Launched in July 2007, Bondandbowery.com was established to “provide a web-based global marketplace for the highest quality antiques, fine art and design”. By pairing up dealers, designers, artists and buyers, Bond and Bowery is taking out the guesswork on whether or not you are purchasing the right piece for your home. The name Bond and Bowery refers to the intersection of two important roads in an antiques district of New York, and owners Ben Spaisman and George Evans thought to themselves: why not offer online showrooms at one of the best addresses in New York City, letting every qualified dealer have an exclusive New York online address at a very nominal cost? Not satisfied with the sites that were out there, Evans and Spaisman felt the industry needed a clean, all business antiques website.
Bond and Bowery gives visitors to the site multiple ways to search for the perfect addition to their home. The main tabs along the side of the website feature obvious choices, like furnishings or objets d’art, but other categories, like creators/period help you search for objects when the only thing you know you want is something from the 18th century. You can also go straight to your favorite designer or artist directly by clicking on a tab. You can even narrow down results by price, year, category, even country of origin. Again, all these options are presented in a graphically clear and understandable way.
Another great feature to Bond and Bowery is their “My Portfolio” feature, which is a “powerful personal management system stored in a personal folder accessible only by the user.” In other words, don’t worry about cluttering your “bookmarks” section, you can store your favorite items in a private folder on the site accessible only by you. And if you’re worried about the quality of items found on Bond and Bowery, rest assured that “all merchandise on the site is fully reviewed by experts for authenticity, and validated according to artist, creator or period”. Because new merchandise is posted weekly, you’ll never get sick of seeing the same items again and again.
Unlike other antiques websites available today you really see a difference in the type of website the owners of Bond and Bowery are trying to run, expressed best by what Evans had to say about their site and their business:“Were committed to being an exclusive website dedicated to representing the finest antique and fine arts dealers in the world. My main goals are to introduce the buyer and seller with an easy no hassle transaction so that one doesn’t have to spend countless hours searching for what they want! Bond & Bowery is a clean and non-cluttered site, one that is merchandise focused and not loaded with annoying ads and overwhelming content that distracts a client from making a purchase. We encourage our dealers to offer their best merchandise at the lowest price—so we don’t need to have sales; our items are already priced very reasonably. Bond and Bowery’s focus is customer and dealer centric, always continuing to build strong relationships. We know that our visitors come to buy goods as opposed to reading articles on the site.”
According to Evans, Bond and Bowery is growing fast, and doesn’t show signs of stopping. They plan to maintain both their cutting edge technology and their high level of customer service all while keeping merchandise pricing in line with the economic times. A recently launched feature of the site is DealerDirect, which enables buyers to submit requests for specific items they are looking for and have been unable to find on the site or elsewhere, allowing busy designers to tap into the larger inventories that many dealers possess but can’t always show at once. Other great features are in the plans to continue making the shopping process easy, less time-consuming and enjoyable! 
