The supermarket’s suppliers will be able to use the portal to see the same agreements about their business that Morrisons’ buyers can see.
Information flow, handovers, delivery, approvals, reminders, filing and retrieval will take place through the portal, as well as holding details on promotions, cost price changes and agreements to invoice.
Suppliers will also be able to check whether their invoices have been received, if there are any queries that need resolving and whether or not invoices have been paid.
‘Establish lasting relationships’
Morrisons food trading director Michael Gleeson said: “Three years ago, suppliers told us we could be easier to work with and we responded by setting out ambitions to buy and sell simply and establish lasting relationships with them.
“Measures, such as our supplier portal, will make it easier to work with Morrisons and the initial response has been very positive.”
Morrisons added it would put processes in place to ensure suppliers continued to be paid correctly and on time. This included the resolution of all invoice queries over agreed cost prices within five working days.
The online portal is part of series of improvements by the retailer to simplify the way it works with suppliers.
Simpler supplier agreements
These include reducing the types of supplier income from 37 to three, introducing simpler supplier agreements and removing extra charges – such as when a customer complains about a product.
Gleeson added: “We will continue to listen to suppliers’ views and respond wherever possible.”
Morrisons’ focus on its agreements follows a drive which saw the retailer recruit 200 new local food suppliers in the past year in a bid to cut the food miles of its products, citing research, which indicated that up to 70% of consumers said they preferred to buy British food.
Meanwhile, suppliers could increase sales by 1-3% by improving the quality of their product data, according to new research from bar code standards body GS1 UK.