Don’t Be Passive
Posted on 17. Jan, 2012 by Ross West in Blog
A sales rep waiting for buyers to call and place an order is a sales rep who isn’t going to make much money. But that is exactly the model of most online business to business (B2B) sites. Companies spend thousands to create online order entry systems, email buyer’s that they can now “order online” – then act surprised when buyers don’t.
Nobody sells anything sitting around waiting for customers to give them a call. To be successful in sales you have to be aggressive, you need to present, ask for the order and keep calling. A successful online B2B site is no different, you need to reach out to your buyers, draw them in and ask for the order.
You might get a few sales with your line sheets on a website somewhere waiting for buyers to log in and place an order, but only a few.
Threadvine enables salespeople to instantly put recommended styles right into their buyers email. It allows them to actively present collections online. Buyers can view those styles and quickly confirm an order. This active model of selling is far more effective than a passive B2B site.
Threadvine on iPad & Smart Phones
Posted on 27. Oct, 2011 by Ross West in Blog
Threadvine on the iPad
The iPad was made to run Threadvine. It’s touch screen and you feel is as if you’re selecting garments by hand. The screen is gorgeous, bright and crisp and shows details beautifully.
Images are from our client Leg Resource makers of tights and hosiery for Betsey Johnson, Anne Klein and Nicole Miller.
Threadvine on Smart Phones
Because Threadvine is cloud based it runs in any browser on any device; Droid, Windows 7, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad – whatever mobile device you use to access the web can now access your product line.
Imagine how much more effective you and your reps can be answering availability and status questions directly from your Smart Phone.
What is Visual Email?
Posted on 30. Sep, 2011 by Ross West in Blog
Attachments Don’t Work
Emails with images attached don’t work. Buyers do not want to figure out what attachment goes with which style. And they don’t want your images filling up their hard drive or tripping their firewalls or waiting for a giant PDF of your entire collection to download either.
Email Style Info With Images
Your buyers want to see style images with price and delivery all together on one screen in their email. Now they can – with Threadvine. Click here to see how a Visual Email looks in Microsoft Outlook.
Threadvine enables you to combine style information with images in regular email, we call it “Visual Email”. Images open fast and it works with any email program. Best of all – when a buyer opens your email our return receipt system instantly alerts you – you’ll know exactly who to call and when to close!
Want to see a demo? Click here.
Threadvine Workflow
Posted on 28. Mar, 2010 by Ross West in Blog
Setting Up Styles on Threadvine
How are styles set up on Threadvine? What is the process workflow?
Threadvine is a sales tool designed to make it very easy for reps to send images and line presentations to their buyers. How styles get setup on your Threadvine site is up to you but generally you don’t want reps spending their time setting up styles and images. Here are some options.
Use Our Setup Service
We can provide setup as a service and for many companies this is the best option. Email us your line sheet and digital images and we do the initial set up your line for a reasonable fee. After that you can make changes as necessary for cancelled or changed styles.
Interface to Your Information Systems
If you use PDM and/or ERP for management of your line and can output style information in a specific format, or if you have styles information in a spreadsheet then you can use our upload tools. Upload tools allow you to transfer style information directly to your Threadvine site. And if your style images follow a consistent naming convention (for example STYLE-COLOR.jpg) a batch process allows you to quickly upload to all your style images too.
Using a Unique Domain Name on Threadvine
Posted on 23. Feb, 2010 by Ross West in Blog
You ask “Can I use my own domain name?”. The answer is “Yes”. Threadvine provides a private secure site for wholesale that can use your own domain name, and be branded with your look and feel. Here’s how unique domain names on threadvine work.
When first setting up a brand on threadvine by default it will have a web address (URL) of http://yourbrand.threadvine.com, where ‘yourbrand’ is your brand name. You can use that URL but you can also use your own unique domain name. You can do it in two ways:
- Assigning a Unique Domain to resolve to your brand on threadvine. If your brand is “yourbrand” you might use a domain like “http://www.yourbrand-wholesale.com”.
- Assign a Sub-Domain to resolve to threadvine. If you already have a website like “http://www.yourbrand.com” you can use a sub-domain like “http://wholesale.yourbrand.com” where “wholesale” can be any term you like, i.e. “B2B”, “trade”, “dealers” etc.
How to Use a Unique Domain Name
If you don’t already own the domain name you will need to register it using one of the many available domain registrars. Once you own the domain name, assign the “A record” in your DNS to resolve to: yourbrand.threadvine.com where “yourbrand” is your brand name on threadvine.
How to Use a Sub Domain
If you have an existing site you can assign a sub domain from that site to be hosted by threadvine using a CNAME record. For example, you have a public site for your brand like “http://www.yourbrand.com” you can have a site for wholesale hosted by threadvine as “http://wholesale.yourbrand.com”. To do this assign “wholesale” as a CNAME record in your DNS to resolve to yourbrand.threadvine.com where “yourbrand is your brand name on threadvine.
That’s it!
Follow up at (and After) the Show
Posted on 17. Feb, 2010 by Ross West in Blog
WSA is over but Magic is on and so is Fashion Week. Here are some helpful reminders to do what we all know already.
- Instantly Follow Up! – Right after your buyer leaves the booth send an email thanking them for their time and order (if they placed an order). If they didn’t commit include highlighted styles from your line sheet (like this). They are still at the show and you want to keep top of mind.
- After the Show – Follow Up! – For every buyer follow up with a handwritten thank you note and an email of your Line Sheet. If the buyer didn’t write send an email with highlighted styles your buyer showed interest in with a suggested order.
- Follow Up Again! – Give a call and another email again with suggested styles and highlighting your best sellers or styles that match their market. Make it easy for your buyer to respond and commit, ideally with a link to place an order online.
- Follow Up Again! – Recurring theme. Don’t be obnoxious, but do be ready to respond.
Best shows to you all!
Why is online wholesale so difficult?
Posted on 27. Jan, 2010 by Ross West in Blog
There’s a tendency to consider online wholesale as not much different than online retail, just with lower prices. For hard goods that might be true. But apparel & footwear are different. Styles come in sizes and colors, goods are booked pre-season with multiple ship windows, retailers buy different assortments by door and doors require different start dates. It’s complicated.
But put aside mechanics for a moment and consider this: buyers are not “shopping”. Most retail e-commerce solutions provide a shopping experience. Your wholesale buyer is making a business decision to invest in your product. Buyers need to know your merchandise will sell well in their stores, what collections create add-on sales and what trends you are forecasting. They will not just wade through a list of styles to put together an order. In the real world reps present buyers a merchandising plan and make a case to increase their OTB. No website is going to do that.
Our strategy is to build something different than an order entry solution. We’re building a new method for reps to interact with buyers. It connects with a secure site but empowers the rep to make a case for their merchandise in a powerful way using simple emails of assortments that a buyer can instantly commit to.
Does technology matter?
Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by Ross West in Blog
Does it really matter what technologies we use to develop threadvine? As a potential user should you care? We think so and here’s why:
- Pricing. New technology costs less. It takes far less time & money to develop with rails frameworks & open source technology. We’re not stuck maintaining expensive legacy systems so we can price aggressively.
- Site Interaction: AJAX (asynchronous javascript and extensible markup language) and jQuery (a javascript library) allow us to make your web pages engaging and interactive.
- Integration: By using Web Services and XML we’re able to easily share data with other sites and systems. Information like ATS (available to sell), order status, shipping and payment history are easily brought into threadvine from your ERP (enterprise resource planning) accounting and warehouse management systems.
- Branding & Presentation: You want your site to look like your brand. Threadvine uses CSS (cascading style sheets) that you control so functionality is separate from presentation. You brand your site with your colors, imagery, fonts, look and feel.
- Market Perception. You will be judged by your site’s functionality. Have a clunky old website? Then you’ll be judged a clunky old company.
