While one could think that the Economy was slowly coming back, we’re stopped by indecision with our government officials again resulting in a drop in the stock market of over 500 points last Thursday. With that, many retailers will likely go back to the planning committees to discuss if they should rethink their plans for footprint expansion. If your company has had plans for store expansion and is now putting those on hold, I’ll again remind you that regardless of conditions of the Economy, everyone should always be looking at process improvements. And with that you should be considering starting or expanding trading with your partners electronically.

I've written plenty about getting suppliers into electronic trading with their partners. I've shared that if you have EDI services and so do you partners, you should be collaborating so that you can exchange data electronically. I've also shared that if you have EDI capabilities and your convinced that bigger partners are the only ones that are qualified to have EDI capabilities, you're making a poor assumption. Many smaller to mid sized supppliers do indeed have the ability, but have not shared they can exchange with you. You should put together a strategy to work with these smaller companies. Lastly, if you yourself do not have EDI capabilities, it's not too late to make a difference in your organization.

Over the last several months I've noticed a growing interest in more partners connecting to Grocery Retailers than I have in the past, specifically around NEX/DEX. I'm not sure if these are new partners or if Grocery Retailers are now looking to expand their connections for DSD (Direct Store Delivery) orders through electronic trading but it seems like a good time to educate you on this system. ways that trading can be done, and alternatives to NEX.