ICT and e-Business Impact in the Retail Industry - empirica

e-Business in the Retail Sector5.1 Mercator, SloveniaAbstractWith a share of 36% in the Slovenian fast moving consumer goods market, Mercator isone of the largest commercial chains in South-Eastern Europe. In 1999, it launched aproject to introduce e-commerce into its upstream supply chain management. Softwareand hardware solutions for the exchange of electronic business messages betweenMercator and its suppliers have been specifically developed for the company. Theelectronic exchange of business messages has helped Mercator to improve workorganisation and the efficiency of its procurement process, cooperation with suppliers,and control over its stocks. One of the solution providers also successfully sells thesolution on the market to other companies. This contributes to the expansion of e-commerce across Slovenia and abroad. The case study provides an educative lessonabout the importance of having one unified ERP system in a company, its dependantcompanies and subsidiaries for an efficient implementation of e-commerce.Case study fact sheetFull name of the company:Location (headquarters / main branches):Poslovni sistem Mercator, d.d., (BusinessSystem Mercator Ltd.)SloveniaNo. of employees: 12.957SectorMain business activity:Retail tradeRetail sale of food, fast moving consumer goods,technical equipment, furniture, constructionmaterials, textile goods, cosmetics and sportsequipmentPrimary customers: Consumers, Petrol 59 , Istrabenz Turizem 60 ,Slovenian government 61Year of foundation: 1949Turnover in last financial year (€): 1.609.832.000Most significant market area:Main e-business applications studied: *SloveniaTIE EP, eb-MANAGER, e-SERVICE Client5.1.1 Background and objectivesPoslovni sistem Mercator (refererred to as Mercator hereafter) is the controlling companyof the Mercator Group 62 which is one of the largest commercial chains in South-EasternEurope. It sells fast moving consumer goods, technical equipment, furniture, constructionmaterials, textile goods, cosmetics and sports equipment in Slovenia. Mercator has beenconfronted by severe market conditions after Slovenia entered the EU in 2004. Foreign59606162Oil company; food products and other items are sold over Petrol filling stations.Tourist company.Mainly the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education and Sport.The Mercator group consists of 8 wholesale and retail trade companies in Slovenia, Croatia,Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia; and 4 Slovene non-tradingcompanies concerned with the production of food and beverages, market research and marketintervention in the domestic and foreign markets, planning, engineering and technicalcounselling on building shopping malls.121