Seasonal Purchasing EDI Guidelines And Brief Notes
Seasonal Purchasing occurs when Buyers and Vendors determine the order quantities based on a purchase per season. This method is typical for seasonal product, such as swimwear, where the selling season is too short to re-order product. The buyers’ and vendors’ knowledge of the market and previous year’s sales (Seasonal Purchasing EDI inventory data) are used to determine orders. This can be a “best guess” process or it can utilize previous years’ sales information (captured at POS at the UPC level) received from the retailer to allow the vendor to suggest appropriate order quantities. If POS data is used, the retailer will gain through a reduced effort to capture data and accuracy of data as it is captured daily. The problem with this system is that retail inventory systems can rarely track information at the lowest level of detail (UPC). In this scenario, the retail POS data must be rolled up to a class level. This makes the ordering at the color/size level (e.g. 16 1/2″ x 35″ white Arrow Brand shirt) impossible. Another problem in retailing is that using POS data will only be successful if other changes to inventory (such as theft, merchandise transfers, returns of sold merchandise, returns to vendors etc.) are entered in at the lowest level of detail. Even if information is kept at the lowest level of detail, it must be entered in on a timely basis. Traditionally, retailers using POS data will also perform a full scan of merchandise every three months to correct inventory accuracy.
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