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From Home Furnishing Business
IMC_di Announces Enhancements to ShopZio Extends Utility and Increases Use
September 16,
2020 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy 
IMC_di, the digital innovations division of International Market Centers (IMC), reports that recent enhancements to ShopZio resulted in increased visibility and utility – and by extension, strong gains in adoption and engagement – for the fully-operational B2B ecommerce platform.
“With 400+ active brands, and 1.4 million shoppable product SKUs, ShopZio is a powerful and functional ecommerce tool that is demonstrably serving industry needs,” said Eric Dean, IMC_di president. “We’re leveraging the unparalleled scale and scope of IMC’s buyer and supplier audiences to deliver real value, right now, to the industry.”
A series of recent enhancements – both to the ShopZio platform itself and through new ShopZio search filters on IMC market websites – have extended the digital marketplace’s utility and increased its use. ShopZio improvements include new categorized listings of vendors, refined search capabilities within each product category and new home page highlights showcasing select products and suppliers. Additionally, IMC’s recent addition of new search filters to its Atlanta Market and Las Vegas Market websites easily identify the 378 ShopZio-enabled exhibiting brands already active on the B2B platform.
“ShopZio is ready to serve the gift and home furnishings industries’ Q4 sourcing and shopping needs,” said Dean. “We have a curated and industry-friendly offering that showcases a breadth of product offerings, from furniture to fashion and everything in between.”
As a result of IMC’s customer offer of free use of ShopZio through year-end, the site currently has 400+ active sellers that include a mix of both leading industry suppliers, as well as emerging brands, with mainstream products that retailers need now. Gift and home furnishings vendors recently added to ShopZio are AICO/Amini Innovation Corp., ELK Group International, Demdaco, The Howard Elliott Collection, Imax Worldwide Home, Indaba Trading Ltd., Ivystone Group LLC, Mud Pie, Pavilion, Sullivans, Uttermost and Zuo. With hundreds more vendors now preparing for onboarding, IMC_di expects 700+ vendors to be live on the platform by year-end.
Since May, ShopZio has recorded 400% sales growth, giving its active sellers additional opportunities for customer acquisition and product sales. “We had been on ShopZio for less than 4 months when we received an inquiry regarding 250 Christmas trees from a new customer. After some discussion back and forth, we landed a $50,000 sale,” said Steve Papillon, CEO of Monarch Silks & Trading Ltd. “This client was a very obscure business that the best sales rep on the planet could not have found, and we still do business with them to this day, thanks to ShopZio.”
With the conclusion of its August markets in Atlanta and Las Vegas, IMC_di now turns its ShopZio focus from resource expansion to buyer engagement. IMC will be actively marketing the B2B tool to retailers and designers nationwide, with a focus on best-selling products available through the platform. In line with this, IMC_di predicts another exponential gain for ShopZio adoption and engagement as retailers head into their critical Fourth Quarter holiday selling season.
“The combination of IMC’s physical markets - with 20 million square feet of resources and digital offerings – and its market websites, which already attract more than three million visitors annually, is unparalleled in both size and scope,” Dean said. “Ultimately, ShopZio will migrate into Juniper MKT, our new B2B ecommerce platform launching in January 2021, but until then we will continue to improve and support our legacy tools to better serve our customers’ immediate needs.”