P2P Retail

OPTIMIZING EVERY STEP OF THE S2P PROCESS

Many retailers face a growing realization — become as efficient and agile as possible or fall behind in today's ever-evolving, tech-driven and increasingly competitive business landscape. As a result, the singular focus on front-end process improvements must also extend to back-end processes, particularly in the source-to-pay cycle. This is where Esker comes into play.

Retailers can gain strategic value by digitally transforming S2P functions and freeing up their finance teams from manual processing, allowing them to focus on higher value work. Automating end-to-end S2P cycles creates a more productive work environment and streamlines workflows — enabling faster, more accurate invoice processing, significantly reduced costs and complete control over spend management.

CHALLENGES WE HELP RETAILERS SOLVE

Esker's S2P automation platform empowers retail companies to overcome their most prevalent industry-specific challenges, including:

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RIGID BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
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One size does not fit all. Retailers must manage tolerances (e.g., under shipments, late shipments), surcharges and over-receipting to facilitate retail-specific requirements.
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INCREASED OPERATIONAL EXPENSES
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It's difficult to remain profitable when retailers face increasing costs of reaching consumers, a greater demand for quality and supply-chain transparency, and the push for green and ethical sourcing practices.
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INABILITY TO CONTROL SPEND
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Inefficient manual tasks drive up the cost of invoice processing and increase the risk of human error, making it difficult to manage spend and leading to maverick buying and non-compliance with company spend policies.
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DUPLICATE PAYMENTS
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It's common for retailers to have large numbers of suppliers across the globe, which increases the risk of duplicate invoices and duplicate payments. With little to no visibility into their invoice status (received, approved or paid), suppliers often submit invoices multiple times in an effort to get paid more quickly.
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MANAGING INVOICES FROM MULTIPLE JURISDICTIONS
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High invoice volumes from diverse geographical regions also means having to manage multiple languages, currencies and exchange rates. This can quickly become problematic in a manual environment, often leading to financial reporting errors and potentially serious non-compliance issues.
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DIFFICULT SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT
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Retailers struggle to manage supplier information manually, including contract renewals, compliance with industry certifications, insurances, and other policies.

“Esker's Al-based recognition has significantly reduced manual work. We can now focus on improving other factors within our department. The interface is very user-friendly and easy for new employees to use right off the bat, which has helped us save time in new hire trainings.”
Wynona Ho │ Accounts Payable Manager │ Pet Lovers Centre

CREATE A TRANSPARENT SUPPLIER ECOSYSTEM

- Enable supply-chain transparency, process compliance and business protection by verifying supplier data and ensuring regulations are met.
- Simplify supplier onboarding and reduce the dependency on certain suppliers, allowing retailers to remain agile and change suppliers quickly.
- Encourage supplier participation with an easy-to-use supplier portal, reducing supplier management and onboarding time and costs.
- Provide self-service access to payment information via an online portal, allowing suppliers to track invoices and easily collaborate with chat tools.
- Capture invoices in any format including paper, XML, PDF and EDI, enabling retailers to accept invoices from any and all suppliers.
- Meet global compliance for companies operating with multiple languages, currencies and sites.

The Power of P2P Automation

In the Retail & Consumer Goods Industry

Instant Download

IMPROVE MARGINS TO COMPENSATE FOR RISING COSTS

- Streamline payments and cash in order to pay suppliers on time and take advantage of early payment discounts.
- Gain visibility into spend across brands and regions and achieve significant cost savings.
- Increase auto-matching rates and boost straight-through invoice processing rates.
- Decrease invoice processing time and enable KPIs monitoring to ensure positive financial performance and supplier relationships.
- Leverage ERP investment with seamless solution integration with multiple ERP systems.
- Access operational and financial metrics (processing time, productivity, performance, etc.) thanks to dashboards and analytics.
- Increase productivity, as finance teams only having to process exceptions and can prioritize by key criteria.

“We were also impressed with the cost, implementation time, solution ergonomics, and ease of use for our stores and accounting teams alike.”
Ann Favier │ Vice President and CFO │ Jardiland

REDUCE MAVERICK SPEND & INCREASE EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

Facilitate process integrity and rapid user adoption
Control buying from only approved vendors and preferred catalog product listings, gaining full visibility and control over what's being purchased.
Offer a user-centric journey and give employees the flexibility to use their preferred device from any location.
Create an internal e-commerce-like web store by broadcasting hosted catalogs or giving access to suppliers' online catalogs.