Stride Rite Gives The Boot To Multiple E-Commerce VendorsStride Rite Gives The Boot To Multiple E-Commerce Vendors

The Stride Rite Corp. is hoping to cut costs, errors, and time from its supply chain by consolidating the cataloging and E-commerce systems it uses to communicate with retailers.

Until now, the shoe wholesaler had used several catalog and EDI value-added networks, each of which had different product-data requirements and billing structures. Now it's using QRS Corp.'s QRS Catalogue, a database of product information hosted at QRS and used to maintain product information and communicate it to about 80 of its more than 100 retailers nationwide.

The QRS Catalogue database holds information on 90 million items from more than 3,500 vendors, manufacturers, distributors, and their retail customers. Stride Rite is also using QRS Exchange, software designed to facilitate E-commerce transactions between the company and its customers.

"We decided to focus on one provider," says Yusef Akyuz, senior VP and CIO at Stride Rite. It was more difficult to maintain service levels when using several firms, he says. "If the service isn't constantly monitored, there could be communication failures. We may not be able to send an advance shipping notice to one of the retailers. And these companies are getting so automated they are using these notices to drive their receiving systems," Akyuz says.

Stride Rite will also be able to save about $150,000 this year--about 30% of its EDI budget--because it's moved most of its EDI business to QRS. "Because of the large volume, we can take advantage of pricing structures," Akyuz says. Stride Rite will continue to use GE Global Exchange Services for about 20% of its retailers who request to do business on that network.