As important as online advertising is, the web can be far more than a contemporary version of the yellow pages. Used as a business tool it has the proven potential for saving many thousands of dollars while improving the reach and efficiency of your business.
Virtual Showrooms: Whether for textiles, trims or finished garments a virtual showroom can be used, not to replace your current sales organization but to support and extend it. Using the analogy of a physical showroom such as is found in a major mart building, your online showroom can have open access featuring items to catch new customers' attention. It can also have password-protected access to products that you may not want seen without your express permission. It can even serve up customized information based on predefined access levels so that your sales force or an important customer could verify, for example, availability or price of a given item.
Customer service can be vastly improved by allowing password protected access to order status or shipping information.
Travel is expensive and difficult. The web gives you the ability to bridge distances virtually.
We have put together an executive white paper that goes into greater detail. Click here to request a copy.
Virtual Boutiques: eCommerce has come of age. The web allows us to reach potential customers that once were out of reach. Used as a Designer's Boutique the fashion creator opens up a direct channel to the consumer. Reaching consumers can encourage them to seek out a line at their favorite retailer but if that line is not available in their local market potential sales are lost. By creating a direct link to the consumer we are now able to maximize our reach. When a season's shipping is completed, excess inventory can be a problem. Jobbers will only pay pennies on the dollar to liquidate any unsold merchandise. Alternatively, the consumer will be happy to pay regular or "discounted" (from retail mark-up) prices for "in season" merchandise found in your virtual boutique.
Fashion merchandisers know that turn is the most important factor in profitability. As a Fashion Retailer in the "brick & mortar" world our exposure is limited to the foot traffic in our local market area and our sales are limited to that exposure. By maintaining a Virtual Boutique we have the ability to expose our unique fashion vision to a virtually unlimited customer base. We can extend our rack space indefinitely without increasing our square footage costs.
The web allows us to build a reputation beyond our local market.
Items that might otherwise find their way to a mark down rack can be "moved" to the virtual boutique.