The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) is an international

standards organization A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization (SDO), or standards setting organization (SSO) is an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpr ...

dedicated to reducing the costs of

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scie ...

through

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

s. Since 1993, ARTS has been delivering application standards exclusively to the retail industry. ARTS has four standards : The Standard Relational Data Model,

UnifiedPOS UnifiedPOS or UPOS is a world wide vendor- and retailer-driven Open Standard's initiative under the National Retail Federation, Association of Retail Technology Standards (NRF-ARTS) to provide vendor-neutral software application interfaces (APIs) fo ...

, ARTS XML and the Standard RFPs. It is a division of the

National Retail Federation The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association. Its members include department stores, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, and independent retailers, chain restaurants, grocery stores, and multi-level ma ...

. These standards enable the rapid implementation of technology within the retail industry by developing standards to ease integration of software applications and hardware devices. ARTS offers testing services to verify that applications accurately incorporate these standards. Hundreds of leading retailers and vendors worldwide contribute in shaping the ARTS Data Model. The ARTS Data Model is known as the information standard in the retail industry and provides a comprehensive design document containing all data elements and definitions required to support retail applications. UnifiedPOS is a platform-neutral specification for connecting POS peripherals such as printers, scanners, and scales to the POS terminal, allowing retailers freedom of choice in the selection of hardware integration. ARTS XML (formerly IXRetail) builds on the ARTS Data Model to develop standard XML schemas and message sets to ease application-to-application integration within a retail enterprise. There are currently 11 schemas available.Retail Solutions Online (RSO). ''ARTS: Enhancing A Retailer's Ability To Protect Their IT Investment While Benefiting From The Knowledge And Best Practices Of Retailers And Vendors Worldwide''. 2006. Standard RFPs (Requests for Proposal) were developed to help retailers choose the right applications for their specific business requirements. There are currently seven standardized template RFPs available for download. Membership is open to all members of the international technology community, retailers from all industry segments, application developers and hardware companies. Membership requires a small fee, which is waived to those already members of the National Retail Federation, and an agreement to adhere to policies and standards regarding the licensing of any ARTS property.

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External links

Association for Retail Technology Standards

Retail point of sale systems Retailing organizations {{US-org-stub