Intermarché Strengthens Merchandising Strategy with InStranet
 
New merchandising policy based on InStranet’s Channels In-Line™ application has resulted in an average revenue increase of 7% for Intermarché’s network of stores.
 
CHICAGO, Paris, March 30, 2004 – As part of a vast merchandising restructuring project that recently won the prestigious Mètre d’Or award bestowed by the French Merchandising Institute, leading European retail distributor Intermarché selected InStranet to implement a merchandising information platform to increase store performance and department sales in all its 1,600 French points of sale.

Realizing that their existing tools were no longer suitable, Intermarché decided to restructure the entire merchandising process by implementing a dynamic merchandising platform that would improve feedback from the field and ensure member stores adopted Intermarche’s merchandising vision. To enable this real-time collaboration, Intermarché selected InStranet’s Web-based application Channels In-Line™ (CIL).

Thanks to CIL, Intermarché’s 3,800 merchandising plans, along with seasonal offers, best practices, promotional campaigns and performance analysis, are available on the new platform. The new system enables real-time information sharing between Intermarché’s headquarters and points of sale, increasing store effectiveness and performance, while cutting costs.

InStranet’s Channels In-Line™ application addressed a main challenge Intermarché faced: the ability to send their 1,600 points of sale customized merchandising files on 90 product groups as often as necessary. Thanks to CIL’s business rules management and closed loop functionality, Intermarché can easily and dynamically distribute targeted and personalized merchandising strategies to its network and receive feedback regarding the success of programs and procedures.

“Up until now, merchandising packs were distributed as hard copy data sheets and updated once a year. However, to be truly efficient, they must be renewed at least two or three times a year. In collaboration with several of our major suppliers and using the new platform we deployed with InStranet’s Channels In-Line™, we are now in a position to easily communicate our merchandising policy in real time and on a regular basis to store and department managers,” declared Jean-Noël Cornec, Member, Sales Development, and his permanent staff member Michel Vaglio. “As a result, department managers are better equipped to boost their performance and sales.”

Furthermore, thanks to Channels In-Line's™ advanced distribution and personalized search, each store department can pinpoint the best-suited merchandising configurations according to various criteria. The merchandising platform also makes it possible for network members to compare performance as well as perform self-diagnostics. These diagnostics let members evaluate, for example, which displays are most effective in generating sales compared to results posted by other members. Thanks to these diagnostics, every store is better able to hone their priorities and strategies.

"Restructuring our merchandising strategy, resulted in closer partnerships with our major suppliers and improved information sharing with our sales outlets, has already borne its fruit. Since the launch of this new initiative, we have noted an average increase in revenues of 7% for the points of sale applying the new dynamic merchandising policy,” Jean-Noël Cornec, Intermarché Member, highlighted.

InStranet is a worldwide leader of multi-channel knowledge business applications. Global 2000 companies rely on InStranet's solutions to automate content and knowledge delivery for contact centers, field sales and Web self-care for servicing and sales initiatives. InStranet's Multi-Channel Knowledge Applications enable businesses to securely create, manage and deploy critical profile-based content for enterprise channels, and to analyze results to identify key successes or areas for improvement.

InStranet applications are currently deployed in many high-profile global enterprises, including 3M, AXA, BNP Paribas, Credit Lyonnais, France Telecom, Manpower, Orange, and Zurich North America. Global partners include Aspect Communications, BEA Systems, Genesys, IBM, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems. InStranet is headquartered in Chicago with offices in Paris, and technology and distribution partnerships throughout Europe and Asia.

For more information, contact:

InStranet, Inc.
InStranet EMEA
Andrew Zinger
(312) 629-4577
azinger@instranet.com