Downloads equal savings
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 12, 2001
Stanleytown, Va. — In mid-2000, Stanley became one of the first furniture makers to roll out a dealer extranet, and the company has continued to make the site more robust since.
One of the more recent additions is an image library of all product photography, images that dealers use primarily in advertising but also during the sales process. Previously, each photo request Stanley received went to the company's High Point photo studio, which would then burn a custom CD.
The online library could be saving Stanley "as much as $3,000 a month," said Bill Sibbick, senior vice president of sales, who estimated that about 350 images per month were being downloaded by retailers.
The extranet also provides customers with inventory status, order status and, as of Nov. 1, online ordering capability. Only a few dealers are expected to use the Net to order from Stanley, at least initially, but Sibbick said he expects it to become standard in a few years.
"We have to make it easy to use," he said, of online ordering. "We're saying all dealers will need are a mouse and an Internet connection."
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| Stanley Furniture's extranet provides a host of services from inventory and order status to, most recently, online ordering capability. |
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| The online product photography library, providing images such as the one at left, could save the company as much as $3,000 a month, according to Bill Sibbick, senior vice president of sales. |
