Haggar Clothing Co., maker of the popular Haggar® brand, and CenterStone Technologies, Inc., an international developer of Web-based B2B e-commerce software, today announced an agreement for CenterStone to provide Haggar Clothing Co. the iVendix Software-as-a-Service (Saas) application. When the B2B solution goes live this summer, Haggar Clothing Co. will provide a business-to-business (B2B) on-line ordering solution for their North American retail trade accounts, sales reps and customer service professionals giving users the ability to view automated catalogs, check product availability, place orders, and track and monitor the status of those orders 24/7 via the Web.
In order to thrive in these challenging economic times we need to be responsive to our accounts and demonstrate to new accounts that we are easy to work with. We need to provide access to quality information and to the Haggar brand, and we need to be open for business 24/7, states Tim Lyons, President of Sales, Menswear. We have aggressive goals for continuing to grow Haggar as a quality apparel offering at a reasonable price. Our strategy around the trade account channel is to make it easy for stores to work with us, and we view CenterStones B2B platform as a strategic part of our go-to-market strategy. We chose CenterStone based on the strength of the software and services they provide, as well as their demonstrated ability to help Haggar Clothing Co. grow our trade account channel.
The launch of the new B2B e-commerce site represents a significant milestone in accessibility to the trade channel for the well known and popular mens brand. The breadth of Haggar product offerings will be directly available on-line for professional buyers, sales reps and customer service professionals, bringing valuable information about availability, order status and other information important to the ordering process, directly into the hands of users who will benefit from the information – anytime and anywhere.
Haggar has continually reinvented itself by introducing many innovative clothing lines over the years. CenterStone is proud to bring Haggars wholesale business online to help them capitalize on the Webs growing potential for brands to increase incremental revenue, find new distribution, and reduce customer service costs, said David Mathias, CenterStones Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
There is no doubt, apparel companies across the board are working diligently to manage inventories and expenditures and reduce their overall company costs. The savviest among them know that this is also the time to take market share from their competitors and to do that they must invest in meaningful customer service, states Tom Detmer, President of CenterStone. Allowing their customers and sales reps to use the internet to gather and understand the information they need to optimize orders is critical to that advanced level of customer service and therefore critical to advancing sales, not to mention reducing costs.
In addition to Haggar, CenterStone provides B2B e-commerce solutions to more than 80 brands in the apparel and footwear industries, as well as supports more than 20,000 users of their clients solutions.
