NetSuite 2022.1 Release: Enhancements And Value Additions For Retailers 

Summary: NetSuite 2022 Release 1 has just been released bringing a bucket of features and capabilities that retailers need. Here in this post, we explain them.

When every other industry was reeling under the disastrous consequences of the pandemic, the retail sector to deal with the emerging challenges embraced digitisation more than any other industry. Such moves paid off as all retail industry statistics are showing a positive turn of things for the last few months. 

There are strong indicators that leaving the worst scenario behind, the retail industry has finally found its previous momentum. Digitisation, ERP in retail business and advanced market analytics is playing a key role in reshaping the growth story of the sector. According to Fortune Business Insights, the worldwide retail industry analytics market is estimated to achieve more than 17% annual growth between 2021 and 2028. 

When we talk about ERP automation and digitisation in the retail industry, the ERP system NetSuite for the retail industry offers the most robust ecosystem. The recent launch of the NetSuite 2022 Release 1 version further extended the NetSuite features and capabilities for retail management. The new NetSuite version brings a lot of valuable features for order management, inventory, warehousing, cash control, reporting and analytics and many other aspects. 

Here through the rest of the blog post, we are going to explain the value offerings of Oracle NetSuite retail after the release of the new NetSuite version.  

Key Values NetSuite 2022.1 Release Added In For Retailers

Super Efficient Warehousing 

Most retailers need to handle warehousing and for them, the new NetSuite software retail ERP version brings a lot of value propositions. Retailers with the zone-based picking feature are now able to designate pickers for particular warehouse zones. The original NetSuite warehouse management system (WMS)​ features have now been enhanced to a great extent. 

The picker designated for every zone will get picking tasks for its respective zone only ensuring a faster process and no errors resulting in double efforts for the same picking tasks. This will also prevent crowding in all zones of the warehouse and ensure optimum efficiency and more productivity for the pickers. 

There have been several value additions to the existing Warehouse Management System (WMS) app of the NetSuite and all these new capabilities and enhancements will ensure completing more tasks within a given time resulting in better productivity and output. Now the employees in warehouses can search for items and print the labels with simple commands right on their phone screen. 

They also get detailed visuals of all the sales and transfer orders as well as the waves that wait for picking. In the improved WMS, we also have a tally scanner feature to allow counting the goods just when they are picked. The tally scanner also handles putaway products, inventory transfers and cycle counting. Now the waves can be released in bulk or sequentially by the warehouse admins. 

Enhanced NetSuite Pack Station 

As the leading ERP software for the retail industry, Netsuite doesn’t fail to cover even the packing and unpacking of goods which are crucial for the retail sector. Through the new release, NetSuite also makes the packaging process much easier. The NetSuite Pack Station boosts efficiency in the packaging process by allowing both bulk and individual packing and unpacking of “ship as is” goods. Most importantly, these “ship as is” items belonging to different orders can now be picked together. 

The packing workers now will get the specific packing instructions for items well in advance. Moreover, the new NetSuite Pack Station also allows using both pounds and kilograms as the weighing metric for all packaged items.  

Supply Chain Bending To Retail Demands 

Another crucial range of value additions brought to the NetSuite retail customers by this new release concerns supply chain management. The supply chain managers will find planning the supply easier through custom templates to accommodate all required items along with the appropriate filters for Supply Planning Workbench. Moreover, now managers get access to all item details, the stock to meet emergency demands and vendor details through a comprehensive one-page overview. 

These enhancements bring a lot of valuable insights to the table for the supply planners. More importantly, without switching across different screens, the planners and managers can get comprehensive information about all the products. The snapshot carrying supply chain update comes with information-rich pop-ups providing details such as inventory shortfall.

Such detailed visibility of the entire supply chain helps order fulfilment managers, as well as the customer service professionals, address the lack of balance between supply and demand. The planners, thanks to this detailed and meticulous picture showcasing every aspect of the supply status can accurately predict the toll supply shortage can take on the retailer.

Vendor performance evaluation and capability to track previous records if supply is another crucial enhancement to the new version of the NetSuite supply chain management module. Just at the time of placing an order now, retail companies can check the track record of the vendor regarding supply and can get a scorecard. The score assigned to each vendor based on its track record and performance will save your time in evaluating each vendor before placing the orders. As a retailer, you can just choose a vendor with a high score for placing your orders. 

Easy Detection of Inventory Faultlines 

For the retail sector, tracking the “about to be expired” goods and preventing wastage due to this remains a crucial challenge. The new NetSuite 2022 Release 1 version comes with a fulfilment feature called First Expired First Out (FEFO) which will prevent the expiry of items in the inventory. The operations staff also can give lots to items with the lot number. 

The new FEFO ensured finding first the items at the earliest arrival and delivering them first so that a lot of items do not get expired while sitting in inventory. This ultimately will reduce wastage due to expired items while managing the inventory with sequential priority for goods. 

Knowing All The Time Your Cash Position 

In the retail sector, there is continuous competition on product pricing and shipping costs. On the other hand, retailers need to roll out frequent promotions and discounts to stay ahead of the competitive curve. But all these aspects depend upon the cash position that needs to be tracked continuously. This is where the new Cash 360 dashboard of the latest NetSuite 2022 Release 1 update can make a difference. 

The Cash 360 dashboard provides retailers with a comprehensive and detailed picture of the present cash position and it can give a half-yearly projection of the cash flow for the company based on the transaction data, cash collections projected by the company, the immediate financial liabilities and disbursements. Additionally, the financial managers of the retail company can incorporate various financial events such as loans or asset purchases within the purview of the forecasts. 

Thanks to this Cash 360 dashboard retail businesses no longer need to depend on a third-party app or traditional spreadsheet capability for forecasting cash flow in the short or long term. The same NetSuite ERP system now brings the robust and most flexible financial forecasting capabilities with increased precision and accuracy. 

Data-Driven Decision Making Got Easier 

With the new NetSuite release, the analytics only became better as retailers are now able to link all datasets through a consolidated SuiteAnalytics Workbook and this capability doesn’t require any help from developers or custom SuiteScripts or any third-party API. Some of the key datasets that retailers can link and get benefits from include pairs like planned vs. actuals, budgets vs. actuals; forecast vs. actuals, etc. With such a custom-preferred combination of datasets, retailers can quickly get access to data-driven business insights they need at different times.  

Another crucial value addition corresponds to the preconfigured transaction types permitted by the NetSuite Analytics Warehouse. There are as many as 18 transaction types that retailers can find useful for analysis after this new release. The new improved analytics capabilities also help managers to carry out timely analyses of historical datasets such as work orders, inventory and expense reports. All these value additions apart from saving both cost and time will also ensure deeper insights across diverse metrics specific to the retail industry. 

Organised Third-Party Software Integrations 

NetSuite customisation often relies heavily upon custom integration of third-party software systems. The new NetSuite release made these integrations further easier by making NetSuite Connector more accessible through a dedicated Connector centre tab. 

Instead of running helter-skelter for the particular connector settings or instead of hiring NetSuite integration services for simple integration tasks, you can access all connector information as well as settings through a single page. 

Conclusion 

For the retail sector, the new NetSuite 2022 Release 1 versions brought a comprehensive package of solutions that every retailer needs. The enhancements and value additions with the existing modules are well thought over to cater to the modern business process requirements in the retail industry.