Alexandria, Va. - January 30, 2002 - The WorldWide Retail Exchange (WWRE), the premier business-to-business exchange for retailers and suppliers, today announced its business strategy for 2002 and summarized its 2001 achievements.

"In 2002, the retail industry will continue to face significant revenue pressures and demands for achieving greater efficiency and enhanced shareholder value," said Colin Dyer, chief executive officer of the WorldWide Retail Exchange. "We are confident that our commitment to expanding global supply sources and members' efficiencies, to executing transactions with identical platforms and standards, and to improving member margins and bottom line savings will assist our members in meeting these demands and attaining their financial targets."

The WWRE remains focused on demonstrating significant value and benefits to its members by continuing its evolution as an accessible, collaborative global marketplace; a shared technology platform and outsourcing provider; an accelerator of standards and a data repository - at a fraction of the cost of other technology solutions.
With the necessary funding in place to carry through 2002 and most of 2003, key WWRE priorities for its members in 2002 include:

• Adoption. In 2001, the WWRE led the industry in terms of member adoption (80% of its members were using one or more solutions at year-end). In the coming year, the WWRE will complete the launch of all core products and services and shift its focus to adoption, with the goal of having all members active on at least one solution. The WWRE will also continue to work closely with its members through its various governing bodies and consultative groups. The twin objectives focus on better identifying new product solutions and appropriate strategic alliances, and services that will meet members' needs in the ever-changing retail environment.
• Membership Growth. In 2002, the WWRE will continue to actively recruit new members from both sides of the retail industry, specifically suppliers, to continue building a secure, balanced, and neutral exchange for enhanced collaborative relationships.
• Product Enhancements. Each of the WWRE's products is scheduled to have major functional improvements in 2002, in keeping with the Exchange's commitment to offer the best industry solutions available. The WWRE's application solutions will be integrated to enable uninterrupted workflow as well as interface with legacy "behind-the-firewall" customer systems. The Exchange is using custom-managed hosting with IBM, one of the world's most professional service providers.
• Industry Standards. The WWRE is working with other industry retailers, suppliers and organizations to promote the development and adoption of Global Commerce Initiative (GCI) standards. The Exchange will also continue development of the WWRE WorldWide Item Management solution, which will move the organization beyond its original focus of simply hosting an online catalog to also providing global visibility and local product information.

2001 Overview
"2001 was a year of incredible progress in a tough economic environment," said Dyer. "With the support of our 59 members, we continued to outperform expectations while delivering on our original goal of providing solutions that enable all participants in the retailing industry to realize measurable value in the supply chain. And we brought our members these integrated solutions at a fraction of the cost it would take for them to do this themselves."

Over the past year, the WWRE delivered significant and quantifiable results to its members' bottom line. Specifically:

• Through the use of WWRE tools and services, members have collectively saved more than $270 million on transaction volume of over $2 billion. The average member has saved more than $14.5 million.
  
• Membership increased to 59 members (and discussions continue with more than 150 leading suppliers).
  
• Eight out of ten members implemented WWRE's tools and services, with nearly one-third using two or more products. This positioned the WWRE as the premier retail exchange for active membership adoption.
  
• The WWRE continued to expand its solution offering and add functionality to existing solutions. Five products are in production with two launching in the first quarter of 2002.
  
• The WWRE further strengthened its business solutions offerings by establishing seven key alliance agreements: Agribuys, Global Sources Ltd., SourcingLink, UDEX, UCCnet, ViaLink and Visigent. As a result, the WWRE now offers its members access to the largest community of electronically enabled suppliers in Asia, advanced data synchronization resources, and enhanced negotiation services.
  
• The WWRE's employee base grew from 20 to 140 and expanded into Europe, Central America and Asia Pacific.

"Best Buy is very excited over the tremendous progress made by the WWRE this past year," said Doug Reynolds, Program Manager of B2B at Best Buy. "The products and services offered over the exchange provide an opportunity to change the retail industry and eliminate needless costs and time delays. Our ability to leverage a shared infrastucture with our suppiers and fellow retailers affords huge cost savings over privately funded exchanges. The WWRE is changing the way we think about many of our traditional functions."

"We knew the WWRE would be a real cost savings tool for us," said Barry Knichel, Divisional Director, Supply Chain at Tesco. "We've already achieved significant value through its initial offerings, and despite the expected growing pains of a new business, have watched the WWRE go through a quick evolution from conceptual to operational. We will continue to engage the Exchange to drive and adopt industry standards and support its current and new members in building a fully-functional, integrated platform."

About the WWRE
The WWRE is the premier Internet-based business-to-business exchange in the retail e-marketplace. The Exchange was created with the fundamental purpose of reducing costs and improving efficiencies throughout the supply chain, employing product and service solutions typical of a global procurement and supply operation. Designed to facilitate and simplify trading between retailers, suppliers, partners and distributors, the WWRE currently consists of 59 retail members from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America with combined sales of over U.S. $845 billion. To date, the WWRE has saved its members over $270 million through the use of online negotiations, its first product offering. For more information, visit the website at www.wwre.org or www.worldwideretailexchange.org

Media contacts:
Cynthia Rogers
Edelman Public Relations
312-223-1390
cynthia.rogers@edelman.com

Laura Battle
Edelman Public Relations
312-233-1374
laura.battle@edelman.com