Who owns the data in an EDI relationship between a supplier and retailer?

That depends on how differentiated you are from existing products and if having your product next to a dozen competitors on a shelf will help sell it. Do customers need to touch it to see why it's different/better? If not, brick-and-mortar might not be necessary, at least initially. Warby Parker overcame this issue by making their glasses easy to return. Try on a few frames and return the ones you don't want.

Walmart calls it "Pay from Scan." Also "Guaranteed Sales." Sam's Club calls it a "Road Show."

I would offer them a proposal to reveal their source to you in exchange for a small percentage or fixed amount of each unit ordered. You would also need to structure the offer in such a way as to guaranty that you would not compete with them or circumvent them, if they agree then you would need a legal contract drawn up between you and them

Having 4 dogs and being a former sugar addict, I love the idea of dog cupcakes, kudos! My wife and I are currently solving a very similar issue with her t-shirt business. We don't have a freshness issue to deal with like you do, however we do have a scalability and growth issue that we are tackling. Understand, there isn't really anything that remarkable about dog cupcakes, it's cool concept but it would be very easy for someone to deconstruct and create their own recipe and brand. So you'll need to focus on how you sell your cupcakes. What value you offer your customers? Why your recipe is unique? Is there any portion of your product, formula or service that could be trademarked or patented? Do you have a memorable name, tagline and mascot? Are the health benefits to your product? I know that in some cases pet food can be highly regulated so you may not be able to make specific health claims. Next, I think you should look at a three pronged approach that is scalable: 1. Continue to develop your local market, treating it like a test kitchen. Work on new recipes, concepts, products, ideas and test them locally. Build a unique product line and a unique system for creating those products. 2. Develop a strong network of pet owners, pet shops, boutiques, organizations and so on. 3. Market your dog cupcake system and sell it as a turnkey package. This could be as simple or as fancy as you want to make it. The simple way would be to sell one time "starter package" with upgrades on a subscription model. This would include order forms, marketing plans, marketing materials, new product ideas, training videos, shopping lists, ingredients and so on. The expensive way would be to lawyer up and create an actual franchise but this can be very very expensive. I hope this was helpful and I'd be happy to work with you further on developing your business. Good luck and I look forward to buying Sadie, Charlie, Nixie and Sachi some tasty treats from you in the near future!

Based on the details mentioned by you it seems that you want to break the status-quo of your business. I would advise you to revisit your business model than just looking at enhancing sales. That means, you should pen-down your top 3 business problems/challenges, analyze modern technology and platforms that could be leveraged, and map your business with appropriate solution (s). Larger part of above exercise will be to develop an "Integrated Growth Plan" with monetization enhancement as the hub. Do ensure not to just look at "Sales" number as the problem as well as solution. That may end you up with burning too much capital for too many things with too little solutioning potential. In my decade of experience working with entrepreneurs I've seen people often confusing symptom to a disease, only to cure the symptom and let disease prevail. Hope above helps!! All the best!! Need to discuss anything further? I am just a clarity away.