NATIONWIDE LAUNCHES BRANDSDIRECT.COM
Nationwide TV & Appliance Assn. is launching BrandsDirect.com e-commerce business with links to 500 of its dealers, capping nearly 2 years of development. BrandsDirect, which is expected to add another 300 retailers later this year, is focusing on “several thousand” SKUs of major appliances at start, will add CE by early 2003, Chmn. Edward Kelly said. Major appliance vendors that have signed on with BrandsDirect include Amana, Fisher Paykel, Frigidaire, GE, KitchenAid, Maytag and Whirlpool.
Site, which was designed by JGSullivan Interactive, same company that helped develop NATM Buying Group’s NATMcorp.com that allows for online inventory forecasting for CE and major appliances, enables user to locate Nationwide dealer within 5-90 mile radius based on zip code. In N.Y.C. area, BrandsDirect dealers include Intercounty Appliance, Commack, N.Y.; Integrated Satellite Systems, Princeton, N.J.; Boscovs Dept. Store, Levittown, Pa.; Nationwide of Conn., Hartford. Products can be purchased online and shipped from local dealers, Kelly said. Site also includes product specs for dishwashers, dryers, freezers, ranges, refrigerators and washers as well as tips to consider in buying them. BrandsDirect, whose development was funded by Nationwide, has own database that’s being maintained by Colo.-based CMIC Consulting, Kelly said.
“It’s really built for the retailer and it’s a site that will drive business to our retailers, which was our goal and objective,” said Kelly, whose group has 2,500 dealers with combined annual sales of $7 billion, including $2.2 billion in major appliances. “It will provide our retailers with a site they can manage, but it’s connected to our backroom so they don’t have to create their own data.” Dealers will register sale with percentage of it likely to go back to Nationwide in form of small fee that will be used fund Web site, Kelly said, saying that committee was formed to study issue at buying group’s convention in Orlando last week. “We'll start out with something and then adjust it over time to get it to be as small a fee as possible,” he said.
In setting up online business, Nationwide is continuing to weigh establishing network of warehouses to service growing dealer base, Kelly said. While Nationwide has studied adding warehouses for 2 years, effort has taken on more urgency with recent addition of former Retail Dealers of America (RDA) buying group, which has 300 members. “We don’t want to add overhead, but if it’s of real significant value we would like to enter into arrangements with various sources to do our fulfillment,” Kelly said. Nationwide’s discussions with RDA began earlier this year following resignation of founder Deryl Sewell, move that Kelly conceded “caught us off guard.” Sewell had launched RDA last spring following failed merger with BrandSource/Associated Volume Buyers.