Brand manufacturers can now sell their apparel and other products to retailers through private online portals built with recently upgraded software that combines online merchandising tools with e-commerce in multiple languages and currencies.
That combination of merchandising and e-commerce is available through BlueCherry B2B eCommerce software from CGS Inc., which introduced the software earlier this month as part of its broader BlueCherry Enterprise software suite. BlueCherry Enterprise is enterprise resource planning, or ERP, software that also handles financial accounting, inventory management and other operations.
CGS, also known as Computer Generated Solutions, developed the upgraded BlueCherry B2B eCommerce software after one of its clients, a German manufacturer of activewear, requested software for developing a portal where it could present its products and take online orders from retailers. Within six months, CGS says, its 14-person staff of in-house software developers released the upgraded software that lets clients design online private marketplaces with content in the German, Spanish, Italian, French and English languages. The upgraded software also enables an e-marketplace to process orders in euros, pounds and dollars, and to set separate pricing for multiple regions. The software can be used as a portal where sales reps create personalized product recommendations for specific buyers, or where designers make available information on their entire product line to company marketing and sales teams or buyers.
More than 80,000 retail buyers are using the BlueCherry software to receive individual seller’s product recommendations and place orders online, says Ross West, vice president of e-commerce at CGS. He declines to disclose how many sellers are using the software. The BlueCherry software also keeps a record of everything a buyer has ever purchased on BlueCherry and makes that information available to both buyers and sellers.
BlueCherry declines to name the German client that inspired these new features or to comment on the cost of developing them.
But the German company, as well as such brands as Silver Jeans, Adrianna Papell and Reebok, use the BlueCherry B2B eCommerce software to develop online portals for displaying products to their wholesale buyers, West says.
In addition to displaying products and placing orders through an e-commerce portal developed with BlueCherry, companies can also present products on iPad and Android mobile apps developed by BlueCherry’s in-house development team.
The BlueCherry B2B e-commerce software was formerly known as Threadvine, which CGS acquired in 2013. BlueCherry B2B eCommerce is sold as a stand-alone software application that integrates with BlueCherry’s ERP suite, but can be integrated with other ERP systems, CGS says. Pricing is $199 per sales rep using BlueCherry to sell to retail buyers.
“B2B buying and selling processes have historically centered on tradeshows, market events and face-to-face meetings, but today’s business environment demands more efficient and cost effective buyer-seller interactions,” says Paul Magel, president of the Business Applications Group at CGS. “These new updates and features to the BlueCherry B2B eCommerce solution will provide our clients with the tools they need to compete and succeed in a challenging global marketplace.”
Sign up for a free subscription to B2BecNews, a weekly newsletter that covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B e-commerce industry. B2BecNews is published by Vertical Web Media LLC, which also publishes the monthly business magazine Internet Retailer. Follow Nona Tepper, associate editor for B2B e-commerce, on Twitter @ntepper90.
Favorite