Collaboration with external suppliers is key to reducing the costs of sourcing products and to getting the right products onto shelves. 

Today’s grocery retailers are sophisticated operations that typically carry both food and non food offers. Food retailing has significant challenges in terms of the information that needs to be retained and managed. Detailed ingredient lists, labelling and packaging specifications are involved. This together with supplier information and the fact that ingredients are constantly being refined and improved, means a great deal of information and documentation needs to be managed. As retailers move across borders so the localisation of offers increases the amount of information. 

4Retail offers grocery retailers a low cost way of collaborating on product or programmes. It is flexible, adaptive and eases the administrative burden. At the same time it can add workflow and reporting to enable a clear view of overall progress.

Some grocery operators are now taking leads with elements of their non food offer. Supplier, product and packaging information is again copious. The efficient management of this information is important for maintaining a cost effective and customer focused operation.