Online exchanges – rivalries between systems are subverting the good intentions
It seemed like a good idea at the time; and Carrefour, Sainsbury’s and at least twenty other retailers still believe they are on to a Good Thing with GNX, the marketplace (also called a trading exchange or portal) for retailers to use for communicating and collaborating with suppliers. Not only can orders be placed, processed and tracked online, but things like promotion planning and monitoring and product specification and design can also be carried out by any number of relevant parties through one computer system.
This, surely, should reduce time to market, cut costs, result in more appropriate products and therefore higher sales, and strengthen working relationships.
In theory, yes. But – and it’s a big but -Tesco, acting like a spoiled schoolboy, decided it couldn’t join the same community as Sainsbury’s, so it set up its own marketplace, WWRE (Worldwide Retail Exchange). It now claims to have over 50 retailer members.
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