ApparelMagic Attempts to Solve E-Commerce Puzzle
Apparel companies have lately become a bit skeptical about putting their collections on the Internet via online catalogs or e-showrooms. Despite the boom in online apparel sales, a number of ventures, including one launched by MAGIC International and the QRS Corp., have failed during the past couple of years because of reasons such as high costs and maintenance difficulties.
But executives at Glendale, Calif.–based software developer ApparelMagic think they have a viable e-commerce vehicle. They have launched an e-commerce product that links to their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which includes modules for style management, order processing, customer relationship management, inventory control, shipping, electronic data interchange (EDI), accounting and analysis.
So rather than just show and sell, apparel companies can link their Web sales to backoffice systems to track sales, manage inventory and do invoicing—without having to rekey information into another system.
“The key is to communicate with your ERP,” said John Murphy, chief executive officer of Murphy & Associates Inc., which owns, develops and markets ApparelMagic. “Some people are using Yahoo Stores. Where are those orders going? They get retyped into ERP. There are some powerful ecommerce solutions out there, but they’re limited. They don’t help you plan your inventory.”
The company is tailoring ApparelMagic Web, its e-commerce product, for businesses at various stages of growth. The company is doing everything from Web site building to B2B and B2C online showrooms—from simple sites to those that include all the bells and whistles.
“We have something right out of the box, or we can plug into their engines,” explained Programming Manager Geoff Hartman. The company uses Verisign and Nova Financial systems for secure transactions and has added a team of information technology pros to handle programming and support.
Online B2C apparel sales have been growing at double-digit percentage rates. Getting the B2B scenario in order can help companies reach a broader account base as well as facilitate sales and orders. Retailers can shop lines over the Web or preview them at trade shows and follow up over the Internet. The goal is a paperless environment, but that is still a vision of the future, Murphy said.
Apparel companies are still grasping concepts such as EDI, so educating them about technology has been a challenge, he added.
“You can have a style in six colors and 12 sizes. That calls for 12 different records,” Murphy said. “With off-the-shelf software like Intuit’s QuickBooks, it doesn’t really work for apparel. You need something that can address having 64 SKUs for one style. We see companies doing $3 million that are still working off of [Microsoft] Excel spreadsheets.”
Trade organizations such as Los Angeles–based Fashion Business Inc. have been educating small and start-up companies about software and other technology, and it has been a gradual learning curve.
Murphy said spending a little more on industry-specific products goes a long way. ApparelMagic has a staff that has spent time on both sides of the fence. Director of Sales Sal Minicucci was an apparel retailer and manufacturer. Training rep Heather White worked for a number of apparel companies, including Golf Punk.
The company has doubled in size over the past couple of years. It recently invested more into marketing as well as development. Recent improvements include online and CD-version training assistants that give users video tutorials about certain aspects of the software. These supplement initial one-on-one training. The company has also added an interactive user guide to its Web site and has upgraded its warehousing module.
Recent growth has led the California company to compete on a national and even international level with some of the heavy hitters of the industry.
“The pressure is on to innovate,” Murphy said. “We’re always developing. A lot of companies market and re-market the same version of software over and over. Our combined brainpower is pretty impressive, and I would match it up against anyone’s.”
ApparelMagic will be showing its product line at Fabric@MAGIC, part of the MAGIC International expo, held Aug. 30–Sept. 2 in Las Vegas. For more information, visit www.apparelmagic.com.
