Articles and News

New York, NY—The Plumb Club is set to launch a virtual sales platform to connect supplier members with their retail customers. The launch, after a year of research and development, marks the first phase of a longer-termed strategy dubbed ‘TPC-365’, a three-tier immersive virtual experience and membership benefit. Image: example of a meeting between vendor and retailer on the Plumb Club's new virtual platform.

Phase One of the technology is a cutting-edge platform that diminishes the necessity for travel by supplier representatives. Planned before the pandemic, it will allow members to schedule and conduct effective “face-to-face” sales meetings with retailers, complete with high-resolution product images, streaming media, and detailed customer-specific product information.

Meetings can consist of predeveloped presentations, but will also have the flexibility to pull in unscheduled elements and new products on the spot. The experience is a totally immersive and collaborative environment, with each party able to see the other’s movements and focus, including the ability to change and reorganize a virtual “tray” assortment via a simple “drag and drop” mechanism. Additionally, supporting marketing materials may be showcased with images downloadable by retailers. The platform also is completely mobile-friendly for ease of use.

“Our board had identified the desire and need for virtual sales meetings in 2019,” said Lawrence Hess, executive director of The Plumb Club. The Club had done some research late last year, but at that point most of the available platforms were somewhat “clunky,” in Hess’s words, and no company had it completely right. 

Then the COVID pandemic shutdowns hit in March. “It became obvious that we needed to make this a priority project for our members, so we isolated the best company and worked to customize and perfect it,” said Hess.

The result was created, designed and customized for The Plumb Club in an exclusive agreement with BOSS Logics, leveraging its togetherplatform. BOSS Logics is a leading provider of web-based business solutions, designed to simplify, transform, and automate product creation, sales, and management. The company had not only worked with world-class brands such as H&M (apparel) and Guinness (brewery) but also proved to have a deep understanding of the intricacies of the jewelry and watch industry and successful ongoing projects with respected jewelry brands and retailers. 

“Virtual is the future”, added Michael Lerche, president of The Plumb Club. “Many industries have been successfully leveraging the virtual space for years. The jewelry industry has been lagging. However, now more than ever and continuing to the future, the virtual space is essential for sustained business growth. As a club, we are thrilled to introduce ‘TPC-365’. When complete, it will house many other elements that help us achieve our mission to the industry to Educate, Innovate and Connect, while providing a much-needed sales tool to our membership at this critical time.”

“We are thrilled to be working with The Plumb Club and their esteemed members to launch the first phase of ‘TPC-365,’” said Zach Lipsky, founder and president of BOSS Logics. “The together platform not only offers huge efficiencies to both manufacturers and retailers, but more importantly, it provides an effective business relationship-building tool and a totally collaborative experience, just like an in-person meeting would.” 

The Plumb Club member companies are currently being trained on the together platform/TPC-365, whichwill be rolled out for general use in September for the 4thquarter selling season.