NPD is pleased to announce the launch of Retailer Center, the single access point for a wealth of retailer-specific information. This new Web site enables NPD retailer partners to access the industry information available through NPD's Worlds. Retailer partners will benefit from enhanced functionality, such as simultaneous report downloading and improved search capabilities. And they'll only have to log on once to the secure Retailer Center site to access one or many of NPD's Worlds using unique user names and passwords. Retailer Center made its debut with the delivery of July 2003 data.

Timed to coincide with the launch of Retailer Center, NPD also made an end-of-summer splash by introducing Retailer Comparison Reports. These new reports let NPD retailer partners capitalize on the interactive online medium of NPD's Worlds and replace Decision Data, Interactive Reporter, Market Comparison Reports and Channel Overviews. Using Retailer Comparison Reports, retailer partners can benchmark their sales performance to market information and identify opportunities for those product categories tracked by NPD. The new report functionality gives retailers more control over the information they want to see and how they want to see it - from topline to the most granular level of detail - without requiring them to sift through unrelated categories.

NPD Retailer Partners have received direct communications about the benefits and functionality of the new Retailer Center and Retailer Comparison Reports. If you have specific questions about your company's transition to these new resources, please contact your NPD account manger or e-mail Insights@npd.com.