, invoicing, and dispute resolution. Key apps include:
APDP (Accounts Payable Disputes Portal): This app is critical for deduction management. Walmart claim settlement can be done by suppliers on this app itself. We will discuss more about this app further in the article.
APIS (Accounts Payable Inquiry System): This tool helps the supplier by providing real-time updates on financial transactions. It seamlessly integrates with other management software or ERP systems making it even easier to inquire about the status of their invoices and payments.
Logistics apps are important for managing the flow of goods. Important apps in this category include:
Carrier Portal: This app is crucial for managing shipping logistics. Through this suppliers can access carrier portals of various shipping companies where they can track shipments, ensuring timely delivery and compliance with Walmart's shipping requirements.
ASN: The ASN app allows suppliers to provide Walmart with detailed information about upcoming shipments.
This category includes tools for managing product listings, tracking sales performance, and maintaining supplier profiles.
Supplier Profile: This app ensures that all supplier information is current and properly maintained.
SWAS (Store Within A Store) Report: The SWAS Report provides detailed insights into how a supplier’s products are performing within Walmart stores. It leverages retail data and sales data to help suppliers make informed decisions.
Apps in this category provide sales data to the supplier. These include:
Decision Support System (DDS): is a powerful tool that provides suppliers with comprehensive sales data and performance metrics. With DDS, suppliers can track their products' sales across different time frames, geographic regions, and store locations. It is allegedly discontinued and is to be replaced by Luminate.
Walmart Luminate: This app also helps suppliers make data-driven decisions but has some added key features like integration with existing ERP, increasing overall efficiency in the supply chain. The Luminate platform is going to replace the DDS.
The Accounts Payable Disputes Portal (APDP) is an important app within Retail Link that was designed to streamline the process of managing deductions. APDP replaced Settlement Disputing which was eating away the profit margin of suppliers. The older process was slow and that would lead to cashflow problems for suppliers.
Recognizing these challenges, Walmart introduced APDP to modernize and simplify deduction management. This new tool not only improved the efficiency of the process but also provided greater transparency and control to suppliers.
Key features include:
Dispute at Claim Line Level: One of the standout features of APDP is the ability to dispute deductions at the claim line level. Earlier, suppliers could dispute only at a broader level, which would often lead to partial resolutions.
Real-Time Updates: Suppliers can see the status of each claim in real-time. This provides greater clarity on where any issues are occurring.
Improved Interface: Intuitive design and improved navigation enable suppliers to quickly learn and effectively use the tool.
Is Walmart Deduction Recovery a challenge for your business? Here's something that might help.
Switching from Settlement Disputing to APDP comes with both, pros and cons. One of them being complex navigation on ADPD. However, with iNymbus suppliers can streamline this whole process.
Here's how iNymbus can enhance your APDP experience:
Auto-detect new deductions
Fetch documents to dispute invalid deductions
Fill in the descriptions and file the claim on your behalf
Yes, you read that right iNymbus can automate this process from end to end by using cutting-edge RPA technology.
If you are someone who has to spend hours and hours manually disputing deductions. Schedule a quick discovery call to witness what iNymbus automation can do.