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Visuality in WWD
Web page with its own address, or URL – it just looks like an e-mail. The
software is secure, and users say there is no discernible delay.
While some have called the program social networking software, that is
a misnomer. It is a hosted e-mail-groupware service, and part of a much
bigger trend known as cloud computing. Salesforce.com, Google Docs,
Yahoo mail, Flickr and YouTube are other examples of cloud computing.
The applications and data reside in the “sky” and can be accessed from
anywhere with an Internet connection.
Visuality charges a monthly fee of $50 to $300 a person, depending on
the number of users. An initial startup fee is $2,500, and the company’s
software interfaces with typical fashion industry systems such as AS/400
servers and formats such as U4ia, Photoshop and Illustrator.
Visuality customers install a small piece of software on their computers
and can work locally; communications back and forth are hosted. In the
first quarter of 2010, the company plans to make the software fully hosted,
including the creation of e-mails. In the second quarter, the company will
add e-commerce, said co-founder and chief executive officer Joe Shohfi,
so clients can buy goods without leaving the e-mail.
Shohfi is a second-generation garment industry veteran with manufacturing
and retail experience. He managed Gerber Technology’s product life cycle
management business (then known as product data management) for
three years before starting Visuality.
Visuality Makes Buying Easier
By Cate T. Corcoran
Visuality, a simple Web-based e-mail program with pictures, is increasing
sales for fashion brands and changing how they sell.
An e-mail with a photo of every item a retailer has purchased and pictures
of suggested updates and new items can easily replace more cumbersome
spreadsheets, reports and attachments.
“Someone who is absolutely at the kindergarten level of Internet use just
opens it up,” said Bud Konheim, chief executive officer of Nicole Miller.
“You send them an e-mail, and there’s a message with the pictures. One
phone call and you’re doing business.”
“It definitely has affected our bottom line with incremental sales,” said
Annette Mathieu, president of sales and marketing for Cynthia Steffe.
Some companies use Visuality to make an initial contact; others rely on it
to show established customers new styles and fabrics. Department stores
like receiving the e-mails with all the style information connected to a
visual, said users. Brands said the software makes it easier for them to
manage communications with many smaller accounts, such as boutiques.
It can also help retailers that are cutting costs because of the economy,
said Mathieu. “People are not traveling as much, and this gives them the
tool to see it first hand in the best light possible and feel it out without
having physical samples there or traveling to New York,” she said.
When a user opens a Visuality e-mail, she is actually accessing private
Call 1.800.303.0368, Intl. +1.212.878.8879
Contact [email protected]
Watch A Demo www.visualitymail.com
“I saw an opportunity for a game changer: being able to share visual
information in this visually driven industry - and nobody was really
addressing it,” he said.
The company is nine years old and started shipping Visuality in 2005.
It has about 100 enterprise customers, including Diesel, Hanes, Carole
Hochman Group, Gap and American Eagle.
Visuality also sells many boutiques like Marissa Collections in Naples, Fla.,
which carries lines such as Valentino and Alberta Ferretti, and has been
using the software to handle clienteling communications with customers.
Cynthia Steffe uses the software to e-mail about best-selling styles,
anything they’re recutting, and to send out look books and line sheets.
“We shoot them a Visuality, and they literally call us up and order,” said
Mathieu. “We e-mail about market appointments, and we have been
able to service them in-season without having to make a showroom
appointment.” E-mails can be blasted out to groups of press and customers
or customized.
“We can customize based on a store’s selection,” she said. “They can see what
they’ve purchased, and we can update items and suggest other items.”
At Nicole Miller, the software is useful for reorders.
“It doesn’t substitute for the initial sale,” said Konheim. “The person has
to get your stuff, see what the fabric is like, what the fit is, but the second
you have an established customer, what a pleasure it is for us and them
to say we sold out of style 4321 and we don’t have that anymore, but we
have style xxx and the same fabric in a different color and pattern. They
say, ‘What’s the pattern look like?’ We say, ‘Here, we’ll send it to you,’ it
looks great, and they order it.”
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how retail communicates