MEGA Gets Advanced Web Platform

March 15, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on March 16, 2011 The MEGA Group, at its annual convention recently held in San Antonio, offered its members new platforms needed to create advanced websites.

The buying group has worked with Retailer Web Services (RWS), an Arizona-based web strategy firm, for several years to help group members built websites. Beginning at this year's convention, RWS made a special offer for MEGA members to upgrade to its WebFronts Premium and Premium Plus product suites at a reduced price.

"We can't control where a dealer puts his store, but we can give him a website that rivals anyone in the country," the group's president, Rick Bellows, said in an interview. 

The features in the new platforms include search engine optimization, advanced ecommerce capabilities, the ability to establish web-based 800 phone numbers and to create special web fronts that include individual products. The Premium Plus platform features more advanced SEO tools and the ability to handle auto rebates and to host a next generation shopping cart.

After the presentation, dozens of attendees rushed the stage to sign up for the product. The first 50 dealers to sign up received 50% off the setup cost of a Premium or Premium Plus package.

Kyle and Kraig Edelman, brothers who run Kupferschmid, an electrical and appliance business in Pointiac lll, signed up because they needed more advanced e-commerce features to handle an increase in business.

The main goal of this year€™s convention, Bellows said, was to "help dealers separate themselves from the competition." The group has about 1,500 members, 300 who sell appliances only, 300 who sell furniture only and 800 who sell a combination of those.

Bellows added that the group has "a lot of positives going on," including GDP growth and low interest rates. While overall appliance sales were down 5% last year, Bellows said his group€™s appliance sales grew by double digits