The Web
Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 12/1/2000
Business-to-Business
USgift.com launched a fulfillment service, which provides consumer delivery for online retailers. USgift.com guarantees that the order will be shipped within one to two business days of receipt. The service is made possible by USgift.com's new exclusive multi-year contract with Ingram Fulfillment Partners, a division of Ingram Ind., best known for its book fulfillment and distribution services. The service allows online retailers to browse inventory and create their own customized catalog of products to sell in their virtual stores. When a customer places an order for a USgift.com product, Ingram picks, packs, and ships the item direct to the customer. USgift.com provides customized packaging, product return processing, gift wrapping, and packaging inserts, including packing slips and labels that carry the online retailer's identification. Upon shipment, USgift.com gives the online retailer shipping and tracking information that may be uploaded on the retailer's site for customer access. USgift.com invoices the retailer for products ordered and simultaneously pays the supplier for product shipped. OurHouse.com and Furniture.com are some of the charter retailers to sign up for the new service. USgift.com began distributing the software at October's High Point market. The order-entry program is offered free of charge to the 75 sales agencies that work with USgift.com, and the 1,000 individual reps that they employ. USgift.com will also provide training for the software to sales agencies, and has arranged special rates for the necessary laptop computers, barcode scanners, and portable printers from Dell and IBM. The rollout will continue for the next few months. USgift.com also announced the selection of a content-management and catalog-publishing system from A2I Inc., to manage and publish its online catalog. The company was also recently named one of 90 e-businesses to watch in InfoWorld's E-Business 100 Special Report.
Ebizmix.com, a gift, garden, and home decorative accessories business-to-business marketplace, partnered with Convergys Corp., a provider of integrated customer-care solutions. Convergys will produce customer service for independent specialty retailers. The partnership is one in a series of planned customer service and site enhancements for the Hallmark-owned company. Convergys' customer-care team will help retailers become familiar with the site and teach users how to make the most of it, as well as working with technical support to resolve any retailer inquiries. Telephone inquiries will be handled from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday, at (877) YOUR-MIX. Inquiries e-mailed to cstmr.care@ebizmix.com will be processed during the same periods, and retailers can expect a response within 24 hours.
Crossmarket.com, an online b-to-b marketplace for the floral, giftware, housewares, and home accessories industries, recently partnered with The National Housewares Manufacturers Assn. (NHMA). Crossmarket now powers the Housewares Exchanges section of the NHMA's site, www.housewares.org. This Net Market enables registered retailers to transact sales through online catalogs, as well as participate in private and public auctions.
RetailExchange.com, a b-to-b exchange for excess consumer goods, secured an additional $25 million in financing. Since its initial February launch, the company has raised $44 million. RetailExchange.com is also partnering with Essentus Inc., a provider of business-to-business software and services to the softgoods industry. The alliance will integrate RetailExchange.com's excess retail goods marketplace with Essentus' Fashionchain collaborative and supply chain management applications, creating Fashionchain Surplus Exchange. For additional information, visit www.fashionchain.com.
B-to-b Web site www.Egarden.com primarily focuses on the practical side of the lawn and garden market, providing merchandise from suppliers of fertilizer, bird feeders, seeds, and irrigation products. However, the gift side of garden also joins the site, now that the company has reached a deal with Henri Studio Inc., a designer and manufacturer of cast stone fountains and garden decor. More garden gifts may follow: The site plans to announce additional supplier relationships until they reach 500 suppliers and more than 100,000 products. Egarden.com offers both an auction site and a wholesale store.
ToyNetwork.com offers a subscriber-based online working environment for manufacturers, retailers, licensors, vendors, and others in the toy industry. The site features real-time industry news, a customizable member page, pre-sorted e-mail, and virtual transactions. Charter members include Hasbro, Mattel, and many more.
WhatsHotNow.com chairman and CEO Rob Fried announced that more than 2,700 retailers have joined the company's online transactional licensing marketplace, WHNX.com. Participating retailers ranged from small, California-based gift and novelty retailer Aahs! to Sears Canada.
A new wholesale floral supply Web site called www.eflorals.com offers ten subdomains for different product foci: ebasketz.com, eribbonz.com, eflowerz.com, etreatz.com, ebridalz.com, erosez.com, eholidayz.com, esuppliez.com, ewrapz.com, and eballoonz.com.
Online Retailing
ServiceEngine.com offers an online communications platform to support customer service. Aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, the system is browser-based, with no software to purchase or download. Customers can communicate through your store's existing site, or a separate, customizable contact page on the ServiceEngine site, or both. If you don't have a Web site, the ServiceEngine contact page can be used as your sole Internet address to maintain a Web presence. The system, which includes integrated databases and communications tools, manages all message traffic including routing, administration, and reporting. Inquiries can be directing to exact points of service within your company, such as shipping, sales, accounting, etc. The first two company service providers are free, and you can add additional users for $20 per month. You can also access snapshot or detailed, real-time management reports that present aggregated customer activity and feedback data. ServiceEngine uses its system to help consumers locate business and services free of charge. Depending on how you customize your system, consumers can access other information, including company contacts, dealer listings, instruction manuals, and FAQs. Service news and recall data is separately available and can be stored in a personalized location.
Setting up your Web site for online sales can be painless with SoftCart 5.1.2 from Merchantec. Follow an eight-step tutorial and quickly set up a virtual storefront and product database. Credit card verification is simple, and accounting data can be transferred to and from Quickbooks. The estimated cost per month is approximately $176.
www.merchantec.com
Want to clear slow-moving merchandise? Sell secondary market collectibles? Add some excitement to your Web site? Bidland Systems allows organizations to create customized online auctions with their own look, brand, and products in less than an hour. Bidland hosts and maintains the site, and provides marketing and traffic building tools.
www.bidland.com
