New Forms of Collaboration & Information Sharing in Grocery Retailing: The PCSO Pilot at Veropoulos

Abstract

In spring 2001, Veropoulos, the third biggest retailer in Greece and three of its top suppliers together with a service provider, started a pilot implementation to experiment with collaborative store ordering. The pilot involved the ordering from the retailer’s stores to their central warehouse as well as to the direct-store-delivery suppliers. The four companies together with the service provider were starting an ambitious plan to use the Internet technology in order to enable the sharing of daily POS data between retail stores and suppliers with the objective to streamline the store replenishment process. This effort resulted in significant business results but at the same time several pitfalls and challenges as far as the use of technology was concerned.