With nearly 14,000 people logging into its first digital trade show for the furniture, home décor and apparel industries, International Market Centers plans to add transactional capabilities to future online events.

Saddled with an electronic ordering platform that was incompatible with its ERP system, dramatically slowed order fulfillment, and hurt its performance scores with customers, the supplier of baby, pet, and wedding items deployed a new commerce technology platform to eliminate manual processes and improve inventory and order visibility.

International Market Centers, an operator of home furnishings and gifts trade shows, has launched IMC_di as a new ecommerce division offering B2B online marketplace and selling tools for sales reps. It plans to let buyers and sellers use the same online account to manage transactions done either in person or online.