IVYLAND, Pennsylvania — New Line Fabrics, a fabric converter specializing in export markets only, has developed a proprietary Idesign® software package that dramatically reduces the cost of sampling by almost 50 percent by allowing jobber customers to prescreen the exact products they want to order. Vlad Goldenberg

There is a website called ‘idesigncenter.com’ for further information. “It cost well into six figures to develop the software, said Vlad Goldenberg, sales manager for New Line. “It would pay for the customer to buy it from us rather than to develop it himself,” he said. New Line is a U.S. based converter with sales only in Europe, Asia and Middle East. It does not do business in the USA because almost its entire product line is made in wide width at 280 cm. The US doesn’t handle wide width so it does not pay for New Line to sell in the States.

“This software is already saving New Line and some of our jobber customers who have ordered the software, hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted sampling costs according to Vlad Goldenberg, sales manager for New Line. It grew out of taking a course at MIT called ‘Lean Sigma’. After the course, Goldenberg developed the program with his New Line partners Len Lurye and Alex Levintoe along with a software specialist. It is geared for jobbers with 2,000 sku collections who use the iPad®.”

“Here’s how it works: the user keys on floral damask as one example, and the software knows it’s floral damask; then it automatically looks for matches to that design by color,” Goldenberg explains. This saves the designer time by building a collection around the one item that is chosen, all in the same color; sheers to match, wallpaper to match and trim. It will then tell you if it is in stock and then it converts the choices into a room setting so you can see how it looks in place. You end up with a jpeg file of the finished room with the fabric in place where you wanted it. “Designers can take a day to look at 29 books or this software enables the designer to look at 3,800 sku’s in about 15 seconds. The samples are for touching only.”

“Seven months ago, a Russian customer wanted to show the program to his customer,” Goldenberg continued. “We customized it for designers, specifiers and architects. By prescreening the choices online, it reduces the bulk of samples by at least 1/3 of the weight. They love it in Russia and the features are growing. Right now, we’re talking with two companies in the USA about buying the software. We also launched a Mandarin language version in China where we have established New Line China. The cost of the program is anywhere from $10,000 to $225,000 depending on what is wanted by the customer. The price of the software is determined by the number of sku’s multiplied by the number of users.”

“Our sales person in Europe is walking the customer through Idesign. The next step is to tailor a version for the jobber to use with his customers. The jobber can put any suppliers’ products on the program. He can do this himself or we can do it for him.”

The software allows fabric suppliers including designers and clients to review a supplier’s line online and pick out the designs and coordinates including wallpaper and trim without ever receiving a sample in advance. Armed with this information, the customer can order exactly what they want with no wasted samples. 

“The market we are in requires three years to be in the black with most products. By reducing the cost of sampling, we can accelerate this process so it will take less time to recover our costs, Goldenberg said. “Sometimes you can get a return on product within six months but this is very rare. With sampling costs at six figures each year plus Fedex costs of $50,000 a year, there is money to be saved by using this Idesign software. We are a great account of Fedex, but should we just hand over all of our money to them in order to send out tons of samples each year?”

“The customer also complains about rising prices. Our customer has a perceived value of what we offer based on what he thinks his customer will pay for it and that’s it. How do you make an 8-10 percent net profit in this business when you have $300,000 in sampling costs and $50,000 in Fedex charges? Of course, you have to feel the fabric in your hand before you buy it but you can prequalify your selections using the online approach. It costs us $800 to ship our latest collections to Russia as an example, because the sample book shipment weighs 34 kilos.”