Case Study: Leading Beauty Retailer achieves control over merchandise spend with SAP Ariba

Leading Beauty Retailer Driving a Supply Chain Makeover to Improve Control over Merchandise Spend with the Ariba Network

A leading beauty retailer (≈US$2.67B revenue) that sells cosmetics, fragrance, hair and skin care, and salon products faced supply-chain pain from a legacy EDI network that couldn’t link orders and invoices to contracts, manage key transaction documents, or track orders and shipments—creating manual invoice processing and limited control over merchandise spend.

The retailer moved to the Ariba Network and deployed Ariba PO and Invoice Automation to connect with hundreds of suppliers and automate more than 95% of transactions. The solution delivered real-time visibility into orders, confirmations and advance ship notices, automated three-way matching and contracted pricing, improved inventory levels across stores and two automated distribution centers, and significantly higher straight-through invoice processing; the company plans further cloud-enabled improvements with SAP Fieldglass and Concur.