ALEXANDRIA, VA (May 29, 2001) - The Worldwide Retail Exchange (WWRE), the premier integrated retail exchange for retailers and suppliers, today announced that it intends to enter into a strategic alliance with UDEX, an Internet environment for the construction and exchange of product information, aimed at providing quality, searchable data for its members. Through the alliance, WWRE will begin to develop its data solutions by using UDEX's standardization, translation and universal product description expertise.

"This alliance will allow users to talk about product attributes and values in the same standard way - no matter where they are located, which company they represent or which technologies they use in their day-to-day operations," states Colin Dyer CEO of WWRE. "This means WWRE members can quickly identify and compare suppliers and products, and therefore dramatically improve their global sourcing capabilities for the ultimate benefit of their consumers."

"Global descriptor standards will create transparency between WWRE's trading partners including its international retailers, suppliers, and third party catalog providers," says John English, Chief Executive Officer of UDEX Limited.

A key point of agreement between WWRE and UDEX is the necessity and importance of several industry-wide initiatives, including the development of global data standards and strict enforcement of security and confidentiality.

The UDEX alliance marks one of three recent initiatives by WWRE to lead global standards development. Consistent with WWRE's policy, the Exchange is continuing to pursue other alliances that will advance the establishment and implementation of global standards.

About UDEX
UDEX is a one-stop shop Internet environment for the construction and exchange of product information. The company provides structured, standardised, cleansed product descriptions for use in the e-commerce environment. UDEX has a custom built classification system with a three level hierarchy and over one thousand attributes. UDEX supports the co-existence of other classification schemas. All elements in the UDEX database are defined and numbered so that users can work in any language. For more information, visit the UDEX website , www.udex.com.

About the WWRE
The WWRE is the premier Internet-based business-to-business (B2B) exchange in the retail e-marketplace. Designed to facilitate and simplify trading among retailers, suppliers, partners and distributors, the WWRE currently consists of 53 leading retailers from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America with combined sales of U.S. $790 billion. For more information, visit the website at www.wwre.org or www.worldwideretailexchange.org.

 

Media Contacts:
Keri Phifer
WorldWide Retail Exchange
+001 703.234.5056
kphifer@wwre.org

or

John English
UDEX Limited
+44 1993 832 82
john.english@udex.com

 

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