Off-price vendor requirements
Off-price chains buy fast, in volume, often close to the season. They also run tight distribution centers with written rules for how goods arrive. A vendor who reads the rules before the first order keeps the margin; one who reads them after pays it back in chargebacks.
By Philip Radvan, founder. Updated . 7 minute read.
Start with the account's vendor guide
Every chain publishes its own vendor compliance manual, usually through a vendor portal you get access to once you are set up. It is the only source that counts: requirements differ by retailer and change over time. Read it end to end before you accept the first purchase order, and keep a dated copy.
What follows is what those manuals usually cover, so you know what to look for.
Tickets and the compare-at price
Off-price stores show the customer a compare-at value next to their own price. The retailer will tell you how that value is set and what documentation backs it. Tickets are often printed to the retailer's format, with its own SKU or style numbers, sometimes by a ticketing service it names.
- Who prints the tickets, and from what data.
- Where each ticket goes on the garment.
- What proof of the compare-at value the retailer expects you to hold.
Cartons, labels and packing
Expect rules on carton size and weight, how many units per carton, whether goods ship flat or on hangers, and how prepacks are built. Most large retailers require a GS1-128 carton label that matches an advance ship notice.
Advance ship notices and EDI
An advance ship notice (the EDI 856) tells the distribution center what is coming, carton by carton, before it arrives. Most chains require it, along with EDI purchase orders and invoices. If you do not run EDI in-house, an EDI provider can handle it; set that up and test it before the first shipment, not on the day of it.
Routing and ship windows
The routing guide says how goods travel: which carrier, how to book a pickup, and which distribution center gets which order. Each order has a ship window. Shipping early can be refused as surely as shipping late.
Chargebacks, and how to keep them small
A chargeback is a deduction the retailer takes for a broken rule: a late shipment, a missing ASN, a wrong label, a carton over weight. Each one is small. Together they decide whether an off-price order made money.
- Track every chargeback by reason, and fix the most common reason first.
- Dispute the ones that are wrong, inside the retailer's dispute window.
- Watch production milestones against the ship window, so a late order is a call to the buyer, not a fine.
Where Samplyn fits
Samplyn is not an EDI or chargeback tool; it runs beside your EDI provider. What it does is keep the order on time and visible on its way to the distribution center.
- Time-and-action milestones per purchase order, with delay notifications, so a slip shows before the ship window.
- Live ocean container and parcel tracking, with ETA delay reasons sent to your warehouse.
- A receiving portal for your 3PL: dock workers see inbound containers for their warehouse and mark them received.
More guides: How to track garment samples, Points of measure, a practical guide, The time and action calendar for garment production, Line sheets for department store buyers, Routing guide compliance and chargebacks, The sample request process with wholesale buyers.