QRS` Tradeweave Retail Price Analyzer Adds Up to Profit for Grocery
Ukrop`s super markets looks to QRS for retail pricing intelligence
RICHMOND, Calif., Oct. 4 2001 -- QRS Corporation (Nasdaq: QRSI), the leading expert in global sourcing and supply chain management solutions for the retail industry, today announced the availability of a new service for the grocery industry. QRS` Tradeweave Retail Price Analyzer combines retail data with robust analysis tools to provide true retail intelligence that helps retailers monitor the competitive landscape.
Ukrop`s Super Markets, a grocery retailer that operates more than 25 retail food stores in the mid-Atlantic region, selected QRS` Retail Price Analyzer to enable Ukrop`s to determine and adjust pricing and promotion strategies based on current, geographically targeted competitive data. Retail Price Analyzer is the latest addition to the Tradeweave(TM) Retail Network, an integrated suite of business intelligence, service and technology platforms for the global retail industry. "META Group research indicates that Global 2000 Grocery retailers are seeking more information on product pricing strategies as market pressures continue to reduce margins. We believe that this environment will generate demand for solutions that enable organizations to better understand the relationships among price, product categories, promotions and market demand," reported Gene Alvarez, senior program director, electronic business strategies for META Group, Inc.
Tradeweave Retail Price Analyzer combines retail pricing information along with an analytic tool, accessible via the Web, to provide a new level of service to retailers in the grocery industry. Moving beyond gathering and delivering retail pricing data, the new Tradeweave Retail Price Analyzer is a comprehensive service that gives retailers a greater range of information to help them make better informed pricing and promotion decisions. The service gives retailers a concise understanding of their competitive positioning and a way of analyzing their pricing and promotion strategies within the larger framework of the markets in which they compete.
This Web-based service, accessed via QRS.com, is offered within the grocery channel and provides retailers across the country with access to comprehensive, real-time pricing data -- enabling immediate pricing actions -- as well as more than a year of historical data for long-range strategic pricing and promotion planning. QRS gathers quantitative and qualitative pricing information -- including base and sale price, as well as type of sale -- for the 500 top selling branded and private-label grocery items in more than 80 U.S. markets. These top-selling items represent the most highly promoted and price-elastic items sold in the grocery channel and account for more than 25 percent of total store sales. Retailers can use Retail Price Analyzer for detailed comparisons, trending, reporting, graphing and rules-based analysis -- all of which help users improve sales and drive profits.
According to QRS grocery retailer customers, Tradeweave Retail Intelligence Services, including Retail Price Analyzer, enable them to:
-- Improve sales up to 3 percent when incorporated with competitive
merchandising and promotion strategies.
-- Increase margins up to 10 to 15 percent by maximizing price
competitiveness on high-volume, highly price-elastic items.
Kevin Hade vice president of category management for Ukrop`s Super Markets stated, "We selected QRS` Retail Price Analyzer to improve our pricing strategy. There is no other comparable service on the market today that delivers this type of immediate access to current and historical data necessary for both long- and short-term pricing decisions as well as the development of an overall merchandising strategy. In the grocery industry where profit margins are slim, such an advantage is critical to survival."
"Retail Price Analyzer provides a complete solution by combining retail pricing data, data warehousing and an analytic tool to improve pricing, promotion and merchandising strategies," said Adam Messinger, vice president of product marketing, Tradeweave Business Intelligence for QRS. "With this tool, retailers are better equipped to understand competitive positioning within various markets, which is key to increasing sales and margins."
About Ukrop`s Super Markets, Inc.
Ukrop`s Super Markets, Inc., founded in Richmond, VA in 1937, operates 27 retail food stores, a Central Bakery and Kitchen, and a distribution center. Ukrop`s was a pioneer in both loyalty marketing and meal solutions when it launched its Valued Customer(R) program in 1987 and its chilled prepared foods in 1989. In 1997, Ukrop`s established a unique partnership with National Commerce Bank Corporation in which it co-owns 18 First Market Bank branches in Ukrop`s locations and 6 free-standing branches. Ukrop`s was listed by Fortune as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2000 and 2001.
About QRS
QRS Corporation is the leading expert in global sourcing and supply chain management solutions for the retail industry. For 13 years QRS has helped its 4,000 customers increase revenue, decrease costs and reduce product cycle times. QRS` Tradeweave(TM) Retail Network -- an integrated suite of business intelligence, service and technology platforms -- enables secure and profitable relationships among retailers, manufacturers and their trading partners. Dedicated solely to the retail industry, QRS has enabled more than 100,000 partnerships giving retailers and manufacturers a better way to plan, source, buy and sell, finance, track, price, merchandise and replenish products.
Cautionary Language
Statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties as discussed more fully in QRS Corporation`s filings with the SEC, including its most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.
NOTE: QRS is a registered trademark and Tradeweave is a trademark of QRS Corporation. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.
/CONTACT: Maureen Collins of QRS Corporation, +1-978-283-9505, or mcollins@qrs.com; or Nicole Peters of Stanton-Crenshaw Communications, +1-646-336-9414, or nicole@stanton-crenshaw.com/
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