Your Retail Partner Isn’t Out to Get You—But Their Systems Might Be
- The HRG Team
- Aug 5
- 1 min read
Imagine this: you ship on time, meet every compliance rule, and your retailer partner is thrilled.
Then, a month later, you get hit with a deduction.
Here’s the truth—retailers aren’t trying to cheat you. But their systems are often a different story. Most deductions are triggered automatically by software scanning for any deviation from thousands of rules. A mislabeled pallet? A misread barcode? Even something as small as an EDI mismatch can set off a chain reaction.
For one fictional mid-sized supplier, a single invoice coding error triggered $75,000 in deductions across multiple POs. The retailer didn’t notice either. It wasn’t malicious—it was the system doing its job.
Why it matters:
Automation is a double-edged sword.
Errors are often invisible to both the retailer and the supplier.
Recovery requires vigilance and expertise to catch the patterns.
Deductions will happen, even in perfect relationships. But with proactive post-audit recovery, you can catch these silent leaks before they become margin killers.
Take Action:
If deductions feel random, it’s probably your retailer’s system at work. HRG can help you recover dollars hiding in plain sight.
