Monday, August 8, 2011

What is the Borrow a Bonny Program?

Let's say you have been checking out our website and found a dress you absolutely love! You find a local retail store using our Store Locator feature and call them to ask if they have the dress you found and you get a "No, sorry we do not have that style". What happens next? You think your search has to start over? NOPE! We have a program called Borrow a Bonny and this program was designed just to remedy this situation! Over 12 years ago we came up with this program to help our stores and our brides! At any given time, we have 300+ current styles in our collections! Of course, it would be our dream to have every one of our dresses in every single retail store but, it's just not possible!


So, how does this program work, you might be asking. Well, the first step is to know about this program - which is why we tell our brides and our stores about it. The next step is contacting us to find out what we have available in this style. We try to find your size and color and if we have it we ship it out to the store. If we do not have your specific color and size we still try to accommodate you - we can send the next closest size or we always have our sample dress available. Our sample sizes are size 6 or 8 in the regular dresses and size 16w in our Unforgettable Plus Size Collection.


There is a fee involved for using the Borrow a Bonny program. In the beginning, we always charged the stores a shipping and handling fee and often times the store would not charge the customer. They would order the dress, get it into their store and then never hear from the customer again! Some stores didn't want this to happen so, they stopped using the program and we didn't want that to happen! This is such a great program for our stores and brides! So, we figured the best way to deal with this was for the stores to charge the bride the shipping and handling - that way the bride had an investment - it showed she was A. a serious buyer and B. that she would come back to see the dress. This worked successfully and it has been the way the program has worked for the past 11 years!


Each store does decide how to use this program. Our suggestions are just guidelines. The Borrow program and the fee can vary from store to store so, we do suggest that you talk with your local Bonny Bridal retailer and ask questions! Because our research has shown this program to be an overwhelming success (most brides who see the dress in person love it even more!) we do suggest that our retail partners credit back the fee to the customer - as a gesture thanking them for their businesses. Also, there is always that slim chance that the dress is not the one! This is very rare, but, it has happened. We think it's nice that the bride still be able to have a store credit towards any other item in the store (or maybe to use to bring in another dress she loves!) Only 1 dress is shipped at a time using the Borrow program.


We hope this explains the Borrow a Bonny program in more detail! Like we said, this has been a program we have had a HUGE amount of success with for over 12 years! Most brides want to be able to see the dress before they buy - and we get that! We strive to make programs like this - to help you! We are always open to new ideas, too! If you think we can make this program better, please leave a comment below! Have you used this program? Leave a comment! Let others know your experience with it! We value all your comments and opinions!





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do you guys have any dresses in the Essence Collection style # 8804 color Ivory in any plus sizes?