The dynamically changing fashion industry has offered both opportunities and challenges to wholesale apparel businesses worldwide. As the supply and demand chain started facing a huge imbalance, businesses have been struggling with maintaining a steady course of incoming merchandise from the vendors. Besides, collaborating with multiple suppliers for different apparel-based products introduces a whole new set of bottlenecks for wholesale businesses. Although conventional ERP software can help mitigate these risks, the danger of receiving a death blow will still linger in the air

That’s why wholesale apparel businesses need to look beyond just regular ERP software and choose one that comes integrated with an advanced vendor management portal. Although it might sound exaggerated and unnecessary at the beginning, your thoughts are bound to change once you acknowledge the significance of the VMS. That being said, we have curated a detailed guide for you, explaining the benefits you can enjoy by using a vendor management portal integrated with the ERP for wholesale apparel business. 

Faster Onboarding Of New Suppliers

Collaborating with new suppliers can be a tedious process if you still rely on manual, conventional practices. From recording intricate information using an Excel sheet to updating the data on the portal by hand, there are several downsides of manual onboarding. Besides, it introduces significant delays in the line of production and leaves room for errors. So, the best way to handle these hiccups is by integrating the vendor management portal with your business ERP software. It will help in automating the supplier onboarding process, thereby speeding up the entire operation to just a few seconds. You can even onboard multiple vendors at once while ensuring optimal data accuracy and precision. As a result, importing a new batch of fabric or apparel and rolling out the finished products to the market can be completed much faster. 

Increased Information Transparency

Imagine not having enough information about the production phase statuses or the merchandise’s location that is due to reach your warehouse the same day. Not only will it create delays in your line of business but might interfere with order confirmations and rollouts. Besides, it will also introduce prominent siloes in data and communication. However, with an advanced vendor management portal, you can increase the visibility of different information sets and mitigate risks due to poor communication and inefficient collaboration. Suppliers can update the production status and other details directly on the portal in real time for you to see. Furthermore, you won’t have to manually update or change any shipping information and bear the consequences of human errors.

Quicker Turnaround For Wholesale Businesses

When you do not have direct access to your vendors and their details, it might take a significant amount of time to receive the shipment and fulfill your customer orders. So, rather than relying on age-old and obsolete practices, it’s time you invest in a top-tier vendor management system integrated with the business ERP software. It will not only help you access real-time information about your vendors but also facilitate faster turnaround for your wholesale apparel business. Additionally, you can also drive higher ROIs for your business and optimize the overall performance by focusing on enhanced operational speed and reduced leaks.

Streamlined Core Operations With A Self-service Portal

Sending out emails periodically or messaging back and forth regarding the production status, order confirmation, shipment location, and many more are indeed hectic. In fact, such manual processes are quite risky and might create conflicts between your business and the vendors. That’s why implementing a vendor management portal is imperative. Since it’s self-serve, vendors and suppliers can update the critical information on the centralized platform by themselves. There’s no need to become tech-savvy to handle the VMS and streamline the information flow. Also, your internal teams can pay more attention to critical tasks, like budgeting, reporting and forecasting, product optimization, and many more instead of going back and forth with the vendors. 

Enhanced Third-party Information Validation

With security taking the top seat in the priority list, you cannot straightaway on the information provided by the vendors. Instead, performing a third-party validation will help you deduce if the concerned vendor has the required credibility and reliability or not. However, in regular cases, this requires too much effort and time from the business’s end, especially since validating information via a third-party agency involves too many complexities. So, the best option will be to use the vendor management portal since it comes with a built-in validation feature. Once the supplier information is uploaded to the portal, it will automatically validate the same with the standard details and generate the results.

New Opportunities With Process Automation

Last but not least, a vendor management portal comes with different process automation features that can help you avoid investing too much and time effort in manual workflows. For example, enabling push notifications will help vendors notify you automatically about any status change or order detail modification. Similarly, you can use the automated routines to update new supplier details across all platforms in one go. 

Conclusion

Now that we have explained the major benefits of implementing a vendor management portal for your wholesale apparel business, there shouldn’t be any conflicting thoughts about your decision. All you need to do is outsource the development of a custom VMS that can be aligned with your business needs accurately.