Independent retailers access web-based services for supplier communications

Independent retailers, such as 200-store franchise company Medicap Pharmacies Inc. and Furnitureland South, are subscribing to Internet-based services to benefit from improved trading partner communications that would be difficult and more costly to install on their own.

Medicap is a chain of independently owned pharmacy franchises with $366 million in sales and nearly 8 million prescriptions last year. It has joined ChainDrugStore.net, a network that enables more than 140 retail companies to communicate through the Internet with suppliers representing more than $200 billion in annual retail sales in more than 60 product categories.

ChainDrugStore.net provides a secure messaging service that enables pharmaceutical manufacturers and other suppliers to send information on promotional programs, new products, product recalls and other information directly to retail stores over the web. Retailers participating in ChainDrugStore.net operate 32,000 stores.

Steve Sisler, vice president of procurement services for Medicap, says Medicap and its franchisees will use information received through ChainDrugStore.net to boost profit margins through improved merchandising and more timely promotions. "Our franchisees will now have real-time pharmacy-related product information that will help them make timely, informed and intelligent product decisions crucial to their profitability," he says.

Furnitureland South, which sells products from 400 manufacturers through two furniture showrooms in High Point, NC, has subscribed to FurnishNet`s web-based electronic document exchange service to communicate with suppliers. FurnishNet, servicing about 400 trading partners in the home furnishings industry, handles more than $1.6 million in purchase order volume yearly.

Todd Erickson, director of information technology for Furnitureland, says he expects FurnishNet to enable his company to accelerate cycle times from order to fulfillment and reduce errors by replacing manual input of data with electronic document exchange. He adds that Furnitureland had considered installing its own EDI system, but realized that subscribing to FurnishNet`s web-based service would be less costly and faster to implement.