Students Use MIS Savvy to Create Online Outlet for Black Belt Goods

A group of students in the Culverhouse College of Commerce management information systems program has played a key role in creating an online gallery where shoppers can buy products from 17 counties in the state’s Black Belt region.

The region is as rich in cultural traditions and community vitality as it is in the dark, fertile soil for which it is named, but because of the domination of national firms in the retail market, demand for regionally produced goods from the region has decreased. To work around that problem, Black Belt Treasures was created as a brick and mortar retail gallery in Camden and a national online gallery was developed to provide business opportunities throughout 17 southern Alabama counties.

 The galleries provide an outlet for a diverse set of products ranging from quilts (made by the Freedom Quilting Bee of Wilcox County), juried artwork and hobby horses to Wisteria Vine Baskets, hand-carved ducks and regional food products.

 The MIS students used the region’s strengths to develop a successful business strategy that involves sales to customers in the gallery and online customers to bring additional revenue into the Black Belt region.
 “The university provided master’s students in MIS that took this on as their project,” said John Clyde Riggs, Executive Director of the Alabama-Tombigbee Regional Commission.  “They came in, helped us define our markets, set out a plan to get us to our goals, and they made sure it happened.  They did what it took to make sure we were ready for opening day.

“From implementing our store management systems to starting the gallery’s online business, the class team proved very instrumental in bringing everything to fruition,” he said.  

Dr. Shane Sharpe, project faculty co-leader, said, “The students gained experience from the project through the department’s innovative, hands-on coursework that allows graduate and senior-level MIS students to manage projects that produce real value for real companies.”

 Dr. David Hale, MIS program director and the other faculty co-leader, said, “In this case, the student team’s efforts focused on effectively developing and integrating procedures for: managing supplier relations; the firm’s supply chain operations from product acquisition through delivery to a customer’s doorstep; financial transactions; and building relationships between Black Belt Treasures and its customers.”

One of the artisans involved in the Black Belt project is Killian Albritton, an energetic and creative school teacher with an entrepreneurial spirit.  Killian initially sold homemade coozies in a couple of shops in Selma.  After Black Belt Treasures opened, Killian’s drink coozies became the best selling item in the gallery and on-line.  When she recognized she had a marketable product, Killian decided to venture beyond the Black Belt region and sell her drink coozies at the Atlanta Merchandise Mart. The items were hugely popular and after one visit, Killian returned home with more orders than she could fill as a one-woman business.  She hired additional people to sew for her and began selling drink coozies to gift shops and on-line customers throughout the United States.

Information concerning the retail galleries can be found at MyBBT.org and more details, including a video vignette concerning the MIS’s program’s involvement can be found at www.cba.ua.edu/mis.