Buymart.com Debuts Pre-Shop Model for Casual Furniture with New Industry Portal

Furniture World Magazine

"The Casual Furniture industry is still one retail sector where a consumer prefers to see, touch, and maybe sit on the product before making a purchase decision," says Rudy Davis, President of Buymart.com. That's why Buymart.com chose that industry to debut its site dedicated to helping consumers Pre-Shop while keeping retail dealers in the sales picture instead of rubbing them out as is the current E-commerce trend. Currently, Buymart.com gives consumers a fast way to survey 3,000 pieces of casual furniture then directs the user to a physical store when they are ready to buy. The significant advantage of Buymart.com is that it provides a comparative view of an entire range of consumer products on one page. The current favored method of finding products is to go to a search engine, like Yahoo or Infoseek, and type in a search word. The search engine then brings back a list of Web sites that one can visit for more information. Literally hundreds of web sites can be returned in a search leaving the consumer to visit each site to know if it has what they are looking for. With Buymart.com, once a consumer finds product of interest they can then pull up a list of retail dealers in their neighborhood where they can go and make an informed and safe purchase. One of the advantages Davis cited for buying from the retailer is after sale service. "If more information about the manufacturer, or their products is desired, we provide hyperlinks on each product page that takes you over to the manufacturer's web site. If their retail dealer has a Web site, you will find a hyperlink by their store address. Plus, it is nice to make a personal connection." Buymart.com's backbone is a powerful database that visitors access by one of three doorways. One door is for consumers and the remaining two password-protected doors are for Professional Buyers and Manufacturers. Buyers can use this free service to find products of interest and quickly request a cost price or other essential purchase information from the manufacturer. Their retail stores can use the system, filtered to the manufacturers they represent, as a sales floor information center. The heart of the Buymart.com service for manufacturers is a private database of product information. A Web-based interface allows manufactures to easily add, edit or delete product pages right from their own offices, through their Internet connection, insuring that accurate information is maintained on a real time basis. "Buymart.com is not interested in cutting the retail dealer out of the sales equation," Davis said. In the near future product information video loops produced by the manufacturers will be available via a button on the product pages, to train store personnel and inform consumers. By the end of the first quarter of 1999 Buymart.com expects over 30 manufacturers will list product at the site. Davis notes that "giving manufacturers the ability to build and maintain their own database allows Buymart.com to add categories of product as fast as we can issue passwords. We look to increase our range of products as quickly as possible, with the ultimate goal of being the number one Web site for consumers to pre-shop at home." For more information on Buymart e-mail: TinaKoenig@xpresspress.com