Supplier engagement on environmental data is one of the hardest jobs in retail sustainability right now. Internal teams are stretched thin, suppliers are fielding overlapping requests from every customer they sell into, and the data that comes back can be inconsistent with what you asked for. At the Retail Industry Leader Association’s (RILA) May Sustainability Committee meeting in Bolingbrook, IL, Pure Strategies led a 90-minute working session with retail sustainability leads to work through what makes for effective supplier programs.
A three-step approach: Engage, Educate, Execute
We framed the session around a three-step approach we have used across engagements for over a decade: Engage, Educate, Execute. The framing is deliberately simple. It applies whether a retailer runs supplier engagement on a third-party platform or builds the program in-house. It also applies to two audiences that often get treated separately: (1) suppliers and (2) internal buyers who own the commercial relationship.
Retailers struggle to scale across hundreds or thousands of suppliers, integrate across siloed functions, and provide meaningful training. Suppliers struggle with clarity regarding what each customer actually wants, the internal capacity to respond, and a business case that justifies the work. Both sides need the same three things: clear expectations, capability-building, and a credible reason to participate. Programs that solve for one side and not the other tend to stall.
On the supplier side, there are some very simple steps to take, starting with avoiding to email-based engagement programs, which is the single most common failure pattern we see. Other strategies include:
- Be clear what you are asking for from suppliers.
- Minimize data requests, asking for what you will use vs. “nice-to-haves”, and align with existing frameworks (e.g., CDP).
- Build supplier’s capacity to what you are asking of them, through online resources, e-learning, webinars, and one-on-one coaching, meeting suppliers where they are.
- Communicate with suppliers about their progress and recognize their achievements.
- Manage priority and at-risk suppliers through collaboration rather than escalation.
The same process applied to internal buyers has a different emphasis. Include supplier sustainability status in business reviews, and in the buyer’s own Management by Objectives (MBO) targets. Prioritize the suppliers to work with, such as using the 80/20 rule. Educate your buyers and help them to feel confident in their discussions with suppliers.
The discussion with retailers surfaced clarity on the need to engage suppliers and the need to do a better job. These themes resonated with the group as they seek to work with suppliers more effectively to advance sustainability.
It was also noted that communication and recognition are undervalued. Programs that share information with suppliers and those that publish supplier rankings, celebrate top performers in business reviews, and give suppliers something to take back to their own leadership, will outperform compliance-driven programs on the same engagement metrics.
The platform choice matters less than the operating discipline around it. Retailers running successful programs on different systems all share the same internal habits: clear ownership, a regular cadence, and a feedback loop to suppliers within a defined window. A dashboard that shows suppliers and buyers where they stand compared to their peers helps to improve communication and accountability. No one wants to lag their peers.
For more information, take a look at our white paper on empowering suppliers, available at purestrategies.com/downloads.
