People turned to online shopping for essentials as retail stores closed in the midst to the Covid pandemic. The worldwide crisis accelerated the need for drop-ship vendors to find enough inventory to support customer demand promptly. Having a quality solution that scales became essential for e-commerce companies to provide the best experience for their customers and meet demands.
This Acceleration Case Study reveals how Whitebox, an e-commerce specialist, implemented Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to overcome scalability challenges. Read how Whitebox used cloud supply chain management software by partnering with SPS Commerce.
Business Challenge – Choosing an EDI Partner
Whitebox provides customers with the technology and expertise to improve their selling power on numerous online marketplaces, whether brand stores or Amazon. The company offers services that grow with each brand, as their products help gain the attention of retailers.
As an e-commerce company with an all-inclusive approach for brands with large order volumes, Whitebox prioritizes selling and moving products. The widespread popularity of these products and drop-ship programs (in which merchants don’t actually keep the items in stock) can be hugely important to the retail model. However, every retailer has its own requirements that evolve over time. For those managing a multi-channel sales approach, the processes are even more layered and complex.
EDI provides a standard way to electronically share purchase orders, invoices, and related documents.
- Whitebox needed an EDI solution that would:
- Improve scalability for customers
- Meet varying requirements of different retailers
- Enable the company to ship products directly to customers
The company searched for a solution to streamline business operations while expanding to fit its growing team and business needs.
Software Solution – SPS Commerce
The company decided to partner with SPS Commerce. Whitebox made this decision due to the scalable technology offered to support large order volumes and previous experience with navigating retail requirements. The fulfillment services of Whitebox included EDI from SPS Commerce, which helped meet the drop-ship requirements for retailers.
After implementing the EDI solution, Whitebox customers could respond in a timely manner through direct-to-consumer orders. By eliminating the need to ship to any stores or distribution centers, the company was able to cut shipment times. And customers were able to receive the products faster.
Final Results – Improved Scalability & Supply Chain Management
The Whitebox customer base continues to increase. These services play a crucial role in boosting online sales, as scalability is essential to support business logistics. The SPS Commerce solution has demonstrated its scaling abilities to meet the growing needs of Whitebox services.
EDI remains the most popular way for suppliers to communicate with retailers while staying in compliance with regulations. SPS Commerce considered the requirements for each retailer and custom regulations within the EDI solution. With its domain knowledge in retail requirements, SPS Commerce was equipped to support Whitebox in expediting shipment processes.
