IMRA Study Finds a Wired Retail Industry
The retail industry in general has become wired, with Webs of business-to-business(B2B) and business-to-consumer(B2C) software and sites linking vendors and retailers, and retailers and their customers, according to “2001: The Retail Odyssey Continues,” the International Mass Retail Association’s (IMRA) recently published mass retail logistics study. Twenty-five percent of the retailers surveyed by IMRA are already members of a B2B exchange or have plans to integrate exchanges into their overall B2B plans; 55 percent of the respondents are online with an e-commerce B2C site, and 40 percent of those without an online presence plan to be selling on the Web within three years; nearly 60 percent of retailers surveyed are already exchanging inventory-flow data electronically with their vendors.
