Very few Manufacturers/Distributors of Tabletop and Household Furnishings products are taking advantage of the information streams available to them in a fully implemented Retail EDI sales environment. To our knowledge only the major manufacturers have the resources required to fully take advantage of the information that clearly provides them with a competitive advantage in the marketing and sales of their products.

All major retailers require that their suppliers be EDI capable. That is if you are going to sell your products in their stores you must, at minimum provide UPC barcode product identification and comply with their EDI purchase and shipping procedures electronically through EDI standard protocols or formats. While the formats are standard, that is, the information fields within an electronic data record, the codes conveying that information may well be different from retailer to retailer and subject to change. Meeting retailer requirements and maintaining the systems and databases necessary to sell products into the retail EDI environment is a burden on the Information Systems groups of supplier organizations.

Add to that the development and maintenance of systems necessary to interpret and analyze the returning information streams related to Sales and Inventory increases the burden and generally receives a lower priority than efforts to meet purchasing and shipping requirements of target retailers.

Design Research Reports has gained extensive experience with these sales and inventory records as it has worked with its Macomber Reports, retail audit, clients. We have developed the capability to interpret and present these important information streams. We provide weekly updates of sales and inventory activity of the clients key retail customers, using the clients’ data that usually has been discarded or lain dormant within their information systems. Further, we bring years of marketing research and analysis experience to bear on the presentation of the information providing views which aid in management and sales decision making, arming sales staff with information that is current or better than that of the buyers with whom they have to deal.