What is Supplier Management in Merchmix?

Supplier management is how a retailer's buying team measures its suppliers on delivery, quality, margin and spend, and uses that record when placing the next order. In Merchmix it is one page per season, with every supplier tiered by risk and the rating carried into quote comparison.

Delivered in full, on time: the share of purchase orders that arrived complete and by the agreed date. Merchmix calculates it from goods receipts and shows it by supplier, alongside lateness in weekly bands, partial deliveries, failed quality checks and returns.

How are suppliers tiered?

Three tiers. Strategic for high margin and strong DIFOT, Core for a reliable base, At risk for suppliers that require review. Tiers recalculate with the season filters, and the At risk tier triggers a warning when a buyer awards a quote to that supplier.

Does this replace a procurement or SRM system?

No. It is the merchandising view of the supply base, built for buyers and planners deciding who gets the order. It reads receipts from Horizon ERP and quotes from Cross Costing rather than duplicating either.

Can suppliers see their own score?

Yes. Beacon, the supplier portal, shows each supplier a monthly scorecard drawn from the same records, so both sides are looking at the same number.

Can we see it on our own supplier base?

Yes. The six-week proof of concept runs Supplier Management on your own purchase orders and receipts.

SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT

Know which suppliers
earn their place.

Every supplier scored on what they actually delivered, tiered by risk, and carried into the moment a buyer awards the next order. The suppliers who cost you margin stop hiding in an average.

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BLOCK 1 · VENDOR PERFORMANCE SCORECARD

Vendor Performance

One page per season with every supplier on it. Filter by year, department, category, subcategory and season, and the scorecard recalculates: total spend, average DIFOT, and how many suppliers sit in each tier. Strategic suppliers carry high margin and strong DIFOT. Core suppliers are the reliable base. At risk suppliers require review, and Merchmix names the one pulling the average down and how much purchase order value is currently exposed to them.

Three tiers, live counts.

Strategic, Core and At risk, recalculated on every filter change.

Total spend and average DIFOT.

The two numbers a trading meeting starts with, for the season in view.

Review recommended.

The supplier dragging DIFOT is named, with the PO value exposed.

Season on season.

Change the year and see who moved tier.

Merchmix vendor performance page with supplier tiering, total spend and average DIFOT

HOW IT CONNECTS

Delivery and quality figures come from goods receipts in Merchmix, so the score reflects what arrived, not what was promised.

BLOCK 2 · RISK VS REWARD MATRIX

Risk vs Reward Matrix

Reliability on one axis, profitability on the other, purchase order cost as the size of the bubble. Target DIFOT and target margin are drawn as lines, so the chart divides itself: suppliers above both lines are earning their place, suppliers below both are costing you margin and stock, and the size of the bubble tells you how much is at stake. It is the fastest way to explain a supplier decision to a CFO.

DIFOT against first margin.

Delivered in full, on time, plotted against the margin the supplier actually returned.

Bubble size is spend.

A small unreliable supplier is a nuisance. A large one is a risk.

Targets drawn on.

Target DIFOT and target margin as reference lines, set for the business.

Filter by tier.

Strategic, Core or At risk on their own.

Risk versus reward matrix plotting supplier reliability against profitability, sized by purchase order cost

HOW IT CONNECTS

Margin comes from Cross Costing and the range plan. Reliability comes from receipts. The matrix is the two systems on one chart.

BLOCK 3 · DATA EXPLORER

Data Explorer

Four views of the same supplier base, each a sortable table by supplier. Financials and growth shows options, units, cost, retail, FOB, landed cost and margin for the season. Operations and quality shows orders, DIFOT, late, one and two weeks late, partial deliveries, failed quality checks and returns. Business mix shows each supplier's share of options, units, cost and retail, for the season and for purchase orders placed. Master data is the supplier directory: factory, origin, freight terms, duty and the identifiers everything else keys off.

Financials and growth.

Cost, retail, FOB, landed and margin by supplier, with what was assigned via the range plan alongside what was ordered.

Operations and quality.

DIFOT, lateness in weekly bands, partial deliveries, failed quality checks, returns.

Business mix.

Share of the season by options, units, cost and retail, so concentration is visible.

Master data.

Factory, origin, freight terms and duty, maintained once and used everywhere.

Operations and quality table showing DIFOT, lateness, partial deliveries and failed quality checks by supplier

HOW IT CONNECTS

Assigned via range plan sits next to ordered, so the gap between what buyers planned with a supplier and what they actually placed is on the page.

BLOCK 4 · MERCHMIX INTELLIGENCE

Merchmix Intelligence

The briefing panel on the performance page reads the season and ranks what needs attention by the value at stake. A supplier planned at a first margin far below last year's is surfaced with the evidence behind it: this season's margin, last year's, and the commitment in dollars. Where a measure cannot be evaluated because the data is missing, it says so, rather than reporting a clean number nobody should trust. Each finding can be marked handled or dismissed, and Ask lets the buyer question the season directly.

Ranked by value.

The largest commitment at the worst margin comes first.

Evidence attached.

Season margin, last year's margin and the dollar commitment behind every finding.

Data quality flagged.

Late delivery, concentration and reliability findings are held back when the snapshot cannot support them.

Briefing and Ask.

Read the findings, or ask a question about the season in plain language.

Merchmix Intelligence panel ranking supplier findings by value with evidence attached

HOW IT CONNECTS

The same findings appear in the Monday briefing from Product Review, so a supplier problem is raised before the trade meeting, not in it.

See how Monday briefings work in Product Review →

BLOCK 5 · SUPPLIER PROFILES

Supplier Profiles

Every supplier has a profile that the rest of the platform reads from. Contacts, factories and origin, freight terms, duty and payment terms sit with the current tier and score, the open purchase orders, and the season history of options, units, spend and DIFOT. When a buyer opens a quote in Cross Costing or a planner assigns a supplier in the range plan, this is the record they are working from.

Commercial terms in one place.

Freight terms, duty, payment terms and currency.

Factories and origin.

Where the goods are made, for lead time and landed cost.

Current tier and score.

The rating from the performance page, on the profile.

Open orders and history.

Live purchase orders and season on season performance.

Supplier directory with tier, location, open orders and DIFOT on each supplier card

HOW IT CONNECTS

Master data on the profile drives landed cost in Cross Costing and lead time in Critical Path. Change it once and both update.

BLOCK 6 · REVIEW & AWARD IN CROSS COSTING

Review & Award

When a style goes out to quote, the vendors come back side by side: native quote, base price, estimated total value, MOQ, lead time, terms and the delta to target. Buyers award line by line or in bulk. Underneath, weighted trade-offs across price, lead time, quality, MOQ, terms and composition produce a ranked recommendation with points, and moving a slider recalculates it. If the vendor about to be awarded sits in the At risk tier, the buyer is warned before the award is made.

Quotes side by side.

Price, MOQ, lead time, terms and delta to target for every vendor on the line.

Weighted trade-offs.

Price, lead, quality, MOQ, terms and composition, set by the buyer.

Ranked recommendation.

Points per vendor, recalculated as weights change.

At risk warning.

A supplier in Tier 3 is flagged at the point of award.

Cross Costing review and award screen comparing vendor quotes with weighted trade-offs

HOW IT CONNECTS

Awarded lines sync to the range plan, so the option plan and the supplier decision are the same record.

See how Range Boards plans options →

HOW SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT FITS

The supplier decision, made where the order is placed.

Supplier Management is not a separate procurement tool. The tier and score on the performance page are the same ones a buyer sees in Cross Costing when awarding a quote, and the same profile a planner reads in the range plan. Receipts in Horizon ERP feed DIFOT and quality. What the supplier declares in Beacon is what arrives at the dock and lands on their record. Nothing is re-keyed, and the supplier who cost you margin last season is on the screen when you decide about next season.

Know which suppliers
earn their place.