This paper examines the effectiveness of a vendor-managed inventory (VMI) system in a decentralised supply chain. Specifically, a two-tier supply chain with one vendor and multiple buyers is analysed under two replenishment models – an LMI system and a VMI system with vendor coordination that includes retailer incentives and cross-docking at the vendor. The impact of supply chain design parameters (number of retailers and retailer heterogeneity), and a policy parameter (shipment frequency) on the effectiveness of the VMI system is studied. Using an analytical model as well as numerical experiments, we find that incentive-aligned contractual arrangements can be made between the vendor and the retailers through reallocation of fixed shipping cost savings arising from VMI.