OneCoast, the largest and only national provider of sales and marketing services to vendors and retailers of home decor, gift and collegiate products, announced the launch of its new Online Showroom for independent retailers at onecoast.com. This “always open” showroom offers several of the top lines found in OneCoast’s physical showrooms across the United States.

In Fall 2006, OneCoast introduced business-to-business e-commerce capabilities for independent retailers with Special Buys. Now the online product selection has been greatly expanded with full product lines from leading vendors that OneCoast represents on both a national and regional basis.

Retailers will discover a completely redesigned website that features:

• An increased number of top product lines with an expanded number of products, numbering over 10,000 SKU’s
• The industry’s only excess product website, called Special Buys, which contains thousands of products at 30-60% off original wholesale prices, giving retailers the ability to grow their margins
• An expanded library of resources to help independent retailers succeed, including articles, books, videos and podcasts.

Website traffic has been growing steadily throughout 2007, and now averages close to 1,250 unique visitors per day. The majority of this traffic is retailers who are buying in increasing numbers, as orders nearly doubled over the past month alone. Just as significant, about one third of the buyers are first-time OneCoast customers.

“Our retail store keeps us busy throughout the day,” said Cheryl Lagodna from Country Traditions in Ray, Michigan. “The OneCoast online showroom has terrific product lines, and we can visit and buy at whatever hour is convenient for our busy schedule. That’s usually Sunday night! We also love the wealth of business and industry resources that are available on the site, such as monthly tips for holding events.”

OneCoast’s vendor partners are also very pleased with the online showroom. The national division (ND ONE) vendors – C.R. Gibson, Mud Pie, New Creative, and Woodstock Chimes – as well as other vendors represented through our regional groups including Beatriz Ball, SIA and Yakety Sak, are enthusiastic about the opportunities the online showroom provides for them to showcase their products and grow sales.

States Bob Levin, President of decorative accessories company Clay, Metal & Stone, “The OneCoast sales team represents our products in 15 states and in 2 physical showrooms. Even though we are not a represented nationally by OneCoast, we see obvious benefit in participating in their online showroom. Simply put, it is another showroom that is on the internet instead of in a physical location, which greatly benefits our independent retailers who may not be able to travel to markets. We added our entire line to the website because we know that our customers appreciate the convenience of buying online, as well as at shows and from sales representatives.”

OneCoast has been investing in its online showroom for 18 months, as well as examining its expenditures in its physical showrooms around the country.

“We know that many of our buyers still want to view and buy products at market, so we plan to continue to maintain and, in some cases, expand our showroom presence in many of the nation’s largest market centers,” said Ted Teele, CEO of OneCoast. “However, I believe we all recognize that we are in an ‘over-showed’ industry, where traffic is sliding, particularly in some regional markets. Accordingly, we are making some adjustments in our showroom focus.”

Reflecting the company’s strategy, OneCoast announced the following investments and shifts in its showroom coverage (visit www.onecoast.com/shows for more details):

• Opened a new showroom in Las Vegas in January 2007
• Tripled its showroom space in Los Angeles and expanded its space in Pacific Market Center, Seattle
• Remodeled its Dallas showroom
• Increased show presence at the New York International Gift Fair, where it will expand its floor space in the Crystal Palace Lobby by 33% in August 2007 and grow its space in the Piers. OneCoast will close its 28th Street showroom in August.
• Shifted its displays to the temporary areas in the San Francisco and Kansas City markets, closing its permanent showrooms in these areas. The company plans to make a similar change in Chicago after this July’s market.

With these changes, OneCoast continues to offer its customers the largest showroom and show presence in the industry, with the unique benefit of allowing retailers to purchase products at their convenience in the online showroom.

About OneCoast

OneCoast is the largest national provider of sales and marketing services to vendors and retailers of home decor, gift and collegiate products. We help hundreds of vendors market and sell their products to thousands of retail organizations across the United States. Our customers include leading home decor, gift and collegiate vendors such as New Creative, C.R. Gibson, Global Views, Woodstock Chimes, Mud Pie, Crabtree & Evelyn, Feizy Rugs, and The Thymes. We market and sell their products on a regional and national basis to a wide variety of retailers ranging from tens of thousands of small, independent retail stores to large, multi-channel retailers like JC Penney, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Neiman Marcus, and web-only retailers like Amazon.com and SmartBargains.com. OneCoast is in the wholesale business and does not sell or market directly to consumers. For more information, visit onecoast.com.