Every new product a retailer or distributor carries starts as information from a supplier. Before the first purchase order, the buyer needs identifiers such as the GTIN and supplier part number, descriptions, dimensions and weights, pack and unit-of-measure details, cost, category attributes, images and any regulatory data. The buyer then assigns its own SKU and places the item in its hierarchy.
Vendor item setup usually follows these steps:
- Request the data from the supplier
- Receive it as an EDI 832, a data pool record, a spreadsheet or a web form
- Validate it and send gaps or errors back to the supplier
- Map it to the buyer’s categories and item master
- Approve and publish it to the ERP, e-commerce and other systems
Delays come from incomplete submissions, re-keying, and back-and-forth emails over missing attributes. Errors are costly later: a wrong case pack or unit of measure causes receiving problems, ASN mismatches and invoices that fail the three-way match.