The Vendor Management team at Kaufland e-commerce is the heart of our cooperation with suppliers and brands. The team’s job is to identify the best products for our customers so that we can offer and market these on our international online marketplaces. By working in close partnership with our suppliers and developing brands strategically, they make every cooperation into a beneficial relationship for everyone involved.
The team consists of the following subteams
The Vendor Management team is divided into two specialized areas that work closely together to provide the best possible results:
This team is responsible for identifying appropriate products and gaining appropriate suppliers to offer them with us. It sets a special focus on cooperation with brands in order to encourage long-term partner relationships. Vendor Management considers itself a central point of contact and enabler for our partners.
This team focuses on building strategic partnerships with large AAA brands. It covers three central areas:
- Creating legal foundations: The team works with our partners to provide robust legal frameworks for selling their products on our online marketplaces.
- Optimizing content: The team ensures that products displayed on our online marketplaces meet the highest standards – for maximum visibility and captivating presentation.
- Strategic brand development: The Brand Relations team sits down with our partners to develop individualized strategies in order to systematically increase the visibility of their products via selected core areas of their product ranges.
The central difference between the teams is in the focus of their work:
While Vendor Management sets its sights on stocking and selling goods, the Brand Relations team operates independently of the day-to-day business. This team concentrates instead on addressing the individual requirements of our brand partners and creating long-term strategies.
Working in the Brand Relations area means being part of a creative team where new ideas are seized and partnerships thrive.
– Kai, Senior Expert Brand Relations
The team pursues the following objectives
The team’s main goal is to identify the best possible products for our customers and ensure that these are offered via appropriate suppliers. While doing so, the team always prioritizes the needs of our customers and the relevance of the products. In close contact with our partners, Vendor Management develops strategies that not only improve sales figures, but also customer satisfaction.
‚Act as a company owner‘ isn’t just a motto – it’s our everyday reality. We see ourselves as company owners in the company. Every day, we work towards identifying new potential, utilising opportunities and making our customers even more satisfied, while keeping our team values firmly in mind. We create an environment where everyone takes responsibility and can act on their own initiative – while trusting that they really can make progress on things.
– Max, Head of Vendor Management
What day-to-day business looks like
In Vendor Management, no two days are the same. Both subteams are constantly in touch with existing as well as potential new partners. They work together to develop strategies for successful cooperation – and they always focus on the value each partnership will bring to our customers.
A significant part of the work in this team is data analysis: Our colleagues put in a lot of time evaluating data, getting deeper insights into the needs of our partners and creating well-informed decision bases for collective discussions.
On top of that, everyone in the team has a project-oriented focus that enables the team to work strategically on general topics. This lets the team cover a broad range of initiatives, all of which directly influence our business and the further development of our partnerships.
I like working as a vendor manager because the tasks are quite varied, you can take initiative to drive your own area forward and you have a lot of flexibility in what measures you take to do so. It’s all in line with our motto: It doesn’t matter which path you take as long as you get to the goal. There’s also a great team spirit, and I notice often enough how everyone works together to get to our goals.
– Johannes, Vendor Manager
How the team keeps in touch
The team members are in constant contact with each other, whether in informal or fixed formats. Three weekly meetings create a scaffold for creating transparency, sharing knowledge, and preparing decisions efficiently:
- Starting the week with a focus on numbers: The team kicks the week off with a data-driven look back at the previous week’s performance. Analysis starts with a single category and is scaled up step by step until they are looking at the entire direct sales business. Here, the focus is on concrete KPIs and the to-dos extracted from them.
- Vendor Management meeting: This weekly chat is a chance for all the members of Vendor Management to get together. They discuss business-relevant topics, pass on important updates and discuss strategic decisions. Plus, this is a chance for the team to share project updates.
- Small-scale team meetings: These sessions take place in smaller, category-specific groups. They focus on breaking down generalized topics into the specific needs of single product groups and implement them in practice.
Thanks to this structured discussion model and their shared values, the colleagues in Vendor Management create an environment in which everyone takes responsibility and can take their own initiative. And that creates an environment where a strong team spirit can thrive.
The team spirit is really special here – all for one, one for all!
– Mathias, Senior Vendor Manager
