Costco Collaborative Retail Exchange Program Expands to All Major Departments
ISSIQUAH, Wash. -- Following a successful pilot earlier this year, warehouse club retailer Costco Wholesale and marketing information company Information Resources, Inc. have fully deployed the Costco Collaborative Retail Exchange (CRX) program across Costco's major food and nonfood departments in the United States.
"The CRX program is our approach to providing our vendor community with standard, secure access to current and detailed information about their business at Costco Wholesale," said Costco e.v.p. Ed Maron. "We believe that this program will further strengthen the communication between Costco and its trading partners. IRI has demonstrated their value and expertise to transform our POS information into actionable business insights for our partners."
The program provides interactive access to Costco's warehouse-specific, daily, item-level point-of-sale data in nearly real time, according to IRI, and allows Costco's manufacturer partners to access and use Costco's data in a structured, collaborative framework, reflecting Costco's category and geography definitions.
The program was developed to enable the identification of mutual business growth opportunities between Costco and manufacturers through improved communication and more streamlined item management.
Costco initially selected IRI to implement an information-sharing program with select manufacturers across eight core CPG departments. Based on the success of the initial pilot, the program has been expanded across virtually all warehouse departments including alcoholic beverages, office supplies, sporting goods, housewares, major appliances, and home furnishings.
"Costco represents one of the fastest retail growth opportunities for many of our manufacturing clients today," said IRI president and c.e.o. Scott W. Klein. "Costco CRX provides today's innovative manufacturers with consistent, structured visibility to more effectively reduce out-of-stocks, increase new product introduction success, and better manage item and promotion performance."
"The CRX program is our approach to providing our vendor community with standard, secure access to current and detailed information about their business at Costco Wholesale," said Costco e.v.p. Ed Maron. "We believe that this program will further strengthen the communication between Costco and its trading partners. IRI has demonstrated their value and expertise to transform our POS information into actionable business insights for our partners."
The program provides interactive access to Costco's warehouse-specific, daily, item-level point-of-sale data in nearly real time, according to IRI, and allows Costco's manufacturer partners to access and use Costco's data in a structured, collaborative framework, reflecting Costco's category and geography definitions.
The program was developed to enable the identification of mutual business growth opportunities between Costco and manufacturers through improved communication and more streamlined item management.
Costco initially selected IRI to implement an information-sharing program with select manufacturers across eight core CPG departments. Based on the success of the initial pilot, the program has been expanded across virtually all warehouse departments including alcoholic beverages, office supplies, sporting goods, housewares, major appliances, and home furnishings.
"Costco represents one of the fastest retail growth opportunities for many of our manufacturing clients today," said IRI president and c.e.o. Scott W. Klein. "Costco CRX provides today's innovative manufacturers with consistent, structured visibility to more effectively reduce out-of-stocks, increase new product introduction success, and better manage item and promotion performance."