We've found you'll receive one of these replies when you invite a vendor to use your "vendor portal".
- The vendor flat out replies "No, we do not log into vendor portals"
- The vendor replies "Yes" but then quickly stops logging into into the vendor portal
What you're doing when you ask the vendor to use your portal, is requiring them to make an extra step in their daily workflow. This is giving the vendor extra work to do each day... and no one likes extra work.
What's Spark Shipping alternative to the vendor portal?
We've made the conscientious decision not to build a vendor portal.
Instead our goal is to send orders to any system the vendor is already using. By doing this, you're not asking the vendor to do extra work for you store. We're doing the work for them!
- Is the vendor using Shipstation to manage their orders? Spark Shipping has a custom integration that with Shipstation that can route orders directly to the Vendors' Shipstation account then automatically pull back tracking once the label is created.
- Does the vendor simply use Dropbox?Spark Shipping can receive inventory & tracking data via a spreadsheet stored in Dropbox!
- Does the vendor just like email? You can send your orders via emails. You can also generate custom email addresses in Spark Shipping that allow us to receive a CSV from the vendor, in any format the vendor already uses for inventory updates.
These are some examples of what Spark Shipping can do. What each of these examples have in common is that you're not requiring your vendor to do any additional work or make change their daily workflow.