Crescent Supply’s showroom literally rose from the ashes, the company said. In 1981, after 30 years as a traditional plumbing wholesaler, most of Crescent Supply’s Pittsburgh facility was destroyed by a major fire. As they began construction of a new building, company leadership decided to add an upscale showroom, Crescent Baths & Kitchens, focused on consumers rather than selling exclusively through plumbing contractors.

Crescent is still family owned and now has three locations serving western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia. Emil Neufeld joined Crescent in 1987 and is now executive vice president. He led Crescent’s recent decision to migrate their showroom web presence to MyPlumbingShowroom.com, a service of Bravo Business Media.

“Approximately 90% of our sales are outside-the-wall bath and kitchen products,” Neufeld shared. “So, it’s extremely important that customers have access to the highest-quality content available — all through one site. One of the reasons we changed solutions is the vast amount of product data that Bravo provides us. Bravo’s direct relationships with manufacturers means that about 850,000 SKUs can now be accessed through our site, significantly more than in the past. Users can view the full descriptions, specifications and images for each product, making for a complete site.

“This solution also helps our sales team put together high-quality look books for customers. With our previous solution, the pictures and descriptions weren’t nearly as precise and consistent. Now, our sales team can quickly and easily produce very clean, appealing visual presentations that knocks the socks off of what we did in the past. It also saves them a lot of time because everything is right there in one location — they don’t have to search through multiple manufacturers’ websites to download images and copy descriptions.” 

Crescent went live with Bravo’s solution, including the SPEX Builder tool, in March. Neufeld said that they chose to keep their existing company website in place, but their new online showroom tool is just a click away. When site visitors click on the “Products” tab, they are now taken directly to Crescent’s showroom catalog, which has a complementary look. The MyPlumbingShowroom.com solution has been integrated into Crescent’s ERP, giving them a significant advantage in providing timely and accurate quotations, it noted.

“We encourage customers to build wish lists of their favorite products, which can then be easily captured by our order processing system,” Neufeld said. “This removes the chance for errors that can occur when order entry and pricing is done manually. Bravo maintains and continually updates the data for our online catalog. Our sales and quotations teams can be confident that they have the most accurate information at all times.”

Adam Nattrass, sales associate of Bravo Business Media, noted: “We’re excited to welcome Crescent Baths & Kitchens to our growing list of Forte members and independent plumbing showrooms. They realize how having such a complete online presence can increase interest and drive traffic to their showroom. Studies show that more than 80% of consumers go online first when shopping for decorative bath and kitchen products, but only a small percentage of those consumers are actually buying those products online. This new strategy enables companies like Crescent to first capture consumers’ interest — and then their purchases.”

Neufeld described his experience of working with the Bravo staff as very positive: “Everyone was easy to work with, responsive, involved and concerned throughout the process and afterwards,” he said. “They were patient as we fine-tuned the look we wanted. The system was implemented in an amazingly short period of time; we went from contract to launch in about a month, which was impressive. Bravo delivered — and exceeded — what was promised.”