The Future of eCommerce:How Bluefly Excelled at Supplier Onboarding Rick Watson, CEO at Merchantry October 16th, 2014 @ 1:00 pm EST Today’s Speakers: Rick Watson - CEO, Merchantry Randy Smythe - Senior Director, Marketplace, Bluefly John Carles - VP of Product & Client Services, Merchantry Who Is Bluefly? - Founded in 1998 and headquartered in New York City - Targets successful, single career women (75% female customer base) - Carries over 50,000 styles and 350 brands - Has served over 1.5 million customers in 13 countries The Challenge: How do we onboard vendors more efficiently and centralize their data to get more products to market faster? Bluefly Supplier Onboarding Before Merchantry: - Suppliers more varied than previous in-house systems - Manual process of data validation - In-house solution for drop-ship, but limited and manual - Manual process of exporting data to ATG platform Problem Specifics: - Wanted to add a Marketplace model to traditional selection - Needed to increase assortment dramatically via supplier expansion - Needed to improve product data attribute quality Search for Solutions: - Continue with one-off integration for each supplier? - Build a proprietary solution internally? - Search for an experienced software partner? Merchantry Product Information Management Platform Supplier Onboarding Flow Results: Since launching with the Merchantry PIM platform four months ago, Bluefly has: - Started onboarding new suppliers and products on a weekly basis. 235 to date. - Added revenue by collecting, validating, and integrating product data within the centralized portal and then seamlessly distributing it to Oracle ATG. 82,000 products added in 4 months. Gotchas to Look Out For: Things to remember about your own program: - Software can only do so much—supplier communication and training can be hard work - 3-4 Bluefly/Merchantry people dedicated to the program at scale - Drop-ship program must be coordinated through merchandising teams, or you invite conflict or turf battles Bluefly’s Reaction: "It’s a lot of work to build a marketplace infrastructure internally. While bigger marketplace retailers often have the internal IT resources to take on complex development, most small-to-medium-sized business that are looking to develop a marketplace eCommerce model find it highly beneficial to leverage a partner. With partners like Merchantry, eCommerce retailers can streamline the onboarding process and accelerate time to market."  - Randy Smythe, Senior Director, Marketplace at Bluefly Omnichannel at Shop.org Summit 2014: - Retailers “must evolve or die” - Consumer expectations have changed the name of the game to creating a smooth overall shopping experience, regardless of channels - Building brand loyalty and customer retention is key - Big data will drive personalization and provide valuable shopper insights Questions? Connect With Us

1. The Future of eCommerce:
How Bluefly Excelled at
Supplier Onboarding
Rick Watson, CEO at Merchantry
October 16th, 2014 @ 1:00 pm EST

2. Today’s Speakers
Rick Watson
CEO
Merchantry
John Carles
VP of Product & Client Services
Merchantry
Randy Smythe
Senior Director, Marketplace
Bluefly

3. Who Is Bluefly?
• Founded in 1998 and headquartered in
New York City
• Targets successful, single career women
(75% female customer base)
• Carries over 50,000 styles and 350 brands
• Has served over 1.5 million customers in
13 countries

4. How do we onboard vendors more
efficiently and centralize their
data to get more products to
market faster?
The Challenge

5. • Suppliers more varied than previous in-house systems
• Manual process of data validation
• In-house solution for drop-ship, but limited and manual
• Manual process of exporting data to ATG platform
Bluefly Supplier Onboarding
Before Merchantry

6. Problem Specifics
• Wanted to add a Marketplace
model to traditional selection
• Needed to increase assortment
dramatically via supplier
expansion
• Needed to improve product
data attribute quality

7. Search for Solutions
• Continue with one-off
integration for each supplier?
• Build a proprietary solution
internally?
• Search for an experienced
software partner?

8. Merchantry Product Information
Management Platform

9. Supplier Onboarding Flow

10. • Since launching with the Merchantry PIM platform four
months ago, Bluefly has:
 Started onboarding new suppliers and products on a weekly
basis. 235 to date.
 Added revenue by collecting, validating, and integrating
product data within the centralized portal and then seamlessly
distributing it to Oracle ATG. 82,000 products added in 4
months.
Results

11. • Things to remember about your own program:
 Software can only do so much—supplier communication and
training can be hard work
 3-4 Bluefly/Merchantry people dedicated to the program at
scale
 Drop-ship program must be coordinated through
merchandising teams, or you invite conflict or turf battles
Gotchas to Look Out For

12. It’s a lot of work to build a marketplace infrastructure
internally. While bigger marketplace retailers often have the
have the internal IT resources to take on complex
development, most small-to-medium-sized business that are
that are looking to develop a marketplace eCommerce model
model find it highly beneficial to leverage a partner. With
With partners like Merchantry, eCommerce retailers can
can streamline the onboarding process and accelerate time
time to market.
Randy Smythe
Senior Director, Marketplace at Bluefly
Bluefly’s Reaction

13. Omnichannel at Shop.org Summit 2014
• Retailers “must evolve or die”
• Consumer expectations have changed
the name of the game to creating a
smooth overall shopping experience,
regardless of channels
• Building brand loyalty and customer
retention is key
• Big data will drive personalization and
provide valuable shopper insights

14. Questions?

15. Connect With Us
• Our website: www.merchantry.com
• Follow us on Twitter: @merchantry
• Follow us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/pages/Merchantry
• Follow us on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/company/merchantry

16. Thank You!