The Furniture Manufacturing Industry of Barbados - Caribbean ...

• build up a professional website with ordering facilities (including order fulfilment and
customer-service operations)
• improve its relationship with supplier to obtain better control of the purchasing process
• provide access to a ‘live’ person to build consumer confidence
Furniture firms with websites must ensure that these present a sharp image, as customers
use the internet as a research tool for products, prices, styles and shop locations and as a
means to view the products they are looking for. Websites must be easy to navigate to attract
serious buyers, The sites must provide quality product information, shopping tips and a
dealer/distributor locating systems.
Business-to-business sites (B2B)
Manufacturers’ sites offer production control and direct ordering facilities to other businesses.
They can operate even when located at some geographical distance between the supplier
and the customer.
In the United States, www.FurnishNet.com picked the ashes of net companies that had gone
bust to build links and automate transactions, acknowledgements of orders, etc. shipping
notes and invoices for suppliers. The target is to shorten cycle times and drive down operating
costs. Currently, it manages USD 885m in purchase-order volume, the electronic transaction
exchange continues to grow and includes more than 700 business (end of 2006).
A number work from Asia; an example is the Taiwan-based www.globalfurniture.com.cn.
Oston Global Furniture is a high-end case goods manufacturer, importer and wholesale
company. It offers turnkey services and is able to manufacture, import and direct deliver a
variety of quality furnishings from around the globe to any city in the world.
RTO Online (www.rtoonline.com) is a website for the rent-to-own industry. It has added an
online marketplace for B2B to allow rent-to-own buyers a platform to find and purchase new
products and services. The site has about 75,000 hits a month, it has members in 31 states of
the USA and four countries. Recent activity has highlighted the need to work with manufacturers
on electronic transactions and the development of XML-based digital products using
wireless bar-code scanning to ensure that correct manufacturing and delivery information
is provided to the consumer.
Business-to-consumer sites (B2C)
With the bursting of the dot.com bubble in 2001, the exclusive use of internet sites as opposed
to those linked with bricks-and-mortar shops fell sharply. This trend has since reversed
and internet sites that are better presented and more frequently used have come into
being. Manufacturers, especially those with galleries and in-store displays, are applying new
concepts that enable the consumer to make decisions on the basis of online information.
Thomasville (www.thomasvillecabinetry.com) for example, uses online imaging technology,
exclusively for Home Depot sites, for semi-custom cabinetry. The technology enables the