How SoftTouch Labs Uses TrueCommerce EDI to Serve Fortune 500 Retailers

• Scaling into Fortune 500 retail requires infrastructure, not just ambition. When SoftTouch Labs began supplying major national retailers, logging into individual retailer websites with a team of people was no longer viable. EDI was not an optional upgrade; it was a prerequisite for operating at that level.
• A centralized order hub changes the economics of growth. Consolidating orders from multiple retail channels into a single dashboard meant SoftTouch Labs could absorb exponentially increasing order volume without a proportional increase in headcount or error rate.
• Freeing operational capacity redirects a company toward its actual mission. Resources that had been consumed by manual order entry were reinvested into product development, ultimately expanding access to affordable hearing aids for a customer base that previously could not justify the cost of prescription devices.

SoftTouch Labs, formerly known as General Hearing Instruments, Inc., is a medical device company that produces both prescription and over-the-counter hearing aids. The company recognized a shift in consumer behavior as early as 2008, when hearing aid patients began weighing the cost-to-benefit of prescription devices more carefully. In response, SoftTouch Labs began offering an affordable, over-the-counter option designed for average hearing loss, making the product accessible through online and brick-and-mortar retail channels. Their hearing aids are regulated medical devices: retail products carry a Class 1 medical device designation and prescription products carry a Class 2 designation, each subject to HIPAA compliance, FDA manufacturing requirements, and thorough quality assurance programs.

For years, hearing aids were only available through prescription and required highly trained audiologists to perform complex tuning of the
rice-sized speakers used in the devices. Over time, as patients became more educated on hearing aid solutions, consumers began to weigh the cost-to-benefit of prescription devices. SoftTouch Labs, formerly General Hearing Instruments, Inc., recognized this trend early in 2008 and began offering an affordable, over-the-counter option tuned for average hearing loss.

The addition of direct-to-consumer (DtC) hearing products required an equally progressive approach to the supply chain and order fulfillment processes. Prior to partnering with TrueCommerce, SoftTouch Labs employed a team of as many as 10 people to manually log into several disparate retailer websites to process the hundreds of orders it received each day. This required more time and manpower, and created an increased risk of human error in the ordering process. The need for an EDI solution was made urgent when the company expanded to supply multiple Fortune 500 retailers.

TrueCommerce provided SoftTouch Labs with a cloud-based EDI solution built around a centralized order hub. Working together, the two companies developed a customized integration that consolidated orders from all retail channels into one location and connected directly to SoftTouch Labs’ proprietary ERP system. Rather than outsourcing the ERP integration to a third-party vendor, which the document notes often leads to delays, cost overruns, and lost revenue, TrueCommerce used proprietary ERP adapters to complete the connection in-house.

From a single dashboard, SoftTouch Labs could now process orders across its entire distribution chain. Order acknowledgements, fulfillment, and compliance documentation all flowed through one system rather than across multiple disconnected retailer portals. The platform was also designed to scale, built to handle the exponentially increasing order volume that came with serving large national retailers rather than buckling under it.

The shift from manual order processing to a centralized EDI platform changed how SoftTouch Labs operates at a fundamental level. The labor that had been dedicated to logging into retailer websites, checking for orders, and entering data by hand was no longer necessary. That freed capacity was redirected toward product development rather than absorbed into administrative overhead, which had a direct effect on the company’s ability to bring new hearing aid products to market and serve a broader patient population.

The business case for affordable, over-the-counter hearing aids depends on distribution reach. Getting products onto the shelves and websites of major national retailers is how SoftTouch Labs extends access to patients who cannot justify the cost of a prescription device. TrueCommerce made that distribution model operationally viable by handling the compliance and order management complexity that comes with selling through Fortune 500 retail channels. Without an EDI infrastructure capable of meeting those retailers’ mandates, the channel relationships that underpin the company’s consumer strategy would not have been possible to sustain.

The broader implication is straightforward: for a medical device company with a mission tied to accessibility, operational efficiency is not just an internal metric. It is what makes the product available to the people who need it.