Mercato Place Wants to Be the 2.0 of Samples Marketplaces

BusinessMercato Place Wants to Be the 2.0 of Samples MarketplacesThe Zeeland, Michigan–based samples-fulfillment operation launches today

By Jessica Ritz

January 3, 2022

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Prioritizing a great user experience, Mercato Place features filters for easily navigating the e-marketplace, plus mood boards for sharing ideas with clients.Photography courtesy Mercato Place

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Samples management—from acquiring to storing to replenishing and repeat—can be a pain point for any busy interior designer. Today, a new online platform designed to alleviate the process is entering the market. Meet Mercato Place.

Developed by Zeeland, Michigan–based marketing-fulfillment servicer Thoroughbred Fulfillment, the sourcing tool taps into the company’s existing (and expansive) pool of partner brands and harnesses its ear-to-the-ground industry insights. “We’ve been in this business servicing furniture companies, retailers, and architects and designers for a long time,” says Ray Sayers, Thoroughbred Fulfillment president and Mercato Place founder. “The distributor partners and furniture companies are actively looking for an alternative channel to get these samples out to designers.”

Ray Sayers, founder of Mercato Place and president of Thoroughbred Fulfillment.

Photography courtesy Mercato Place

With the vendor relationships and compatible distribution channels already in place, it felt only natural for Sayers and team to rise to the challenge. The fulfillment center’s proximity to some of the industry’s biggest players, namely MillerKnoll and Steelcase and their portfolios of design brands, is sure to be a competitive advantage. “We wanted to follow up on the niche we have,” Sayers tells AD PRO.

Kravet Contract, Fil Doux, Designtex, and HBF Textiles are among the 20-plus brands involved in the official launch. Within the portal, designers and architects can access information about the partner brands’ featured textiles and wall coverings. Once users are ready to order samples, they can do so from multiple vendors with the ease of knowing they’ll deliver all in one box, saving time and simplifying tracking. Creating a profile and sourcing from Mercato Place comes at no charge to design professionals. (The site does, however, collect information that can be shared with brand partners.)

Thoroughbred Fulfillment’s 150,000-square-foot distribution facility in Zeeland, Michigan, will be the home base for new concept Mercato Place as well.

Photography courtesy Mercato Place

While demonstrating the portal, Sayers says the site is built “to give the designer the most information they can possibly get” about the products available via Mercato Place. From the categorical listings, users can navigate directly to a distributor partner’s specific product or landing pages. Contact information for each vendor’s regional sales rep is also readily available.

“You’re not held captive on our site,” Sayers says in reference to the revenue model. By not charging transaction fees (vendors pay for placement on the platform—a price the brand estimates is 40 percent less than the rate of competitor platforms), Mercato Place welcomes users to connect with brands as they see fit, whether it’s through the platform or their personal brand contact. The priority, rather, is to offer a top-notch marketing service that connects manufacturers to pros (and vice versa) via e-marketplace discovery and efficient sample distribution.

Mercato Place offers overnight shipping, though it encourages more eco-friendly options if the project allows for it. Echoing its sustainable interests, the company employs a sample take-back program, which provides a prepaid shipping label to return sample orders so they can be reused on the platform. Those that are no longer in good condition will be recycled.

Partner vendors featured on the platform include Designtex, Mayer Fabrics, Arc-Com, Momentum, Kravet Contract, Valley Forge Fabrics, Fil Doux, Camira, Luna, HBF Textiles, Fabric Innovations, and more.

Photography courtesy Mercato Place

Beyond seamless sample sourcing, the platform has a number of tools that contribute to its mission to deliver “a curated, not cluttered message, and to explore materials and brands,” Sayers says. For instance, the mood board application allows pros to virtually assemble fabrics, wall coverings, and other partner products in a stylized manner, which can then be shared with their clients. As for the site’s user experience, search navigation and down-to-the-detail filter options help refine what can otherwise be an overwhelming amount of information.

That kind of filtering is simply the point: As the days of industry pros become evermore hectic, Mercato Place wants to cross a few extra lines off the to-do list with its one-stop sourcing platform. “That’s the kind of resource we want to be for the designer and the brand partner,” says Sayers. Despite being virtually based, it’s great at making connections.